Best PrePaid card for Australia (OZ)

conspiracy

Hi All,

I will be traveling to Australia in January and want to take some form of plastic with me so that I don't have to carry cash around.

It needs to be a prepaid card and not a credit card as I have a very poor credit rating (long story!)

I can find plenty of cards for USD or Euro's but none for AUD (australian dollars) I have found a couple of sterling cards but these still charge a 2.75 transaction fee so I might as well just use my banks debit card.

So in short does anybody know of a AUD prepaid card or a sterling card that doesn't charge a transaction fee for AUD??

Would think these would be common as loads of people/backpackers etc go to OZ but guess not!?!

Thanks in advance for any help you can give.

Paul.

Tigerpants

Hi Paul!
I don't know about pre-paid cards but when we went travelling we had a Nationwide debit card and that didn't charge us for any of our transactions whilst we were away - be they in shops or from a cash machine.

I hope this helps in some way, good luck and enjoy your trip it is an amazing country

TP

conspiracy

Hi TP,

Thanks for your reply,

I have looked into the nationwide/abbey bank accounts which indeed do not charge commission but due to my financial situation this option is not viable. Very annoying lol.

Yep really looking forward to the trip :-)

So the search continues...........

Potaroo

Would like to do the same but haven't been able to find any pre-paid cards either. We normally take a fair bit of cash and some A$ TC as back up (at least we can get a refund on the TC's)

However, as with any travel destination, you will need a credit card for car hire, hotel reservations etc

Have a great trip:beer:

conspiracy

Hi Potaroo,

Looks like I might be flooging a dead horse on this one then :-(

Don't really feel safe having 3 weeks holiday money on me in cash so might just have to bite the bullet and pay the fees. I have a credit card to use for car hire and hotels but its a very expensive one to use and its the only one I can get.

Thanks for your comment.

Anybody else got any suggestions?

anfear

Hi Conspiracy,

I was looking at some of those prepaid debit cards the other day, some of them are really expensive. Found a good site that reviews them http://www.money.co.uk/credit-cards/prepaid-cards.htm. There are a few on this that don't seem too bad. I think they all charge to use ATM's but some are more expensive than others, plus some are free to use in shops. But with your credit history I supposed your not really spolit for choice.
Hope these help