Currancy Exchange

We are travelling to Oz very shortly. We are seeking advice on the best way
to take the cash there. We have debit cards, credit cards and money in the
savings. Do we get travellers cheques? or take our cards??????

Any help would be much appreciated

Thanks

"artwahh" <artwahh@n9bs.wanadoo.co.uk> wrote in
news:cpknkg$idi$1@newsg4.svr.pol.co.uk:

> We are travelling to Oz very shortly. We are seeking advice on the
> best way to take the cash there. We have debit cards, credit cards
> and money in the savings. Do we get travellers cheques? or take our
> cards??????
>
> Any help would be much appreciated
>
> Thanks
>
>

We spent several months in Australia earlier this year, and didn't take
much cash, just used our credit card against our Canadian account.

Make sure your credit card is registered at your bank so you can withdraw
from abroad. Then just used it as a withdrawal card. Sometimes the credit
card *won't* work at all banks in Australia. Just talk to your bank and see
what they advise.

We found this the easiest way to manage our money, we didn't have to worry
about travellers cheques or anything else. The charges were $2.50 for each
withdrawal, so we would take $200-300 each time. Plus the bank may charge
for the money conversion. Again, best thing, talk to your bank.

Alan

You can get Atms at banks and hotels and some service stations that takes
most cards and credit cards are taken every where in shops so thats the
way to go

artwahh <artwahh@n9bs.wanadoo.co.uk> wrote:
> We are travelling to Oz very shortly. We are seeking advice on the best way
> to take the cash there. We have debit cards, credit cards and money in the
> savings. Do we get travellers cheques? or take our cards??????
>
> Any help would be much appreciated
>
> Thanks

A credit card and a spare one (in case anything happens to the first
one) and some cash (drawn from an ATM upon arrival) to get you through
the next few days (in case there is no ATM, it is
closed/broken/empty/limited/etc.).

Some friends of mine came over to Australia with travellers cheques in
Australian currency. These did not work so well as most banks are very
suspicious and charged $5 to cash them. Bank of Melbourne did not charge
any fee and were quite helpful, but the rest of the banks that we tried were
down right impossible.

I would suggest not bringing travellers cheques. ATM cards and Credit cards
should work fine.


"artwahh" <artwahh@n9bs.wanadoo.co.uk> wrote in message
news:cpknkg$idi$1@newsg4.svr.pol.co.uk...
> We are travelling to Oz very shortly. We are seeking advice on the best
way
> to take the cash there. We have debit cards, credit cards and money in
the
> savings. Do we get travellers cheques? or take our cards??????
>
> Any help would be much appreciated
>
> Thanks
>
>

Travellers Cheques are no longer used much. ATM's are almost everywhere
(even in the outback you can withdraw money through your credit card using
eftpos).

Cirrus, Plus, Maestro, Star - and virtually every other ATM network known
are supported!




"artwahh" <artwahh@n9bs.wanadoo.co.uk> wrote in message
news:cpknkg$idi$1@newsg4.svr.pol.co.uk...
> We are travelling to Oz very shortly. We are seeking advice on the best
> way to take the cash there. We have debit cards, credit cards and money
> in the savings. Do we get travellers cheques? or take our cards??????
>
> Any help would be much appreciated
>
> Thanks
>

You will get the best exchange rate from a credit card. You can usually
withdrawn from an ATM using you debit card (if not try a different ATM), but
your will pay a service charge (with CIBC it's $3 CDN so it makes sense to
draw out the maxium amount). I was in NZ & OZ for a year and having a
couple hundred dollars in cash and a credit card worked out very well. I
used my credit card whenever possible and used cash when it was more
convenient.

Dwayne

A Mate <someone@somewhere.com> wrote:
> Travellers Cheques are no longer used much. ATM's are almost everywhere
> (even in the outback you can withdraw money through your credit card using
> eftpos).

In our experience [1], that (withdrawing money using EFTPOS) only
works for a *debit* card and then only for the *right* debit card. A
(non-Oz) MasterCard credit card does *not* work an nor does a European
"Europas" or "Worldpass" debit card. So beware. Hence my earlier advice.

> Cirrus, Plus, Maestro, Star - and virtually every other ATM network known
> are supported!

[1] We tried four cards (two MasterCard credit cards and two Europas/
Worldpass debit cards) in several shops without any luck. Of course we
could *pay* for goods/services with the credit cards, but could not
withdraw/get money. (Finally the owneress of the caravan park let us
"buy" some money with our credit card. She could do that because she -
as the owneress, not an employee - could straigthen out the resulting
bookkeeping mess.)

"Frank Slootweg" <this@ddress.is.invalid> wrote in message
news:41bef3ea$0$86984$ee9da40f@news.wanadoo.nl...
> A Mate <someone@somewhere.com> wrote:
> > Travellers Cheques are no longer used much. ATM's are almost everywhere
> > (even in the outback you can withdraw money through your credit card
using
> > eftpos).
>
> In our experience [1], that (withdrawing money using EFTPOS) only
> works for a *debit* card and then only for the *right* debit card. A
> (non-Oz) MasterCard credit card does *not* work an nor does a European
> "Europas" or "Worldpass" debit card. So beware. Hence my earlier advice.
>

Theoretically using a credit card with the Plus symbol on it should enable
you to withdraw direct from your Chequing account, or your savings account,
whichever is connected on the card. However I would not bet on it. Several
months ago we were in Europe (Netherlands) and tried to withdraw from my
cheque account but the ATMs in Holland wouldn't let me do it! I checked with
the bank (owning two of those ATMs and their staff didn't have a clue as to
what the Plus symbol meant. So I gave up and used the credit card normally.
Placed a fairly large credit onto the card account and so saved interest
charges on withdrawals.
BTW the Plus function works in Australia and Singapore. But if your own bank
has a problem with this you could still be in hot water if you are relying
on it.

Gerrit - Perth

Gerrit 't Hart <gthart@sad.au> wrote:
>
> "Frank Slootweg" <this@ddress.is.invalid> wrote in message
> news:41bef3ea$0$86984$ee9da40f@news.wanadoo.nl...
> > A Mate <someone@somewhere.com> wrote:
> > > Travellers Cheques are no longer used much. ATM's are almost everywhere
> > > (even in the outback you can withdraw money through your credit card
> using
> > > eftpos).
> >
> > In our experience [1], that (withdrawing money using EFTPOS) only
> > works for a *debit* card and then only for the *right* debit card. A
> > (non-Oz) MasterCard credit card does *not* work an nor does a European
> > "Europas" or "Worldpass" debit card. So beware. Hence my earlier advice.
>
> Theoretically using a credit card with the Plus symbol on it should enable
> you to withdraw direct from your Chequing account, or your savings account,
> whichever is connected on the card. However I would not bet on it. Several
> months ago we were in Europe (Netherlands) and tried to withdraw from my
> cheque account but the ATMs in Holland wouldn't let me do it! I checked with
> the bank (owning two of those ATMs and their staff didn't have a clue as to
> what the Plus symbol meant. So I gave up and used the credit card normally.
> Placed a fairly large credit onto the card account and so saved interest
> charges on withdrawals.
> BTW the Plus function works in Australia and Singapore. But if your own bank
> has a problem with this you could still be in hot water if you are relying
> on it.

Indeed, "Plus" is unknown in The Netherlands and probably in most of
Europe and quite possibly also in the UK where the OP is from.

That is why I posted what I posted: I.e. Australians should not assume
that just because they can do some thing with *their* (i.e. Australian)
cards, that 'foreigners' can do the same with their (foreign) cards.

So it would be nice if another person from the UK could post his/her
positive/negative experience with withdrawing money from an Australian
EFTPOS establishment.