Travel debit multi currency cards

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Forums › Finance and wealth management › Travel debit multi currency cards

rayonline

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#154146 19-Oct-2014 13:20

Parents have a normal credit card. They've bought some currencies in the past. Various banks have a foreign currency deposit account which might be for use in nz only. Then anz for example have a travel card but the conversion fee is 5.95% on top of the MasterCard fx. There is the Airnz one smart also. Normal credit cards might be 2.5%. Over the counter in a bank with a deposit account might be 1%.

What have you guys used?

richms

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#1157876 19-Oct-2014 14:10

I don't see the point in these cards for travel, and IMO the airnz onesmart is blatant false advertising when they say you can load foreign currencies onto the card, since there is no way to load a foreign currency, just load NZD and then convert it over at their crap rates.

The only use is if you want to lock in an exchange rate but not have to carry money with you, but the rates they give are so bad compared to swapping out money other ways that you would have to see a pretty big shift in the rates to come out ahead, and then it is still just speculating.

Richard rich.ms

sbiddle

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#1157884 19-Oct-2014 14:24

The ANZ Travelex card has about the best rates around, and the Air NZ OneSmart about the worst. I've got money on both of these cards but typically speaking always use by regular ANZ credit card for all purchases overseas. I use the currency cards solely for ATM withdrawals.

Dingbatt

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#1157885 19-Oct-2014 14:26

Got a Cash Passport through ASB for trip to the States last year. Pre loaded US dollars on it, and from memory it is capable of having up to 4 currencies. You can prioritize the order that funds are accessed from it if there isn't enough of the appropriate currency on it. Was able to use Internet banking to move funds from ASB to Cash Passport while overseas as well. Moving funds within the passport was at their current buy/sell rate, although it seemed reasonably competitive. When I ran into a minor problem I found their call centre friendly and helpful.

Addendum: USD was at a really good rate when I got this card, so a am still using it for internet purchases in USD now.
Not sure if you were asking about debit or credit cards though. This is obviously like a debit card although was treated like a credit card at most merchants in the US.

“We’ve arranged a society based on science and technology, in which nobody understands anything about science technology. Carl Sagan 1996

richms

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#1157890 19-Oct-2014 14:38

The thing is you cant just load USD onto the cards. I cant walk into a branch with USD and leave with them on the card. That is what loading USD onto the card would be.

Richard rich.ms

MaxLV

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#1157943 19-Oct-2014 16:44

rayonline: Parents have a normal credit card. They've bought some currencies in the past. Various banks have a foreign currency deposit account which might be for use in nz only. Then anz for example have a travel card but the conversion fee is 5.95% on top of the MasterCard fx. There is the Airnz one smart also. Normal credit cards might be 2.5%. Over the counter in a bank with a deposit account might be 1%.

What have you guys used?

ANZ dont have the Travel Card anymore. It has been replaced with the Mastercard multi currency Cash Passport card.

http://www.anz.co.nz/personal/credit-cards/travel-card/

Dingbatt

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#1158203 20-Oct-2014 08:15

richms: The thing is you cant just load USD onto the cards. I cant walk into a branch with USD and leave with them on the card. That is what loading USD onto the card would be.

Semantics. If you already have US dollars what do you need a currency card for? So just substitute 'load' for 'buy and load' if that is more correct. The point I was making is that you 'load' the card with the currency of your choosing and it is stored as that currency and is not subject to later exchange rates or further fees.

The card referenced above is the one I'm talking about.

“We’ve arranged a society based on science and technology, in which nobody understands anything about science technology. Carl Sagan 1996

graemeh

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#1158293 20-Oct-2014 11:06

I use the onesmart because of the three free overseas ATM withdrawals per month.

Most online purchases these days I just let Paypal or Amazon do the conversion to NZD as their rate tends to be better than what the banks are charging me.

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wsnz

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#1158496 20-Oct-2014 14:24

The Onesmart card has the added advantage of being able to top up your AirNZ APD account where you balance my be a little bit short to purchase (for example) airfares.

Trying to compare cards is extremely difficult as some for example, many have a low foreign exchange commission rate, but make up for this by keeping the exchange rate used for the calculation relatively high.

Personally after a lot of mucking around with these types of cards I decided to simplify and have reverted to using my Visa for large purchases while overseas, but also carry a small amount of foreign cash around with me.