Schneider FX Exchange Rates

x3ja

I'm currently living in New Zealand and have just got a "OneSmart" card from Air New Zealand / Mastercard. It sounds pretty cool - you can preload currency onto it and spend or withdraw for with no transaction fees. You even earn $1 in Air NZ Airpoints for each $100 you spend. You can preload in 5 currencies NZD,AUD,USD,EUR and GBP I think), but spend in any you like. We're going to be spending in Argentinian Pesos in a few weeks so this could be really useful..

The rub comes where they don't publish the conversion rates for their currencies - they just say they use Schneider FX for the rates. Apparently the only way you can find out the rate is to look at your statement after you've spent! I'm a bit concerned they're going to give bad exchange rates to make up for the lack of transaction fee.

So the question I have is - does anyone have experience of Schneider FX's exchange rates? Do they use standard ones for all clients or will it depend on the arrangement Air NZ have with them?

I've called them and asked for an example exchange rate from a certain day so I can make a comparison, but that's currently not possible apparently... although the guy did say he'd raise it with management, but we all know that's just a way to get me off the phone

TakeThis

Assume that you are going to take at the least a 2.5% hit from the Mastercard rate. That the SOP for that kind of card.
Hopefully it won't be even worse.

Fees here

dzug1

The T&C that I can see say they use BNZ rates which are here:

http://www.bnz.co.nz/personal-banking/footer/rates-and-fees/foreign-currency-rates-fees-and-rebates/foreign-exchange-rates

There's a 2.5% fee for unsupported currencies - eg pesos

x3ja

Thanks guys, had figured if I phoned them, they'd know... but apparently not!

Anyway, looks like the following is the case:

• For transfers between currencies on the card itself ("supported currencies"), they use the BNZ rate
• For withdrawals & payments in other currencies ("unsupported currencies"), they use the straight Mastercard rate

So guess it probably doesn't come too much better than that.

We used to use Nationwide all the time, but they're charging these days... think this will be our best bet!

TakeThis

dzug1 wrote: »

The T&C that I can see say they use BNZ rates which are here:

http://www.bnz.co.nz/personal-banking/footer/rates-and-fees/foreign-currency-rates-fees-and-rebates/foreign-exchange-rates

There's a 2.5% fee for unsupported currencies - eg pesos

Perhaps you can link me to those T&Cs where it suggests their conversion rate is equal to the BNZ rate card.

The most certainly don't allow you to see the OneSmart Conversion Rate until you have committed.

TakeThis

x3ja wrote: »

Thanks guys, had figured if I phoned them, they'd know... but apparently not!

Anyway, looks like the following is the case:

• For transfers between currencies on the card itself ("supported currencies"), they use the BNZ rate
• For withdrawals & payments in other currencies ("unsupported currencies"), they use the straight Mastercard rate

So guess it probably doesn't come too much better than that.

We used to use Nationwide all the time, but they're charging these days... think this will be our best bet!

Is this guess work or based in fact? Doesn't look like a fait accompli to me.

As far as I can see; Transfers between supported currencies are at the mysterious OneSmart Conversion Rate.

Call them again and ask them for the OneSmart Conversion Rate for the GBP today. Then we can compare it to the Mastercard rate.
Transactions in other currencies; Mastercard minus 2.5%.

Then there are the fees for loading the card and more so not loading the minimum amounts per month....

Perhaps it's amongst the best that the NZ market can offer, but it's pretty poor from this side of the pond.

What I don't understand is....if you actually have the card you should be able to view the OneSmart Conversion Rate. So perhaps you can make a dummy transaction?

TakeThis

From the website:

Question:
What is the exchange rate when I transfer money between currencies on my OneSmart Account?

Answer:
Specialist foreign exchange providers are worked with to obtain great exchange rates at the time of your transfer. You can get a quote or view up-to-date exchange rates by logging in to your OneSmart Account and selecting Manage Wallets.

x3ja

TakeThis wrote: »

Is this guess work or based in fact? Doesn't look like a fait accompli to me.

As far as I can see; Transfers between supported currencies are at the mysterious OneSmart Conversion Rate.

Call them again and ask them for the OneSmart Conversion Rate for the GBP today. Then we can compare it to the Mastercard rate.
Transactions in other currencies; Mastercard minus 2.5%.

Then there are the fees for loading the card and more so not loading the minimum amounts per month....

Perhaps it's amongst the best that the NZ market can offer, but it's pretty poor from this side of the pond.

What I don't understand is....if you actually have the card you should be able to view the OneSmart Conversion Rate. So perhaps you can make a dummy transaction?

I set up to do a fake transfer between currencies earlier and it matched the BNZ rates on their website. They appear to be about 2% below what Google thinks the current exchange rate should be.

As for the MasterCard Rate, I also asked them for today's rate when they called, but they couldn't tell me. But yes MasterCard minus 2.5% (I'd missed the 2.5% earlier).

So... here's what I have:

• Santander Zero Credit Card - had this since I left the UK. Still zero transaction fees on any payments worldwide, but of course no good for using at an ATM.
• AirNZ OneSmart - seems OK (uses BNZ rates) for the "supported" currencies it holds. Not so good for "unsupported" currencies - MasterCard Rate minus 2.5%. $1 per transaction to load money onto it.
• Nationwide Debit Card - 2% on payments, plus 1GBP per cash withdrawal (uses the Visa rates)
• National Bank (NZ) - 5NZD per overseas withdrawal (~2.5GBP)

So the no-brainer is for payments - Santander wins.
For the cash withdrawal... it depends on the amount:

• for 100GBP, it'd cost me 102.5 with National Bank, 103 with Nationwide and OneSmart (assuming that I only loaded 100GBP at a time onto it).
• For 300GBP (probably the most I can do) that becomes 302.5 NB, 307 NW, 308 OS (assuming 300GBP load)

So it looks like National Bank wins or is equal for most things... assuming the base rates they all use are the same! Which is quite some assumption.

What are the good deals in the UK for overseas cash withdrawal these days then?

TakeThis

A point on the Santander Zero CC...it's actually your best option for both purchases and cash withdrawals, as long as you pay off the balance asap.
Don't wait for the statement.

For example, if you withdraw £1000 and pay off the bill two weeks later, you will pay no more that 1% interest. 1% off the Mastercard rate beats all of your other options. Pay it sooner and it will be less.

Problem solved.


Throw the OneSmart away....

TakeThis

x3ja wrote: »

I set up to do a fake transfer between currencies earlier and it matched the BNZ rates on their website. They appear to be about 2% below what Google thinks the current exchange rate should be.

As for the MasterCard Rate, I also asked them for today's rate when they called, but they couldn't tell me. But yes MasterCard minus 2.5% (I'd missed the 2.5% earlier).

So... here's what I have:

• Santander Zero Credit Card - had this since I left the UK. Still zero transaction fees on any payments worldwide, but of course no good for using at an ATM.
• AirNZ OneSmart - seems OK (uses BNZ rates) for the "supported" currencies it holds. Not so good for "unsupported" currencies - MasterCard Rate minus 2.5%. $1 per transaction to load money onto it.
• Nationwide Debit Card - 2% on payments, plus 1GBP per cash withdrawal (uses the Visa rates)
• National Bank (NZ) - 5NZD per overseas withdrawal (~2.5GBP)

So the no-brainer is for payments - Santander wins.
For the cash withdrawal... it depends on the amount:

• for 100GBP, it'd cost me 102.5 with National Bank, 103 with Nationwide and OneSmart (assuming that I only loaded 100GBP at a time onto it).
• For 300GBP (probably the most I can do) that becomes 302.5 NB, 307 NW, 308 OS (assuming 300GBP load)

So it looks like National Bank wins or is equal for most things... assuming the base rates they all use are the same! Which is quite some assumption.

What are the good deals in the UK for overseas cash withdrawal these days then?

Surely the primary currency is NZ$. So how do you load it with £100? Don't you get hit with the NZ$1 load fee, the exchange rate plus the NZ$1.95 fee if you don't top it up by NZ$500 per month?

What was the rate offered between the NZ$ and the GBP? Is there a reason why you did not publish it here? I'm sure others would be interested in the info.

It clearly is not the bank rate, but an independent rate. Otherwise they would not get their cut.

So some more details please.

It looks as if you have to give 1.963 NZ$ to get £1 according to the BNZ website. This of course doesn't include the other fees.
So even without these fees that is 2.3% off the Mastercard rate.

dzug1

TakeThis wrote: »

Perhaps you can link me to those T&Cs where it suggests their conversion rate is equal to the BNZ rate card.

The most certainly don't allow you to see the OneSmart Conversion Rate until you have committed.

http://www.airnewzealand.co.nz/onesmart-terms-and-conditions says that the card agreement is with BNZ. That suggests BNZ rates are used. Different fees, maybe, but I wouldn't expect there to be multiple rates.