Spending Money in Australia

kriss_boy

Whats the way to go these days?

We are off to Australia for 3 weeks in November. Should carry much australia cash at all of can you just pay for most things with credit cards etc over there.

Any cheap ways of paying via credit card or withdrawing cash? Im with the bank of scotland / Halifax.

Thanks

norangeduck

I think halifax is one of the most expensive to spend on- i think martin would suggest to avoid. get a nationwide flex account its pretty cheap to withdraw on (free I believe in oz) I used mine all the time out there when buying in shops, never carried much cash and it was free for me though I do believe nationwide have changed the flex account slightly, best go in and ask about the charges - but avoid ur halifax card i say.

kriss_boy

So if I open a flex account I pretty much dont need to bring any cash at all.. I can simply withdraw it out there?

Someone mentioned there arent many cash mashines over there... is that true?

I got a post office credit card because its 0% commission... so surely I should use it for purchases or paying for meals etc? right?

Baldur

norangeduck wrote: »

....get a nationwide flex account its pretty cheap to withdraw on (free I believe in oz)

There is now a 1% Visa fee charged on ATM withdrawals/transactions outside the Visa Europe sphere of operations (which applies to Australia) - see http://www.nationwide.co.uk/current_account/foreigntransactions.htm#howmuch

ferf1223

kriss_boy wrote: »

I got a post office credit card because its 0% commission... so surely I should use it for purchases or paying for meals etc? right?

It's not that it's 0% commission, really...it's that you get the bank rate of exchange and no fees. It's a good card to use overseas.

As for there not being many ATMs in Australia - I suppose it depends on where you're going, but certainly there were loads in Sydney and Melbourne. And Aussie ATMs in our experience ask you how you want your notes - in what combination of denominations...which we thought was quite handy. We used our FlexAccount card when we were there last time with no problems at all.

Personally, I'd always bring some cash to get us started though - I wouldn't be comfortable landing in a foreign country without any folding money in my pocket.

angus12

Hi we are off to Oz in 3 weeks :j we took Martins advice to get the Santander Zero Card so hopefully that should work out ok.

Also taking a couple of hundred dollars to start us off but plan to use the card mostly and pay it off as we go.

I suppose there is always a worry about not having enough and not knowing how much things like eating out,trips and stuff are going to cost, hopefully we will be ok lol