If things work out, I may be taking off later this year for an extended period OS to do some study and research.
Have EU citizenship and passport but as yet no residence, which can make setting up an EU bank account and card difficult. Envisage spending time in the UK as well. Domicile possibly Ireland.
So, I am wondering about preloading a travel card of some sort and looking for info and experience please.
And if I eventually set up a local Euro bank account can some of this travel card money be transferred into that?
International Travel Card - Preloaded?
Bill48 on 14/02/2021 - 14:57
Comments
There's no reason you can't get an HSBC/ING account and just use it until it's time to transfer to EU bank.
N26 is a neo bank that doesn’t require residency to setup. Took like 3 days for my card to arrive, and could use ApplePay in the interim. Not sure why you’d have difficulty setting up a bank account these days. (am also EU passport holder, but was not resident at the time).
You get better rates using cc/debit card that uses MasterCard/Visa's spot rates. You just need one with no Forex fees like Citibank plus or Bankwest Zero MasterCard. With Citibank plus you can make withdrawals from any bank for free (depending on if the foreign atm charges) or free at all Citibank ATMs.
Oh and if you are making a transfer after you're established with a foreign bank account, use transferwise.
Citibank. Walk to atm and withdraw cash. Walk into your new bank and deposit it straight in.
Thanks all. Looking into these. My son in NZ has a Citibank a/c here.
No-one mentioned Travelex cards, which came up in some of my googling. Which seems to suggest that your other ideas are preferable.
Anyone that knows anything about this would tell you to stay away from these prepaid multi load currency cards they're horrible.
I suggest getting a good banking solution here it will greatly help with getting any money out of Australia if required and will tide you over until you're actually in country.
Look at debit card products from the likes of ING, Macquarie and UP also Transferwise is also a good option as well. Once over there look at one of the digital/Neobanks In the EU they are normally well designed to cater for cross-border banking in the region.
ING if you think you're going to use international ATMs initially as they reimburse any fees and use the Mastercard/Visa conversion rate if you meet monthly requirements.
Macquarie and UP Well they don't give ATM reimbursement internationally they do use the Mastercard/Visa rate and charge an electric like ING but have no monthly requirement to receive that as a benefit.
Good if you have minimal need for cash ATMs and would spend on your card most of the time.
And Transferwise is good for holding multiple currencies and transferring large amounts of money to another currency which is good for before you get your account over there and after.
Thanks. I'm a long-time Macquarie customer but no fees trumps loyalty. Looking into ING.
Macquarie does give you everything that ING does with no hurdles except for foreign ATM operator fees reimbursed however in fairness they're the only ones in the country that offer this and they make you jump through monthly hurdles to receive that functionality.
ING also does this domestically as well but that functionality is matched at Macquarie with no hurdles to.
The only functionality that you can't get with another bank is the ATM international fee reimbursement everything else there is much better options which I have provided you above already.
If you want to keep the ING account warmed up most of the time in like a parked mode for when you need to get money out of an ATM Internationally get the Beem It app to help you meet the five card transactions.
Unfortunately you might want to look at adding Up to the mix as support for the Beem It app Is on the chopping block at Macquarie and up is very good to have on hand for digital wallet support as a backup.
check out:
https://auspost.com.au/money-insurance/organise-travel-money…