Redy Credit Upgrade to Visa Debit

[NM]

Yesterday I received a new card for my Ready Credit account. I remember a few years ago when Citibank tried to get people to "upgrade" their Ready Credit accounts to link to Visa Debit and I became aware that if linked to Visa the foreign currency transaction fees would be significant higher. At that time I declined the "upgrade" offer since the only two purposes I retain my Ready Credit account are overseas cash withdrawals from ATMs and the free cheque facility for the 2 or 3 occasions each year I need to write a cheque.

Does anyone know if there is still a difference in the foreign currency transaction fee for the Visa and non-Visa linked Ready Credit cards? Naturally there is no mention of different fees on the letter that came attached to the new card. It just mentions the benefits of having a Visa card. Well I already have a Visa card so receive no benefits in having two and if there are higher fees for overseas cash withdrawals then I will not be activating this new card.

Anyone else receive the renewed offer for Visa Debit Ready Credit card?

 

[serfty]

A month or two ago received a visa card in the mail with doco extolling the virtues of the Visa over the standard card and indicating the redi-credit card would be automatically deactivated on use of the visa.

I cut the unused/unsolicited visa card up.

My more recent O/S travel has involved use of a Wizard card for cash advances, not the redicredit hence I have no contemporary information.

 

[NM]

Just called Citibank to enquire if there are any different fee structures for the Visa vs old Ready Credit card, and guess what? There is! And of course there is no mention of it in the letter detailing the "benefits" of enhancing my account with the Visa card :evil:.

If using the Visa Debit card overseas, there is the standard 2.5% Citibank fee for foreign currency transaction (originally was 1.5% but increased a few years ago) PLUS a 3.3% Visa foreign currency conversion fee! So that would make it 5.8% (assuming they are not compounded) or 5.8825% if compounded!

Needless to say the Visa card is now sliced into many small pieces and distributed among several rubbish bins, and I asked the Citi agent to note my dissatisfaction with the misleading nature of the offer by not mentioning the different fee structure at all.

So a word of warning for anyone else with a Citibank Ready Credit account being offered an enhancement to this Visa Debit card to be sure to check all differences, even those not identified in the letter of offer.

 

[JohnK]

I remember getting a Visa debit card in the mail sent by Citibank a month or so ago. Since then I have made inquiries to Citibank about other matters and I have been asked if I want to activate my Visa debit card. I politely told them that I will not be activating the Visa debit card and will continue to use the Citibank readycredit card.

If using the Visa Debit card overseas, there is the standard 2.5% Citibank fee for foreign currency transaction (originally was 1.5% but increased a few years ago) PLUS a 3.3% Visa foreign currency conversion fee! So that would make it 5.8% (assuming they are not compounded) or 5.8825% if compounded!

My Citibank readycredit is definitely not linked to Visa in any way and I reported on AFF 3 months ago that I have noticed the foreign currency conversion fees were 5% or more.

I used the Citibank readycredit card again in New Zealand on Thursday to withdraw NZ$100 and that has been converted to A$86.98 whereas the same transaction amount with Wizard Mastercard converted across to A$82.29. So assuming that they are both using similar mid market rates Citibank appears to be charging ~5.70% currency conversion fees.

The Citibank readycredit card may not be great anymore for overseas transactions but I do use it for $A withdrawls and unlike credit cards it is accepted at most ATMs as it is both a credit card and a cheque account. No ATM fees.