Hello, I am about to do some further study overseas and I wondering if you would have any advice for me as to how I can pay the bill of my studies. I am self-funding and I need to pay the fees upfront before I go. The bill is paid to the overseas body and in a foreign currency. It seems they only give you their bank account details as the way to pay (I have heard there may be the possibility of being able to pay by credit card subject to a 3% fee - I have a cc with no foreign transaction fee - but the bank conversion fee (which is not great) would still apply (would this be cheaper than transferring money overseas via a bank account?) Do you have any advice on how I should proceed? Are there any banks that do competitive conversion rates or any other way? Thanks so much
Best Way to Pay a Bill in Foreign Currency?
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thank you I will look into this
What card do you have that has no foreign transaction fee?
They typically use the Mastercard or Visa rate which is quite good, not the bank rate.It is the anz travel adventure
Ahh, I haven't had any personal experience with that card. Based on what I've read on Whirlpool, it should be using pretty close to the Visa rates, which are published on the Visa website here (that said, cards are not obliged to use the scheme exchange rate and can substitute their own, but as mentioned WP seems to suggest they're Visa's):
https://www.visa.com.au/travel-with-visa/exchange-rate-calcu…Otherwise, I've had good experiences with 28Degrees and Citibank Plus.
Also check out Transferwise. Compare rates.
The Citibank fee-free account (can't remember what it's called, Citibank Plus I think) has no FC transaction fees & doesn't charge anything for international transfers (ie transferring money into an overseas bank account)
Yes, Citibank Plus. This is defintely the way to go.
Citibank Plus account, Macquaire Bank transaction account….
I use Citibank plus all the time for o/s payments no fees its great .
Transferwise works well and the rate was good.
I have used both OFX and CurrencyFair to transfer money to overseas accounts previously. They both give competitive rates compared to the usual banks