My experience with credit cards only

We spent three days each in Sydney and Auckland and I secured my Australian currency before I left. We discovered that the only time we needed cash was for the special shuttle arranged by our hotel ($16 AU pp one way to the airport).

We did absolutely all our purchasing in New Zealand with a credit card. Our only hiccup was at the Auckland museum when we needed a $1 coin for a locker, but customer service told us about the free ones available on the second floor.

Our capital one card with no foreign transaction fee worked great on this trip.

Capital One is often one of the cards I recommend because you can get one with no annual fee and it has no foreign transaction fees.

Keith

Thanks this is great info.

We will be visiting many countries and even with ATM's the currency issue is ever present. Did you cruise to any of the French Polynesia Islands?

Do ships have AU and NZ currency?

Do ships have AU and NZ currency?

If you are on Royal or Celebrity they use US dollars, because it's where they are based (Miami). I am not sure you can get your money exchanged.

And if you get desperate for cash use an ATM to grab some.

Do ships have AU and NZ currency?

They usually do.

Our ship was a TP headed to Australia, so AU$ were available onboard. It would have been easy to use the many ATM's around Australia or New Zealand.

We went to Fiji, New Caledonia and Mare. The stores took credit cards and most every island accepted Australian dollars and some took US dollars, but I imagine the rate of exchange was not in our favor for the US money. The only problem people reported was in Mare where French francs are used. The cruisers said that the grocery store there wouldn't accommodate any currency except their franc.

It's fair to say that NZ is an almost cashless society now - it's very rare to come across somewhere that doesn't take credit cards. If we had a tipping culture it would be hard since most people just don't carry cash anymore. I can go months without any cash in my wallet.

Don't you have the small restaurants like we do, which are cash only? Perhaps NZ is more tax compliant! My favourite Indonesian one in Sydney is no cards. We usually pay by cash in restaurants anyway as they usually will not split bills. So if one person cards it the others have to do a transfer into the friend's bank account. Just easier to pay on the spot in cash.

it does not bother me to card most things but I would not be without a bit of cash.

We had only one place in Sydney that required cash, but we brought Aussie money with us. BTW- pay a bit more at the airport and buy your water/soda from the stories. The vending machine swallowed up people's money with no product returned and there was, of course, no one around to help.

Don't you have the small restaurants like we do, which are cash only? Perhaps NZ is more tax compliant! My favourite Indonesian one in Sydney is no cards. We usually pay by cash in restaurants anyway as they usually will not split bills. So if one person cards it the others have to do a transfer into the friend's bank account. Just easier to pay on the spot in cash.

it does not bother me to card most things but I would not be without a bit of cash.

I'm in Melb and haven't carried a single solitary cent since paypass came into existence. Plenty of small restaurants here - some with just 6 tables. All still have eftpos. Even the food trucks have it. Very small businesses can use an eftpos ap on their phone nowdays - heaps of the stalls at the markets use that method. No need to rent full size eftpos machines any more.

As for paying friends at restaurants - most of us just tap our phones against each other and the transfer takes half a second. Simples.