Is it better to use a low/no fee debit card or to use a travel card/buy currency?

Lwhatman13 on 11/12/2019 - 09:37

I'm taking a trip to Cape Town in the coming weeks and tossing up between just using my Up Banking debit card (no international transaction fees/low international ATM fees) or purchasing a travel money card and buying some of the local currency.

With the Oz dollar at around .68USD I doubt i'd get a good rate with the travel card or currency (currently 9.3ZAR) so I'm wondering if it might be better to just use my debit card and take whatever the day-rate is?

Any comments/insights would be great. There's also a solid chance i'm misunderstanding the way currency conversions work so if i do have it wrong, please let me know!

Poll Options expired

  • 27
    Just use a debit card with no/low international fees
  • 2
    Buy currency
Financial

Comments

  • toomuchdogfur on 11/12/2019 - 09:45

    Travel money cards usually have terrible conversion rates - I've seen ones as bad as 10% worse than spot rates.

    On the other hand CC uses the VISA or MC spot rate which is pretty close to cash rates (within 1% or so).

    The only advantage of travel money is if you anticipate the AUD dropping a lot further before you go on your trip.

  • dazweeja on 11/12/2019 - 09:45

    Use the debit card and always press the Credit button when travelling, even when withdrawing from an ATM, so you get the Visa/Mastercard rate. Always better than travel cards/money changers in my experience.

    • whatman13 on 11/12/2019 - 10:05

      Oh, I've never heard of the credit button tip! I always assumed the transaction wouldn't go through if i pressed credit but used a debit card? How does the Visa/Mastercard rate differ?

    • pifts on 11/12/2019 - 10:23

      So hitting credit on the ATM withdrawal = doesn't use the machine vendor's terrible currency conversion rate?

      I always assumed exchanging cash was better because ING/Up wouldn't help you get cash.

    • roddo on 19/12/2019 - 05:09

      I'm overseas and pressed savings with Citi card, but declined to have the arm convert… It was close to the spot rate. Next time I'll just press credit

  • GG57 on 11/12/2019 - 10:13

    I assume your trip is not too long (i.e. days or a couple of weeks at most), so go with your debit card.
    I am told that the costs in Cape Town are reasonably low, so that will reduce how much conversion you actually do anyway.

  • JohnSy on 11/12/2019 - 12:15

    ING Everyday Orange account rebates international ATM fee, and also has no international transaction fees.
    You do need to do a minimum deposit and 5+ transactions in the month before though.

    Not sure if it is worth the effort of setting up since your cards seems fairly good already.

  • Trying2SaveABuck on 11/12/2019 - 12:22

    ING or Citibank plus

  • Cheapskate Paul on 11/12/2019 - 21:35

    ING Orange debit is the best as quite a few ATMs in South Africa charge fees. This assumes you meet the requirements for ATM rebates etc. Travel cards are the worst option, even if you think you can predict exchange rates.

    • whatman13 on 12/12/2019 - 10:33

      The ING Orange seems like a great option, if only i'd thought to make this post last week! I leave in a couple days and doubt the card would be delivered in time.

  • auscompgeek on 15/12/2019 - 01:22

    Also consider the cards on this long list of cards with no overseas transaction fees on the wiki.

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