Prepaid Card with no international fees

[Cazbucket]

Hi ~ my son lives in Sydney and has booked to go WDW this year.
In the UK we have Starling card (prepaid) that doesn’t charge for international transactions.
Is there anything available in Australia like that?
We have both looked but cannot seem to find anything.
TIA
Caz

 

[ozliz]

Popular card these days is the wise card - actually originally a UK based company. They have a small fee for conversion to the currency of choice but it’s less than the amount built into other cards through poorer exchange rates as a way to claim they charge no fees.

A few banks also have their own travel cards along with the Travelex one that can be ordered online. Many are no fee per transaction but offer poor exchange rates to make up for that.

Of course there’s also a selection of credit cards with no international transaction fees and a few of those have no annual fee too (assuming you’re OK with no rewards points). But this isn’t a preloaded card.

Finally, Bankwest and a few other banks offer basic transaction accounts with Mastercard/visa debit options that have no international transaction fees. But that doesn’t allow you to lock in the exchange rate in advance.

 

[Cazbucket]

Hi! Thank you, quite a few options for him to look at there, I will pass them on!

 

[sjmac42]

Specific options are:
ING Direct. They have an Orange One Visa Debit Card with no international transaction fees. To qualify you deposit $1000 and make 5 transactions each month. You also get rebated for up to 5 atm fees per month. They also have a low interest (12%) Visa Credit Card, again, 5 transactions per month for free international transactions but atm withdrawals will incur a fee.
Bankwest. Their Zero Platinum Mastercard has no international transaction fees and a reasonable interest rate (currently 15%).
I no longer use my Citibank Debit Mastercard as they’ve been taken over by NAB so there is some uncertainty plus they require a transaction every 6 months or they freeze the account which is a pain. I also no longer use my 28 degrees Mastercard as there are fees for paying any other way than through their app, they require one time pins for many transactions while overseas, their interest rates are nuts so you have to pay it off immediately and they take way too long to release credit holds that hotels, car rental companies etc may put against the card (take s at least 2 weeks).

I think the ING cards are the best option these days. We use them for our every day banking as well as travelling

 

[Chol]

We use Wise, which works great. But it doesn't work at Costco and I think Walmart, so always keep a backup like cash in case.

 

[Cazbucket]

Thank you all for this. Not had chance to relay to my son as yet but will send him all options to look at!

 

[BecBennett]

A bit late to reply, but I love my HSBC global account. No transaction fees, no loading fees, the currency conversion might be slightly lower than what's available, but it's often not. Can be used with multiple currencies all at once. Highly recommended.

 

[Cazbucket]

A bit late to reply, but I love my HSBC global account. No transaction fees, no loading fees, the currency conversion might be slightly lower than what's available, but it's often not. Can be used with multiple currencies all at once. Highly recommended.

Hi! Thank you for your reply! He’s using his credit card for airmiles then just paying it off from his bank so no interest!
I’m meeting him and his gf at MCO in August ~ our flights arrive within 15 mins of each other!
Only be 3rd time I’ve seen him in 9 years ~ there will be tears!

 

[Chol]

To add we used our new Wise card in Dec last year and it now works fine at Costco. Might be something to do with their switch over from Mastercard to Visa.