Accessing your GBP money abroad in AUD

Geranium44

I’ve posted already about 6m living in Australia now my son needs to know how to access his U.K. Santander gbp in Australian dollars. 

I believe WISE is a reasonable choice for money transfer but would it be as simple as my son transferring money from his online Santander account to WISE when he’s living in Australia?
Santander are aware of his move and has flagged this as a rolling 3 month holiday. 
many thanks. 

grumbler

 If you asked earlier, why had your son not got some special card for using abroad instead of Santander?

He probably still can get it to his/your UK address and you can post it to Australia.

Travel credit cards

I'm pretty sure the title is misleading - it's not only credit cards.

The_Fat_Controller

WISE are not a bank.
You can use them to transfer to an Australian Bank account, funded from the Santander account.
Does your son have a trustworthy Australian friend ?
The only way to get money out in cash from a WISE account balance is to apply for their debit card and use in an ATM or to make purchases.

Geranium44

Thx for the reply. So my son has his Halifax clarity credit card but to use cash in Australia, drawing cash from an ATM isn’t a good practice I believe. So hence the OP

grumbler

Geranium44 said:

So my son has his Halifax clarity credit card but to use cash in Australia, drawing cash from an ATM isn’t a good practice I believe.

Depends on the amounts. Usually people don't have problems with this unless we are talking about thousands.

Daliah

grumbler said:

Geranium44 said:

So my son has his Halifax clarity credit card but to use cash in Australia, drawing cash from an ATM isn’t a good practice I believe.

Depends on the amounts. Usually people don't have problems with this unless we are talking about thousands.

The Clarity card clocks up interest (28.45% APR on my card) from the day of cash withdrawal. You can probably avoid this if you pay the card off in full on the same day.

The_Fat_Controller

Draw cash from the ATM using his Santander Debit Card and use the Clarity card for purchases.

Geranium44

The_Fat_Controller said:

Draw cash from the ATM using his Santander Debit Card and use the Clarity card for purchases.

Thx but I’ve always been steered away from drawing cash from an ATM via debit card. I’ll check with Santander though 

TadleyBaggie

If you have a good debit card, it’s the only sensible way to get cash via an ATM. Very happy using my Starling card this way when abroad. 

grumbler

The_Fat_Controller said:

Draw cash from the ATM using his Santander Debit Card and use the Clarity card for purchases.

2.95%? - This is much more than a few days interest on Clarity cash.

Personally, I have two CCs for using abroad. Both don't charge for currency conversion. One pays 0.5% cashback on purchases. Clarity is purely for cash.

Geranium44

TadleyBaggie said:

If you have a good debit card, it’s the only sensible way to get cash via an ATM. Very happy using my Starling card this way when abroad. 

Do you need a Starling bank account or does the Starling card work alongside your Santander account? I’m a little confused as my son would need to empty his Santander and place into Starling if so which seems extreme