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| Beemer |
Probably should've put this in the Europe thread, but I'm feeling helpful today so figured I'd make a new thread cos not everybody reads the Europe one......
Found this out yesterday and thought I'd pass it on because a lot of us seem to have plans to head overseas in the not too distant future :)
Usually if u have an Aussie bank account and u use ATMs to withdraw cash overseas, u get charged about $5 every time - which adds up damn fast :(
But, Westpac is part of a global ATM alliance - meaning that if u use ATMs of any bank that's part of the alliance overseas, u don't get charged any fees!! From a site I found -
Bank of Nova Scotia
More than 2,500 machines
across Canada, 300 ATMs across the Caribbean, 115 ATMs in Chili and 997 ATMs throughout Mexico
Bank of America
Over 16,600 ATMs throughout The United States, including 3,400 Fleet Boston Financial ATMs
BNP Paribas
3,000 ATMs throughout France
Barclays
Over 3,000 ATMs throughout The United Kingdom, and 190 ATMs throughout Africa (Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, Tanzania, Zimbabwe)
Deutsche Bank
Over 2,300 ATMs throughout Germany, Poland, Spain and Italy
Westpac
Over 1,600 ATMs throughout Australia, 500 ATMs in New Zealand and 32 ATMs in the South Pacific (Fiji, Tonga, Cook Island, Samoa)
So, u can withdraw in lots of countries and not be charged for it :) I bank with ANZ usually, but I went and opened a Westpac account yesterday to use while I'm overseas......it's definitely worth doing if ur travelling!!!! |
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| 00soups00 |
nice work beemer..
any tips for maxing our tax returns too??? |
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| djway |
I plan on using Visa for almost everything anyhow ;) (go getting frequent fliers, as well as not copping fees). Worked quite well in asia, had about 1 widthdrawl of cash a week. [not as good as no fees, but moral to this story is Visa is god]
For $30 u can acutally open bank accounts in London, not sure what this would do, other then give u The Pound tho...
--djway |
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| tubby |
| i agree on putting as much as possible on credit, you always get a better exchange rate than for cash. But you still need cash, so this is helpful. I'm already with westpac, do you have to do anything to sign up for this or just go and start withdrawing? |
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| muli |
yea wade i used my CC for everything in Europe, if you withdraw cash once a week and budget for how much you need then you should be fine.
From memory i didnt get charged for OS transactions, i was with St George, they may have changed now tho????
my CC was with ANZ tho. |
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| Beemer |
Wade, who is ur Visa card with? I'm curious, cos u say u won't be charged any fees - but every Visa issuer I've looked at charges fees for using ur Visa card overseas.... The general rule seems to be that u get charged something in the region of:
1) 1.5% of the value of ANY foreign currency transaction (whether it be a cash advance or a purchase)
2) for cash advances from an ATM, a minimum of either $4 or 1.5% of the amount
Unless it's Visa Gold - then u don't get charged fees for cash advances overseas, but u do get charged the 1.5% currency conversion fee for purchases....
Can u lemme know who ur Visa is with? Cos if u've got a totally fee-free one, then maybe I need to switch!! hehe I have ANZ Qantas Telstra Visa...
Mastercard has similar rates - I have Virgin Mastercard and with that, u get charged:
1) $2.50 for a cash advance if ur account isn't in credit
2) 1.5% of the value of the cash advance if ur account is in credit
3) 1% of the value for all overseas purchases
So seems to me if u use just credit cards, ur gonna get slugged with fees no matter what u do..........for me personally, the frequent flyer points aren't worth that - cos u have to spend like 15 grand just to get a return flight to melb!! *lol*
For me, using cash will be fee-free....so I'll probably try to do that more than use my cards, at least to start with.......also, with it being fee free it means u can withdraw small amounts every couple of days - so if ur gets stolen u won't lose a large amount like u would if u had enuff cash on u for a week at a time.....
Also wade, u don't need to pay anything to open a UK bank account - don't get conned by the companies here that say its super hard to open an account there, and ask u to hand over cash to assist u in doing it - its CRAP!!! I looked up Lloyds bank on the net, found that they have a specific service which allows non-UK ppl to open an account with them before u even leave Aus - they don't charge anything for it, and u don't have to deposit anything in it to open it....I did that and it worked GREAT!!! Just got my UK account ATM card and cheque book in the mail a few days ago :)
Tubby - if u have a westpac account already, there's nuthin more u need to do :) just keep the list of fee-free atms u can use overseas, and go for it!! |
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| tubby |
| i've never noticed fees on visa for foreign purchases, they just factor that into their exchanges. still ends up better than going to a forex outlet who charge their commission on top of the advertsied rates. |
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| djway |
Never noticed an extra 1.5% on top of my bill for international transactions. Perhaps they sneak like $1.5 on my bills? (sounds familiar, but can't find it listed anywhere).
Anz FF visa.
--djway |
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