Debit Card for overseas travel

[cruiser3775]

I'm in the market for a new debit card for making cash withdrawals overseas.  I came across this list from Choice, dated January 2024:

Here are six low-fee travel debit card accounts:

• Bankwest Easy (Platinum)
• Macquarie (Platinum) 
• Suncorp Carbon Insights
• Suncorp Everyday Options
• Ubank Spend 
• Up Everyday.

Does anyone have any experience with using any of these debit cards overseas?

[Cbtours]

52 minutes ago, cruiser3775 said:

I'm in the market for a new debit card for making cash withdrawals overseas.  I came across this list from Choice, dated January 2024:

Here are six low-fee travel debit card accounts:

• Bankwest Easy (Platinum)
• Macquarie (Platinum) 
• Suncorp Carbon Insights
• Suncorp Everyday Options
• Ubank Spend 
• Up Everyday.

Does anyone have any experience with using any of these debit cards overseas?

Not with those cards but we use Qantas money card (debit) when overseas and find it great

[MicCanberra]

We have a Ubank account, have used it overseas but not for a cash advance as yet, will be using it next week for that purpose though.

[cruiser3775]

I have been put off the Qantas Travel Money card by a friend who works in finance, and says their conversion rates for foreign currency are a rip off. Also not keen on asking Qantas for help if anything goes wrong, given the appalling reputation of their help centre.

 

I've discovered that all of the cards on the Choice list are subsidiaries of our big four banks, except Up Everyday, which is owned by Bendigo Bank.

[Ethel6666]

I have a UBank account with a debit card. Worked well in France, Spain, UK, Norway, Japan, both for purchases and getting cash at ATMs. I’ve also used it for online purchases in foreign currency. You get the published visa exchange rate with no transaction fees.

 

I like it because we just send across a few hundred dollars at a time, seems safely separate from our normal banking. Works with Apple Pay, has an app where you can easily notify them of upcoming overseas travel. It was easy to sign up online.

 

[Broncofan941]

13 hours ago, cruiser3775 said:

I'm in the market for a new debit card for making cash withdrawals overseas.  I came across this list from Choice, dated January 2024:

Here are six low-fee travel debit card accounts:

• Bankwest Easy (Platinum)
• Macquarie (Platinum) 
• Suncorp Carbon Insights
• Suncorp Everyday Options
• Ubank Spend 
• Up Everyday.

Does anyone have any experience with using any of these debit cards overseas?

Not with those but the Charles Schwab debit card is excellent. Almost no fees of any kind and availability world-wide. 

[fossilraf]

Check out the Wise Debit card. https://wise.com

 

[colourbird]

I have a Macquarie (Platinum) debit card which the cruise lines treat as a credit card in terms of surcharges.

[cruiser3775]

Thanks, everyone. Working my way through the T & Cs for some of the cards. there are some traps in the fine print.

Post #6  I'm in Australia. It has to be an Australian debit card.

[davwen81]

We have Wise card, Up card and UBank card and  they all work incredibly well overseas and their exchange rates are phenomenal. We did have a Qantas card but never again as exchange rates are so low. 

[MMDown Under]

5 hours ago, davwen81 said:

We have Wise card, Up card and UBank card and  they all work incredibly well overseas and their exchange rates are phenomenal. We did have a Qantas card but never again as exchange rates are so low. 

Could you please explain how these cards work?  Are they debit cards?  Do you put money on them before your overseas travels?  

[davwen81]

1 hour ago, MMDown Under said:

Could you please explain how these cards work?  Are they debit cards?  Do you put money on them before your overseas travels?  

Yes exactly. I use the wise card to deposit A$ on then convert to whatever currency I need at extremely good rates. The other two we just put A$ on and use to pay for tours, ATM withdrawals etc and they convert to the local currency at very good rates, better than any rates you can get here in Oz. 

[cruiser3775]

They  are debit cards from Australian banks, but specific ones that offer no foreign exchange fees. It is quite easy to get one online, because it is your money, so no credit checks are needed, just personal identification.  In effect, you are just opening a new bank account.  Some of the "banks" will not be familiar to you, but they are proper banks with Aus government approval.   If you search on "Who owns (name of debit card)?", you can find out the name of the underlying bank.

Once you open one, you can work out your budget for the overseas trip, and put that amount of money into the account before you go.  When you get home, if you have money left you didn't spend, you can use it in Australia in the normal way for debit cards, or you can move most of it back to your regular home banking account, and just keep the "no forex" debit card as one you use on overseas trips.

[cruiser3775]

Having done my research, I opted for an Up card. It is owned by Bendigo Bank.  No problem applying online, very quick approval and set up. Once you move some money into it, it can be used straight away with your virtual card on your phone. They also post you a proper Mastercard debit card. That took ten days to arrive.  I've used it once for a domestic purchase, which worked. Will have to wait and see how it works overseas for withdrawing cash with no foreign exchange fees, as advertised..

[LittleFish1976]

I recently got a Wise debit card for use overseas. The pros are that the exchange rate is good. The down side is that if you use it in a hotel or on a ship against your account they will put hold/pending transactions on the card, during the cruise or stay, against your card balance which takes a full 31 days to be removed!! This means that the money you put on there isn't available to be used for any other payments for a full month. I cruised recently with this card. They put three pending transactions on the card and then at the end of the cruise charged the whole lot AGAIN to the card. So I'm having to wait for all the pending transactions to come off before I can use that money. It would be bad luck if you had to use that money while you were overseas - you'd have to find more funds to transfer into the card.

[cruiser3775]

Yes, putting holds on the card is a problem. However, I have a credit card that I use for purchases, and I need the debit card mainly for withdrawing actual cash from overseas ATMs.

[LittleFish1976]

Just now, cruiser3775 said:

Yes, putting holds on the card is a problem. However, I have a credit card that I use for purchases, and I need the debit card mainly for withdrawing actual cash from overseas ATMs.

Understood. My issue was that I had the funds loaded as USD so I could know exactly how much I had in that currency and what I would be paying for charges that would come out in that currency. Also that I was in South America and was looking to gain the advantage that paying in that currency may give.

 

Not sure now how to handle my next cruise in a few weeks' time in Japan on a ship which will charge in USD and likely want to put a hold on any charges as we go. Maybe I'll give them a credit card to use for the holds and then give them the Wise card the day before departure so that the funds come out against the USD directly.

 

I wonder how the exchange rate will be with the Up card when withdrawing cash that's not in the currency on the card. Or will you load onto the card the specific currency you'll want to be withdrawing?

 

I might be overthinking this!

[Ima Ginaree]

11 minutes ago, LittleFish1976 said:

Not sure now how to handle my next cruise in a few weeks' time in Japan on a ship which will charge in USD and likely want to put a hold on any charges as we go. Maybe I'll give them a credit card to use for the holds and then give them the Wise card the day before departure so that the funds come out against the USD directly.

 

I did this and it worked well.

 

I had read all the warnings on here prior to my Feb 2024 cruise about registering a debit card as your onboard payment card, because the holds could be in place for a month, thus preventing me from using my own money. I have a regular Mastercard account which I don’t use much and it incurs regular international conversion fees. I also have a debit Visa card that has no international conversion fees. I decided to register the Mastercard on my onboard account, so any holds would be put against that card.
The evening of the last full day onboard I visited guest services and asked to pay the outstanding balance down to zero using the Visa card. They had to register the Visa so they could take the payment from it. They completed the transaction bringing my onboard account back to zero. Then they removed the Visa card from the system. They still had the Mastercard registered to cover charges in the last 12 hours, although I was pretty confident there wouldn’t be any extra charges at that point.

It took about 15 minutes to get it sorted.

[cruiser3775]

3 hours ago, LittleFish1976 said:

wonder how the exchange rate will be with the Up card when withdrawing cash that's not in the currency on the card

I chose this card partly because it gets good reviews for users for the good currency exchange rates.

Little fish, you really need to have both a credit card and a debit card that do not charge international foreign exchange fees. That way you can use one for purchases and one for withdrawing cash.  I also have one that is a Mastercard and one that is a Visa, because I've found from bitter experience that in some countries one will work but not the other.

It's all so complicated. Not wishing to go back to the bad old days of travellers cheques, but I wish it was simpler to organise money when travelling overseas.

[LittleFish1976]

4 hours ago, Ima Ginaree said:

I did this and it worked well.

 

I had read all the warnings on here prior to my Feb 2024 cruise about registering a debit card as your onboard payment card, because the holds could be in place for a month, thus preventing me from using my own money. I have a regular Mastercard account which I don’t use much and it incurs regular international conversion fees. I also have a debit Visa card that has no international conversion fees. I decided to register the Mastercard on my onboard account, so any holds would be put against that card.
The evening of the last full day onboard I visited guest services and asked to pay the outstanding balance down to zero using the Visa card. They had to register the Visa so they could take the payment from it. They completed the transaction bringing my onboard account back to zero. Then they removed the Visa card from the system. They still had the Mastercard registered to cover charges in the last 12 hours, although I was pretty confident there wouldn’t be any extra charges at that point.

It took about 15 minutes to get it sorted.

Thanks very much for sharing your personal experience with doing that. Good to have confirmation that it's not asking too much of them to accomodate the different payment method. I'll be doing a b2b so will zero out the account mid-voyage and at the end.

[LittleFish1976]

1 hour ago, cruiser3775 said:

I chose this card partly because it gets good reviews for users for the good currency exchange rates.

Little fish, you really need to have both a credit card and a debit card that do not charge international foreign exchange fees. That way you can use one for purchases and one for withdrawing cash.  I also have one that is a Mastercard and one that is a Visa, because I've found from bitter experience that in some countries one will work but not the other.

It's all so complicated. Not wishing to go back to the bad old days of travellers cheques, but I wish it was simpler to organise money when travelling overseas.

Always good to have a couple of credit cards on you when you travel overseas I think in case there's an issue with one. I won't be paying for much off the ship hopefully so should not be a major issue (except for hotel pre and post cruise). I really liked travellers' cheques! It really felt like travelling was something so out of the ordinary and special.