Foreign Money - get in USA or locally or ship

I will be going on the Celebrity Century out of Sydney soon. I will be in Australia and New Zealand and would like advice on what people are doing to get foreign money. There are several ways of doing this and I want to get the best rate. I will need to buy Australian Dollars (AUD) and New Zealand Dollars (NZD) using USD.

1. Buy the foreign money in the USA and use USD. The comission varies with banks, but Wells Fargo seems to have the best rate. The charge about 3 to 5% above the rates quoted in Financial Journals (FJ). To buy 100 AUD it cost 105.96 USD and 100 NZD cost 80.65 USD. The FJ rate at that time was about: 100 AUD cost 102.1 USD and 100 NZD cost 77.8 USD.

2. Buy the foreign money at the local bank or at the airport exchange booth. You can use your credit card or use USD. If you use your credit card you will also have to pay about 3% more on top of the comission the bank charges. I do not know what these charges are because I am awaiting responses from 3 banks in Sydney.

3. Buy the foreign money on the cruise ship. I don't know what the comission is. If anyone is currently on a cruise could they quote rates they are charging.

The most convenient might be to buy on the ship but the costs might be the highest.

Has anyone analyzed this transaction?

Thanks, Rick

Bring your main fund funds in US $ either as Cash or better still in a Bank Travel Money Debit Card .

 

With Cash you can change your US $ to Aus $ or NZ $ on the trip as you need. You don't change money on ships unless you absolutely have to as the exchange rates are usually poor, and depending on the ships currency you can get whacked with two transaction fees .

 

With the Travel Money Debit Card you just withdraw local currency cash at participating Mastercard/Visa ATM's in the Country you visit .

 

As Australians we can get Travel Money cards from 2 of our major banks and load them with up to 6 different foreign currencies locking in the exchange rate at date of purchase . If one currency runs out then ATM's just draw it from the available currency next in your pecking order and do a conversion . Travel Money Debit cards are safe and secure and have replaced Travellers Cheques these days as the main way to carry funds Overseas .

 

See your local Bank at home for full details .

I'm getting my cash here before we go. We opened a Wells Fargo account just for that purpose - our credit union doesn't do currency exchange.

We were in Australia for nearly 6 weeks this fall. I used my American bank ATM card to get Ausralian $.

 

Do NOT exchange money on the ship. They use horrible exchange rates.

The DH and I were on the Century last November (the 18 night Pacific Jewels cruise). While we were on its sister ship Mercury three times, this was our first time on Century and we were pleased.

 

We haven't used traveler's checks nor have we made an effort to buy foreign currency in the US in a number of years. We use ATM cards to draw money directly from our checking account. Credit card companies monitor unusual transactions, but banks also have the security software to monitor unusual ATM card withdrawals. So now, we not only call our credit card companies when traveling overseas, but also call our local bank as well to advise them that we will be using an ATM card overseas.

 

We didn't purchase any Australian dollars before arriving at Sydney. Most, if not all, taxis take credit cards. Once we arrived at our hotel (the Sir Stamford at Circular Quay) we asked for directions to an ATM.

Has anyone analyzed this transaction?

Yes, I have. And I concluded that numerical values for "best rate" did not take into account the time, effort and energy I spent trying to work out the lowest numerical value, whereupon I switched exclusively to taking my ATM card with me and getting local currency from machines.

Use your ATM card...best rates and no fees if you use the bank affiliated with your bank at home.

I don't know about New Zealand, but here in Australia you can use a Bank of America debit card at a Westpac ATM and have no extra fees. They're part of the Global ATM Alliance. A quick google indicates that Westpac in New Zealand works the same way. No ATM fees, good currency rate.

 

Only issue, is you want to get pretty close with the amount of currency you withdraw. I suppose any extra you had could be converted to USD on the ship?

We used West Pac in Sydney last week. We have an account at Bank of America. Arrive home yesterday morning. Checked our account for fees this morning and nada...just straight conversion rates!!! We didn't use a credit card as there is a 1.5% fee on every credit card transaction. It is great to come home without a credit card hangover!!!!! The West Pac ATM is just a few steps from the Marriott Circular Quay in Sydney but there are West Pacs everywhere!!! We used our leftover Aussie dollars at the fabulous duty free store in the airport.

We purchased AUS $ from AAA local office. They charged 5 cents per $ above the rate which was 1. 07 yesterday. Tranlux charges around 9 cents per$1.00 above the $1.07 rate.This will be our 4th time on Oceania and everytime I needed to exchange on board the fee was not all that bad and it was charged to my stateroom.

We use our Visa card for charging there is no transaction fee.Amex charges around 4% transaction fee on convertion.

Having recently returned from 100 days in Australia and New Zealand, I can only provide an individual opinion, but here is the setup that worked particularly well for me and my wife on the trip (a combination of most, if not all of the suggestions from folks in this thread):

 

1) We used an ATM card with a 0% Foreign Exchange Fee and 0% Foreign Transaction Fee. (They are two different fees and both can hammer you if your bank/credit union charges them). Recommended: Capital One Bank ATM cards (Any ATM in Aus/NZ -- they refund ATM Fees to a fixed amount each month) or BofA ATM Cards (WestPac Bank Only) -- Note: your bank may have an international "partner" bank, otherwise you can expect heavy fees (Up to $5USD per ATM withdrawl, plus up to 3-4% Foreign Exchange Fees) -- We went with Capital One Bank (as long as we called them and notified them about our travel, it was seriously "No Hassle") BTW -- Our ATM Card regularly BEAT the exchange rates on XE.com!

 

2) A 0% Foreign Everything Credit Card -- Our choice was the British Airways Chase VISA. Though I am happy to say a number of cards (not a huge number, but growing) are now offering 0% international fees on VISA/MasterCards, so find the one that works best for you.

 

That covered us for 4 months...

 

Things we avoided:

Exchange rates at hotels, airports, and cruise ship that took as much as 13% for service charges!

ATMs provide many options for the amount of money you want to take and most open banks will exchange larger notes for smaller notes without hassle.

 

If you have additional questions, please let me know!

 

Cheers!

 

-- Darin

cruisechaos at gmail dot com

To add to this post for folks going to Australia from the U.S. I read all of the info about the ATM alliances that was provided here and it was invaluable. I have several accounts with different banks but unfortunately not either Bank of America or Capital One.

so, here's my research results to add.

Wells Fargo charges BOTH the Terminal Fee (set $ amount to use a non WF terminal), and the Foreign Transaction fee and additionally, if you don't use an ATM that is in the same family as your ATM issuer, they will also charge a fee to use a foreign ATM to withdraw cash.

BBVA Compass charges - same as above.

My credit union - Participates as a member of the Allpointnetwork, which is an ATM alliance in 4 countries (US,Canada, Mexico & Australia. check out the website for a fancy APP to locate Allpoint ATM's in these countries. They charge no terminal fee but do charge a foreign transaction fee of 1%.

ING Direct - Participates as a member of the Allpointnetwork, which is an ATM alliance in 4 countries (US,Canada, Mexico & Australia. Check out the website for a cool APP to locate Allpoint ATM's in these countries. They charge no terminal fee but do charge a foreign transaction fee of 2.2%.....

Hope this helps those from the US.

Sailing on the Dawn Princess April 8th