AirNZ OneSmart card and Travelex Cashpassport

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arch66

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#151411 24-Aug-2014 18:26

Hi, I saw that there are some Onesmart users here, so I just want them ask some questions.

Once I have applied to be a Air points member on their website, how long does it generally take to get the card?
And then how long does it take to have one smart activited after that?

I'm leaving for a holiday in 2 weeks and I don't think that's enough time for it.

Also has anyone used Travelex cash passport?
They seem to have really good rates if I buy directly from their Travelex website.
Much better than from their agents (Flight Center, ASB or a Travelex store).
But then the website has a $5000 limit, and I can't seem to top up from there either (have to go to store?)

Any experiences or comments will be very helpful.

Thanks

Kyanar

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#1114724 24-Aug-2014 19:12

Expect the card to take about a week to two weeks to show up. Once it has, you're going to have to make your way to a BNZ or Air NZ Holidays store to provide them identifying info so they can activate Onesmart. Once you've done that, it takes about 3 days for deposits to show up on the card.

arch66

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#1114770 24-Aug-2014 20:18

Thanks kaynar, that's probably too long for my trip.

Guess I will have to use cash passport.

Another question for the travelers: if I am going to London, Paris, Rome and Athens, I would obliviously take Euro. But should I bring Pounds too for London, or would Euro be fine (I know they will take it but are there advantages to using Pound)?

afe66

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#1114791 24-Aug-2014 21:00

Take some pounds because if you plan on changing Euro's to pounds you will lose money on 2 currency transactions.

How much depends on how long obviously.

A.

johnr

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#1114798 24-Aug-2014 21:19

Yes I have a AIRNZ Onesmart card and it works well, took a few business days to show up

JimmyC

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#1114928 25-Aug-2014 08:36

I didn't have to take my card anywhere once I got it, just logged in and completed the setup. It currently pays for my US iTunes without issue.

Seakiwi

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#1115263 25-Aug-2014 15:44

I have used the Travellex Cashpassport on two different ten week trips in Europe and found it great.
.
Chose the Travellex as I wanted two cards, one for me and one for my wife but operating on the same account and ANZ OneSmart couldn't do this.

Travellex is easy to reload via internet banking and worked in every machine we used in Italy this year without trouble or fees. Exchange rates are not to bad on reload either. They are multi currency so you could load both Euros and Pounds.

sbiddle

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#1115272 25-Aug-2014 15:51

The Travelex card is better than the OneSmart is virtually every way. I have both (ANZ replaced their Travel Card so sent me one) but refused to use the Travelex one because of their tieup with Perpetual Trust as their trustee.

UK is a pounds stirling country, euros are useless there.

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hairy1

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#1115277 25-Aug-2014 15:55

sbiddle:

The Travelex card is better than the OneSmart is virtually every way. I have both (ANZ replaced their Travel Card so sent me one) but refused to use the Travelex one because of their tieup with Perpetual Trust as their trustee.

UK is a pounds stirling country, euros are useless there.

So Steve? Which are you using? Travelex better than Onesmart but you refuse to use it?

Cheers, Matt.

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arch66

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#1115397 25-Aug-2014 17:59

Seakiwi: I have used the Travellex Cashpassport on two different ten week trips in Europe and found it great.
.
Chose the Travellex as I wanted two cards, one for me and one for my wife but operating on the same account and ANZ OneSmart couldn't do this.

Travellex is easy to reload via internet banking and worked in every machine we used in Italy this year without trouble or fees. Exchange rates are not to bad on reload either. They are multi currency so you could load both Euros and Pounds.

When I asked about the exchange rate for the Cashpassport I got different rates from different places (these were from yesterday):

Flight Center: 0.5938 Euro, 0.4756 GPD
ASB: 0.6052 Euro, 0.4847 GPD
Travellex store at the airport: 0.592 Euro, 0.476 GPDWebsite (

https://buy.travelex.co.nz/nz/Purchase

): 0.6115 Euro, 0.4921 GPDWith the 1500GPD and 3000Euro I was thinking of getting initially, that's a difference of ~$250NZD between the worst and the best rates there.

The Onesmart rate yesterday was 0.6116 Euro and 0.4886 GPD (I got a friend to check that for me from their account).

The Travelex website states that you can't reload online right now, so I assume that means I can't reload from the www.travelex.co.nz and will have to reload via the bill payment which will probably not at the Travelex website rates.
(I found that the reload feature is available from the travelex.com.au site, but that probably won't work on NZ cards).

Seems like Onesmart have very good rates, and the only downside I could really find was the 3 free ATM transactions (not unlimited like Cashpassport).
If I can get my Onesmart card in time, I think I would go with that.
If not, I will have to get a Cashpassport.

sbiddle:

The Travelex card is better than the OneSmart is virtually every way. I have both (ANZ replaced their Travel Card so sent me one) but refused to use the Travelex one because of their tieup with Perpetual Trust as their trustee.

UK is a pounds stirling country, euros are useless there.

I always thought that UK would accept Euros.
Thanks for letting me know.

antoniosk

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#1115448 25-Aug-2014 19:33

sbiddle:

The Travelex card is better than the OneSmart is virtually every way. I have both (ANZ replaced their Travel Card so sent me one) but refused to use the Travelex one because of their tieup with Perpetual Trust as their trustee.

UK is a pounds stirling country, euros are useless there.

How so?

I was also issued the Travelex cards after ANZ dumped the National Bank cards (I liked them), and flicked to OneSmart after a dad-level inspection of terms, rates and fees.

________

Antoniosk

PhantomNVD

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#1115475 25-Aug-2014 20:42

Onesmart also do a 'virtual' card that should be ready within a day of your activation too?

sbiddle

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#1115515 25-Aug-2014 21:26

hairy1:
sbiddle: The Travelex card is better than the OneSmart is virtually every way. I have both (ANZ replaced their Travel Card so sent me one) but refused to use the Travelex one because of their tieup with Perpetual Trust as their trustee.

UK is a pounds stirling country, euros are useless there.

So Steve? Which are you using? Travelex better than Onesmart but you refuse to use it?

Cheers, Matt.

I have a Travelex card which still has money on it which I've been slowly using.

I actually use my normal NZ credit card for all foreign purchases. The only place a travel card has for me is easily being able to withdraw cash, and that's something I used my Onesmart for when I was in the US. The fee structure and rates are better on the Travelex card.