I will be traveling to Croatia and will need to take around 5k out in Euros.
What will be the best way to do this and get the best rate?
I have an ING card that has free international ATM transactions, however, the limit is $2200 AUD per day which isn't enough.
I'm also unsure if this will give us the best rate.
What would everyone recommend? Is the only option take AUD in cash and convert it somewhere?
This is for a service I will be purchasing but they are requesting cash.
$2200 AUD per day
Is this for your own use or do you need to pay somebody? If the latter why not do an Internet transfer? If for a holiday then it's highly unlikely you will find an ATM that will let you take 5k out in one go. You may have to go several times, and there may be daily limits.
So, what did they say when you rang them? 😀
$2200 AUD per day
That's ING but the ATMs will have limits too.
Taking out the equivalent in AUD and changing at a money changer?
No
Do a bank transfer, it's still cash (no merchant credit card fees etc)
You have several issues to contend with.
Issue no. 1 - Croatia doesn't use the Euro. It uses the kuna.
So you can't pull out Euros from an ordinary ATM anyway.
This is one of my biggest annoyances in Croatia. Every hostel charges the guest tax in Euros (1 euro) even though you can't pay in Euros! And Croatian websites quote in Euro since it's expected to be used "eventually" and I was told Europeans (esp. Italians) are their most frequent customers. If you pay in kunas, check the conversion for yourself.
(And of course Montenegro next door isn't in the EU but uses the Euro…).
Issue no. 2 - You'll need at least a second card if you decide to the go the ATM route. Citibank has an even smaller daily limit of $1000 AUD but can apparently be increased to $3000 via a phone call. You'll need 2 days regardless to reach 5000 euros with only these 2 cards.
You shouldn't have to worry too much about needing multiple withdrawals. Last month in Croatia I made maybe 10 withdrawals with my ING debit card at random ATMs and none appeared to charge their own ATM fee. On my statement I only see the $2.50 ING International ATM fee refunded each time.
You could do a transferwise transfer (with a sign-up bonus to sweeten the deal) but I imagine the people taking your money don't want a trail…
Thanks for the response.
Nothing dodgy about this, so a trail is no problem. I've never heard of transferwise but will take a look.
I assume this would give better fees/rates than using my ANZ international bank transfer? I couldn't see anything about a signup bonus?
Just get a random referral from the Transferwise Deals page. Neither I nor anybody else can offer you a referral in comments.
Yes, almost any online money transfer service will beat a major bank (but that's from experience, I haven't stayed on top of things). Transferwise isn't normally the cheapest option for very large amounts (since they charge a fixed percentage) but from AUD to EUR or HRK with this sign-up bonus (https://www.icomparefx.com/transferwise-coupon/) it should only cost you ~$11-12 so it's good enough without researching for alternatives.
I've asked OzBargain before if they'd like to apply for a site referral code (since the savings are much higher than a mere $500 person to person referral) but they weren't interested at the time. So take the 3000 GBP (or ~$5270 AUD) equivalent offer in the link above or find one elsewhere, guilt-free.
Just make sure you know the seller is 100% legit and trustworthy since that's a lot of money.
Thanks. When you say "Just make sure you know the seller is 100% legit and trustworthy since that's a lot of money."- what is the concern here?
The seller is legitimate but isn't this just as safe as transferring via a bank transfer?
@lockmc: Yes, in terms of ASIC and AUSTRAC your transaction is regulated. The point is that it is still a cash transfer to a potentially unknown foreign entity (they might not be unknown to you but you never clarified how you discovered this "service"). Just like you can use use identity theft to setup a fake account here and scam foreigners on a fake goods or services website, foreigners can do likewise to you. You'll have all the same protections as a bank transfer (i.e. none?).
I can give you an example from a few weeks ago.
International transfer from EUR to AUD, from 2000€ after all the fees including currency exchange and bank fees I got $2260.30
Same transaction with transferwise 2000€ = $3080
So I can do a bank transfer (this is for a wedding photography company), but they said if we give them cash, they will upgrade the package which is worth 200 euros. I guess they prefer cash! I could just take the AUD equivalent and convert it somewhere such as as the airport, although I'm guessing the airport won't give me the best rate.
200 bonus for 5000 is 4%. Will you lose 4% converting cash?
Also it sounds like they are trying to evade Croatian tax.
Thank you. This will prevent the usual "what did they say when you called them".
BTW what did they say when you called them?