Hi,
I will travel to Vietnam for 2 months at the end of the year, probably will visit Cambodia or Thailand for a few days too. I don't want to use any CC.
Which debit card save me the most and maybe any xtra benefits? I currently have Macquarie Debit, Xinja, NAB and Ubank.
Thanks you
Hi,
I have traveled to Vietnam twice a year for the past 10 years. I have found that Citi Bank debit card works well - no transaction fees, no ATM fees if you pick the right ATM and a very good exchange rate. Easy to transfer funds from other accounts to your Citi Debit card online as required. For credit I use 28 Degrees card. It offers an excellent exchange rate and charges no fees. Most local vendors and restaurants want cash (dong). Better hotels and retailers will accept credit cards. Take at least $500 to $600 Aud with you and change a good chunk in HCMC. There are quite a few very competitive money changers at the end of Bui Vien Street in the Back Packer district of HCMC. Be very organised with your cash, it's easy to get confused with the notes eg a 20,000 dong note and a 200,000 dong note. Always check your change after a purchase. I wear a small belt pouch from Katmandu to store cash and credit cards. It flips over your belt inside your pants. Very hard to pick-pocket.
It flips over your belt inside your pants. Very hard to pick-pocket.
So there's a loop over your belt and a pick-pocket would have to take off your belt to take it?
Otherwise, you'd only get an extra fondle while the pouch is snatched from inside your pants.
Also a regular traveller to VN. I have found gold shops often give the best exchange rate and are not fussy about the notes they accept, nor do they require all the ID that changing in banks or bureaux de change ask for.
Hi, is Citibank Plus Everyday Account the right one?
Yep,
There is even a Citibank ATM at HCM Airport.
Thank you, guys. guess I will apply for City bank soon.
ING is the best card.
I would apply for ING to get Thai ATM back as they charge 200 Baht ATM at least and ING refunds this.
But you need to transfer $1000 and do 5 transactions the month before you go
I second this. No need to be looking for specific ATM's as with CitiBank as all ATM fees are refunded.
All of the ATM's give visa exchange rate, so not losing out there!
Travelled to Vietnam & Cambodia last year. Can confirm Citibank was great. You'll probably be paying for most things with cash, so Citibank's the way to go.
Just try to find the Citibank ATMs over there, and you'll get a pretty good exchange rate.
apply for a teaching job. easy cash
A lot of advice on the forum here still lists the 28 Degrees Card (for credit/over the counter purchases) and the CitiBank Platinum card (for debit/ATMs/withdrawals) as the traveller's combo.
However, I was personally looking into this and it seems that the international rates via CitiBank are typically far worse than the standard MasterCard and Visa rates.
Check for yourself:
MasterCard rates: https://www.mastercard.us/en-us/consumers/get-support/conver…
10,000 Thai Baht costs you: $487.84 AUD (1/9/19)
Visa Rates: https://www.visa.com.au/travel-with-visa/exchange-rate-calcu…
10,000 Thai Baht costs you: $488.82 AUD (1/9/19)
CitiBank Rates: https://www.citibank.com.au/aus/investments/forex-rates.htm
10,000 Thai Baht costs you: $495.22 AUD (1/9/19)
I tried to look up the rates in Vietnamese Dong but apparently CitiBank don't publish rates for that currency, so I used the other currency you mentioned, Thai Baht. The rates I found above show that the MasterCard and Visa rates (with a 0% conversion fee card) are very close, only off by about $1, whereas the CitiBank card will end up costing you about $7 AUD more to withdraw the exact same amount of foreign currency.
Plus, as I understand, you may end up paying an additional ATM fee when using a CitiBank card in a non-CitiBank ATM but ING will ensure that any and all fees incurred by any ATM brand will be refunded back to you.
Note: 28 Degrees uses MasterCard rates and ING uses Visa rates.
So any way I look at it, the ING card looks better for travel than the CitiBank card (so long as you can play their frustrating game of using the card for 5 purchases within the previous month on debit to activate the international benefits).
I can't seem to edit my above post but I've read some suggestion that the CitiBank Plus Debit card uses the MasterCard rates rather than the exchange rates published on CitiBank's website. Is anyone able to verify this? If so, that would put it back on par with the 28 Degrees and ING cards.
i used 28 degrees when i was there last year. had citibank as a back up.