debo:

 

good laptop from amazon.  $758.37.

 

 

 

the conversion rate is worse than your credit card, isn’t it?

BlinkyBill:

 

debo:

 

good laptop from amazon.  $758.37.

 

 

 

 

the conversion rate is worse than your credit card, isn’t it?

 

Nice laptop though, will order one

BlinkyBill:

 

debo:

 

good laptop from amazon.  $758.37.

 

 

 

 

the conversion rate is worse than your credit card, isn’t it?

 

amazon conversion rates are fairly similar to banks ... i tested this out a year back. 

I know what you mean though, this is usually not the case with other retailers. 

Good for 240v ?

Edit, looks good, 110-240v 'Auto Switching' but, in the time it took to check this detail & post, the deal is gone.

timtait:

 

That's a decent delivery window...

 

Edwood:

 

Jaxson:

 

Was trying for the Sennheiser Momentum Wireless M2 at $198 at Mighty Ape.
They've now sold out, but for a while today they changed their price back to $499 or so.
Next best is $299 at PBTech now.

 

 

Yeah, sorry about that @Jaxson, I bought them 🧐

 

...and they delivered them 'same day'! Courier arrived at about 9.20pm last night!

 

I have the Bose QC35 II and Plantronics Backbeat Pro 2 too, but bought the Momentum M2 for work/*phone calls*. 

 

This site is brilliant for digging into the details and getting some real comparative data - https://www.rtings.com/headphones

 

I really like the Backbeat Pro 2's, but @ $198 for the Sennheisers, it was a bit of a no-brainer!

 

;)

 

I have a pair of M2's in Ear Momentums that were used for about 3 hours before I decided I wanted Sony's. If you make me an offer I can't refuse..... 

kiwijunglist: Credit card slightly better than Amazon rate usually. Only a small difference. However if there is a problem and you get refunded then it's better they charge and refund you in $nz otherwise you get hit by double conversion if they refund rather than reverse charge.

Yeah. If you compare the rates you'll likely see that your credit card needs to add about 3.75% in conversion fees to match Amazon. Most NZ cards are between 2%-3% AFAIK. IIRC PayPal is similar. Worse but not that much worse so you may want to use their conversion if you need a refund. (Although I can't recall how PayPal calculates the refund.)

AliExpress is the only one I've ever found that consistently beats my card. 

Geektress: Any men’s shorts on sales please?

Farmers doing 50% off some men's clothes, I bought several "Connor Colby Knit Shorts" which seem pretty good, elasticated and good for the fuller figured male lol.

I find it hard to find a good pair that doesn't have a terrible fit at the back end

kiwijunglist: Credit card slightly better than Amazon rate usually. Only a small difference. However if there is a problem and you get refunded then it's better they charge and refund you in $nz otherwise you get hit by double conversion if they refund rather than reverse charge.

When I experimented, one time the amazon rate was slightly better  (after bank fees and margin).  Another time the bank rate was better.  I'm talking a difference of a less than a dollar on a several hundred dollar purchase. 

My conclusion was that the conversion rates are so close that timing differences are more important.   (ie, the fx variation between checking the guaranteed amazon NZD conversion rate ,  and the point in time when ASB do the USD->NZD conversion). 

But, that was a while ago now, Amazon/ASB probably tinker with margins and fees and contracts so the situation can change. 

BlinkyBill:

debo:

good laptop from amazon.  $758.37.

 

the conversion rate is worse than your credit card, isn’t it?

FX is a huge rip off.  I have just started a transfer wise account which gives you a physical debit card (mastercard) and virtual bank accounts in USD\NZD\AUD.  The difference is that when you do the FX transaction it's 1% fee instead of the normal 3% the credit card company (or Amazon).

If anyone is keen this invite code will get you the first transfer free:

transferwise.com/invite/u/guyb94

landcruiserguy:

FX is a huge rip off.  I have just started a transfer wise account which gives you a physical debit card (mastercard) and virtual bank accounts in USD\NZD\AUD.  The difference is that when you do the FX transaction it's 1% fee instead of the normal 3% the credit card company (or Amazon).

If anyone is keen this invite code will get you the first transfer free:

transferwise.com/invite/u/guyb94

 

 

Looks good....

https://www.vivo.co.nz/shop/product/ghd-platinum-plus-black-styler

The tri-band linksys velop is 50% off, almost same price as the '1111' event in China after shipping included.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N2NLNEH

debo: I have a westpac mastercard. Is the precise current rate listed anywhere? Also, sometimes the transaction is processed at a later time so the rate can change.

Most or all banks don't do the conversions themselves. It's carried out by the card company. So try using the Mastercard website https://www.mastercard.us/en-us/consumers/get-support/convert-currency.html

For Visa try https://www.visa.com.au/travel-with-visa/exchange-rate-calculator.html

You need to know the combined percentage your card adds. (Mastercard or Visa's fee plus your banks fee.)

Frankly you don't really need to use those sites. The credit card rate is very close to mid-market rate. You can probably choose the buy NZD rate if you want to be more accurate. But for semi-major currency pairs, the margins for average buy vs sell tend to be very small without any interchange fees so it doesn't make much difference.

So you can just use any website which provides such rates. E.g. XE https://www.xe.com/currencyconverter/convert/?From=USD&To=NZD and Oanda https://www1.oanda.com/currency/converter/ or even Google or Bing or whatever you use to search. Then just add the credit card fees. 

surfisup1000:

 

When I experimented, one time the amazon rate was slightly better  (after bank fees and margin).  Another time the bank rate was better.  I'm talking a difference of a less than a dollar on a several hundred dollar purchase. 

 

My conclusion was that the conversion rates are so close that timing differences are more important.   (ie, the fx variation between checking the guaranteed amazon NZD conversion rate ,  and the point in time when ASB do the USD->NZD conversion). 

 

But, that was a while ago now, Amazon/ASB probably tinker with margins and fees and contracts so the situation can change. 

 

Timing of the conversion definitely matters, so you can get unlucky especially if your order is out of stock so takes a long time to charge. But if you always use your credit card's rate it's easy to check. I don't always check but whenever I do the card is nearly always better. I also have looked at the rate over several days in the past just to check my results. I've found that credit card rates are very similar to mid market rates plus the fees (as mentioned above) so it's easy to predict. Amazon seems to be about 3.75% now, so worse then a card. I didn't bother to do the exact percentage before but from my memory of the difference it's probably similar.