Travel Cards – Prepaid

Compare Travel Money Cards
The Cheapest Options
  1. Citibank Plus bank account card
Compare Prepaid Travel Money Cards
 
With these you pay money into the card account and you use it for purchases or cash withdrawals abroad.
The difference with prepaid cards & debit/credit cards are the fees.
Fees to load the card can be up to $11
ATM withdrawal fees: up to $3.75
exchange rate conversion fees: 5.95% – 8.45%
If you reload or close account, fees can apply.
However they don’t usually have an annual fee.

Money magazine recently did a survey of travel cards
Here’s their summary:
ANZ Travel CBA Travel Money Cash Passport NZB Traveller OzForex Travel
No if currencies 10 6 9 10 9
Initial Card fee ($) 11 15 5 1 15
ATM fee Y Y No No Y
Reload fee 1.1% 1% 1% 1% None
Currency Conversion fee 3% none 5.95% 4% 3%
Card Closure fee none none $10 none $10
Monthly inactive fee $3 none $4 $4 none
Emergency funds Y Y Y Y No
 These rates can change at any time so please check the latest fees.
 
Currency Conversion at point of sale
 
Say you are visiting the US. Some shops allow you to either pay for the product you buy in either the local currency (say US Dollars) or they will offer to convert to for you into Australian Dollars.
Don’t get them to convert it back to Australian dollars as you often get a worth exchange rate.
Cash
To find the best rates for cash currency conversion click here
With Cash for $1000 worth of foreign notes you generally pay fees of up to 2.5% ($25) in fees & commissions.
Fees at airports are much more and can mount up to almost 8%.
 
Credit/Debit  cards
 
Credit cards are accepted almost anywhere but always check before travelling.
India for example only accepts credit cards in the more expensive hotels & shops, reducing your chances on getting bargains.
Most Credit cards charge a currency conversion charge on fees when you travel abroad.
 
The big banks charge between 2-3% on currency fees plus a fee with you withdraw cash.
But did you know there ways to get Fee Free card fees?
Now the cheapest option as there is no international conversion or ATM fees abroad. The money is taken out of your bank account.