Any NZ issued Credit Cards without Currency conversion or overseas ATM fees?

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jaybeedee

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#214592 19-May-2017 12:51

We are heading off for 9 weeks and will be spending in JPY, Euro, GBP , DKK and SEK.

We have Qantas branded Travelex card,but the conversion rates are awful. I know that in Australia there are accounts and cards without overseas conversion fees. From what I have seen all the NZ credit cards (we have Kiwibank and BNZ, and an aussie Westpac) have pretty ordinary conversion rates plus overseas transaction fees.

Are there any other options out there, or has anyone had experience with any of the peer-to-peer currency exchanges?

PeterReader

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#1784705 19-May-2017 12:51

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frankv

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#1784714 19-May-2017 13:09

My wife got a US currency debit card for our recent trip... you could load other currencies as well. You load the card beforehand and the conversion is done at that time.

We wouldn't do this again (just mentioning it in case it appeals to you). She was sold this on the basis that there wouldn't be ATM fees... that turned out to be totally untrue. About $5/withdrawal. Also, left-over money at the end of the trip had to be converted back to NZ$, or else there was a fee.

I think banks will always screw you over with currency conversion rates.

Linux

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#1784716 19-May-2017 13:12

@sbiddle I am sure could add some value here

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Torque

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#1784746 19-May-2017 14:16

I still have my Citibank Debit Plus account and a 28 Degrees MasterCard from when I was living in Australia just to avoid the bank fees and poor rates here. If you can get them (and service them, these days I use XE & NZFOREX to transfer money over) they are quite handy. But 28 Degrees isn't what it used to be since they added the fee to withdraw cash at overseas ATM's.

sbiddle

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#1784748 19-May-2017 14:18

I think most of the bank rates offered in NZ are actually pretty good and they're normally within around 1% less than the mid market rate - that's a far better rate than you'll get from many currently resellers. There are no cards in NZ I'm aware of that don't offer foreign exchange fees, with most credit cards are all 2.5% for the Visa/MasterCard foreign cut and fees.

As for alternatives it really depends what the purpose of the card is. I always just use my regular credit card while I'm away and typically take some cash with me which I very rarely use. if I want cash out normally just get it from an ATM and pay the $5 EFTPOS ATM fee.

sbiddle

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#1784750 19-May-2017 14:20

frankv:

My wife got a US currency debit card for our recent trip... you could load other currencies as well. You load the card beforehand and the conversion is done at that time.

We wouldn't do this again (just mentioning it in case it appeals to you). She was sold this on the basis that there wouldn't be ATM fees... that turned out to be totally untrue. About $5/withdrawal. Also, left-over money at the end of the trip had to be converted back to NZ$, or else there was a fee.

I think banks will always screw you over with currency conversion rates.

In many countries incl the US there are huge numbers of private ATM's rather than bank ATM's. You'll always pay for withdrawals from these even if you have a card that offers free withdrawals.

lissie

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#1787827 24-May-2017 22:37

I've looked long and hard and come up with nothing like the offerings overseas ie free withdrawals, repayment of overseas ATM fees etc.

The best I think we have is the bankdirect Visa - they only charge 1.8% conversion fee. In the past I've put it into credit ie used my own money - and had no fees from overseas ATMs - this was always a bit of an undocumented feature so I'm going to test in a few weeks in Sydney https://www.bankdirect.co.nz/section47.asp?

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Jase2985

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#1787843 25-May-2017 05:29

If you have a corporate banking package with the likes of ANZ then generally you only pay the currency conversion rate.