QANTAS Cash Vs Velocity Global Wallet Vs Citibank Plus in Korea

LDaveW7 on 20/10/2015 - 21:22

I'm travelling to Hong Kong, Korea and Japan at the end of the year and it's likely that 70% of my spending in Korea is likely to be in cash and so I was wondering which card option would be the best given I'd be withdrawing cash 3-4 times during my stay in Korea and neither QANTAS Cash or Velocity Global Wallet allow you to to have Korean Won in the account but I'm not too sure about how easy it is to find a Citibank ATM in Korea (Seoul) either. I've heard VISA is also accepted in more places in Korea so that makes it the better card option for the other 30% of my spending but not sure whether the locking in with Velocity Global Wallet would be better than the Citibank Plus in that case.

I'm most likely going to lock in rates for HK and Japan with either of my QANTAS Cash (or Velocity Global Wallet) which offers the better rate apparently according to my friend but not entirely sure and would love to hear insights from experienced Ozbargainer travellers. Would prefer to carry fewer cards but at the end of the day convenience with access to ATM's etc is still the most important

Would truly appreciate any tips on which option would be the most ideal in terms of the three main issues:
1. Savings from locking in rates (anticipating AUD to drop from 0.72USD to 0.69USD)
2. ATM Fees
3. Convenience in terms of shopping and access to ATM's

Thanks in advance.

Travel

Comments

  • CheapandUsed on 20/10/2015 - 22:14
    +2

    Small anecdote, I took my Citibank Plus to Indonesia last week. After two phone calls of trouble shooting and it still not able to withdraw cash at a Citi atm they offered to waive the cash advance fee on my Citibank CC.

    At a Citibank atm I could do a balance enquiry but not a withdrawl. Eventually I lucked onto a local atm that processed my withdrawal so I was able to get to my money (trying a citi atm afterwards still didn't work, so no idea whats going on). The Citibank Plus is fee free so no worries about using random atms.

    So I would suggest that you also need to balance out that if one of your means of accessing your money fails, what is going to be your backup plan? Perhaps spreading your cash between the 2-3 options might be best.

    I won't comment on the exchange rates, I seem to think the opposite to what actually happens.

  • burningrage on 21/10/2015 - 08:47
    +1

    I didn't experience the issue that CheapandUsed mentioned (CheapandUsed: I took monies from Pluit Branch near Emporium, Jakarta with no problem)

    However for OP, I would personally do withdrawal at local ATM. Below is the link of the citibank location in Korea.

    http://citibank.banklocationmaps.com/korea/seoul_korea

    When I was in Korea, I did the same thing. I took monies from ATM rather than using using Global Wallet. I can confirm there is no fee in using these ATMs at all.

    Since you'll be using cash while in Korea, this is what I would do. It's safer. In terms of currency, I recall at the time it was very good almost par to XE.COM

    Hope this helps.

    • DaveW7 on 21/10/2015 - 11:57

      Thanks for the tip!

  • donga100 on 21/10/2015 - 10:13
    +2

    My advice:

    1. Qantas and Velocity both allow you to purchase now in USD so you wouldn't lose any money if the AUD fell. On the other hand, you could just leave your AUD in an interest earning account for the next couple of months and offset potential losses with gained interest.

    2. Citibank wins here as they are free if you use their ATMs. Qantas and Velocity both charge 3% + ATM fee ($2-3).

    3. There was only a very small number of places that I found accepted VISA but not Mastercard so I wouldn't be too concerned about that. A Citibank ATM will not always be convenient but even if you used it to withdraw money from another bank you would still only end up paying the same as if you used Qantas or Velocity anyway.

    • DaveW7 on 21/10/2015 - 11:58

      Thanks! I think I'm leaning towards Citibank now.

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