Holiday in Sydney for 4 weeks - money ?

flow2

My husband and I are going to sydney early next year to Sydney, and surrounding areas, we will be staying most of the time with our daughter who lives there, but will be visiting the tourist sights etc.,

Has anyone got any tips for us, as we haven't been before ?
And also, what is the best way for money, do we take cash, or travellers cheques, or can you get a pre paid debit card ?

Any help will be appreciated.

PeacefulWaters

flow2 wrote: »

And also, what is the best way for money, do we take cash, or travellers cheques, or can you get a pre paid debit card ?

Have a read of this and then apply for a Halifax Clarity Card.

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheap-travel-money?_ga=1.206452307.1116300417.1393518509

DomRavioli

Hi OP,

Why not ask your daughter for some tips, and definitely about the money, as it depends what you want to do (city places will likely take cards, travellers cheques are literally so out of date it is unreal, and I think there's a limit on cash).

spottydog

I definitely wouldn't bother with Travellers cheques as the banks in Sydney charged a fortune to cash them 6 years ago so I dread to say what they will charge now. Most places here will take cards so it's generally not a problem the best exchange rate would be to use one of the money transfer companies like HIFX, MoneyCorp or Ozforex to transfer the cash to your daughters Aussie account and then get her to withdraw cash for you.

There is no limit to the amount of cash you can bring into Aus, you just have to declare over $10k for money laundering regulations.

NiftyDigits

spottydog wrote: »

I definitely wouldn't bother with Travellers cheques as the banks in Sydney charged a fortune to cash them 6 years ago so I dread to say what they will charge now. Most places here will take cards so it's generally not a problem the best exchange rate would be to use one of the money transfer companies like HIFX, MoneyCorp or Ozforex to transfer the cash to your daughters Aussie account and then get her to withdraw cash for you.

There is no limit to the amount of cash you can bring into Aus, you just have to declare over $10k for money laundering regulations.

Of course this is quite wrong, as a fee free card and an ATM can be superior.

bell123321

It really depends on what you want to do. Me, my husband and little one have been over twice within the last few years and on our last trip we managed with £100 per day. We were also staying with someone, and even managed a weekend trip to the blue mountains with cabin accommodation.

For money we took a mixture of cash and a pre paid Australian dollars card have a look at https://www.travelex.co.uk/services/cash-passport if you use an ATM with a mastercard sign then it is free to withdraw cash from an ATM.

It is really hard to give you an amount for spending money, the more you have the more you can do, but we were on a limited budget, and didn't eat out all the time. There are plenty of free things to do but if you want to do the bridge climb I remember that was expensive. I remember the trains were fairly expensive and we found it better value to get a weekly ticket. Meals can be cheap or expensive depending on where you eat, comparable to London prices really.

If I can help with any other questions let me know.

NiftyDigits

bell123321 wrote: »

It really depends on what you want to do. Me, my husband and little one have been over twice within the last few years and on our last trip we managed with £100 per day. We were also staying with someone, and even managed a weekend trip to the blue mountains with cabin accommodation.

For money we took a mixture of cash and a pre paid Australian dollars card have a look at https://www.travelex.co.uk/services/cash-passport if you use an ATM with a mastercard sign then it is free to withdraw cash from an ATM.

It is really hard to give you an amount for spending money, the more you have the more you can do, but we were on a limited budget, and didn't eat out all the time. There are plenty of free things to do but if you want to do the bridge climb I remember that was expensive. I remember the trains were fairly expensive and we found it better value to get a weekly ticket. Meals can be cheap or expensive depending on where you eat, comparable to London prices really.

If I can help with any other questions let me know.

Not the best idea to tie into a card with AU$. What do you do with the balance on the card?

Always better to have a card, fee free or low fee, denominated in Pounds.

easymoney999

I'm doing Australia next Feb 2015.

The last time I visited in 2013, members of this forum advised me to apply for a "Post Office Master Card"

I would like to ask is this still one of the better cards to use?

NiftyDigits

easymoney999 wrote: »

I'm doing Australia next Feb 2015.

The last time I visited in 2013, members of this forum advised me to apply for a "Post Office Master Card"

I would like to ask is this still one of the better cards to use?

No.....................

Best prepaid card for purchases is Kalixa Pay. Equal to the very best mainstream debit cards available.
For cash withdrawals it's best only if you withdraw a decent chunk each time.

I've explained it here

SaveTheEuro

flow2 wrote: »

Has anyone got any tips for us, as we haven't been before ?

The price of petrol is cheaper during the week than at weekends. Tuesday is the best day to buy:

http://www.caltex.com.au/LATESTNEWS/FUELPRICING/Pages/FAQs.aspx

spottydog

NiftyDigits wrote: »

Of course this is quite wrong, as a fee free card and an ATM can be superior.

If you do this find out in advance if the card provider has a friendly Aus bank and use that one only otherwise the Aus ATM will charge $2 for the withdrawal