Post: #1

Hey All,

I haven't travelled since 2014 to South America and this time i intend on staying 3+ months. So the usual month worth of cash won't cut it. Usually take hoards of cash with me to save on the ridiculous travel card fee. Here in OZ it can run up as high as 6% all in. That includes cross currency transactions i.e USD to Peso, loading fee and ATM fee.

But seeing I am planning a 3+ month Sur America, taking large sums of cash isn't ideal. wondering what's everyone doing especially those from Australia for cash ? Just standard ATM cards or those travel cards or just cash...

Thoughts would be appreciated.


Merci

FBX

Post: #2

(04-14-2017 08:59 PM)fbx258 Wrote:  But seeing I am planning a 3+ month Sur America, taking large sums of cash isn't ideal. wondering what's everyone doing especially those from Australia for cash ? Just standard ATM cards or those travel cards or just cash...

Thoughts would be appreciated.

Also from Australia.

In the past I used travel cards when I was naive (ie commbank ones) but you will get wrecked on the exchange rate and often if you have money left on the card at the end you'll get hit again for a terrible rate just to get the money off it.

Using a normal ATM card will still hit you hard for transaction fee's + conversion fees.

I would recommend looking into a Citibank Plus account.

"Citibank charges no fees at all for transactions made at International ATMs (Some bank operators may charge a fee at the ATM, this is not a Citibank charge – many operators have fee free ATMs overseas) or in store purchases. There are no withdrawal fees or commission rates at all."

There's a compiled wiki here with relevant information: https://whirlpool.net.au/wiki/citibank_p...on_account

Post: #3

(04-14-2017 09:31 PM)malakaix Wrote:  

(04-14-2017 08:59 PM)fbx258 Wrote:  But seeing I am planning a 3+ month Sur America, taking large sums of cash isn't ideal. wondering what's everyone doing especially those from Australia for cash ? Just standard ATM cards or those travel cards or just cash...

Thoughts would be appreciated.

Also from Australia.

In the past I used travel cards when I was naive (ie commbank ones) but you will get wrecked on the exchange rate and often if you have money left on the card at the end you'll get hit again for a terrible rate just to get the money off it.

Using a normal ATM card will still hit you hard for transaction fee's + conversion fees.

I would recommend looking into a Citibank Plus account.

"Citibank charges no fees at all for transactions made at International ATMs (Some bank operators may charge a fee at the ATM, this is not a Citibank charge – many operators have fee free ATMs overseas) or in store purchases. There are no withdrawal fees or commission rates at all."

There's a compiled wiki here with relevant information: https://whirlpool.net.au/wiki/citibank_p...on_account

Thanks mate, i still see you get hit on a few fronts. Bottom line is you can't win and have to minimise the damage.

This citibank plus and 28 degrees looks the best from what i have read.