Diamond Princess and money exchange

[Andrea A]

I will be on the Diamond in March for Sydney and NZ. Does anyone know if the purser's desk handles money exchange from USD to AUS dollar and/or NZ dollar? I will be taking some local currency with us, but my bank says exchanging through the local ATM's will be costly.

Thanks in advance to anyone who can answer.

Andrea

[Druke I]

We've been to Australia/New Zealand area three times on different cruises, and Princess has had money for exchange at the Purser's Office.

[Tom O.]

I haven't been where you are going, but my international experience is this: Yes there is a service charge to get cash out of a local ATM, but you will still come out better than if you went to a foreign exchange office. When you go to a foreign exchange office they give you a poor exchange rate and sometimes have a service charge as well. The ATM will give you the true exchange rate less a service charge.

I recommend using your credit card rather then cash. When you purchase with a credit card you get the true exchange rate, but your bank will charge you a service charge (I think it is about 1.5%). Nevertheless, it is still cheaper than exchanging money, and there is no chance that you will end up with extra foreign cash that you will have to exchange back (and pay additional service charges).

On cruises I have been on (in other parts of the world), the purser's desk would not exchange currency, but they would accept some foreign currencies to pay for your shipboard expenses. So, I suppose if you ended up with some extra foreign cash, you could pay part of your shipboard bill with it. I don't know for sure, but I suspect that the exchange rate that the purser's desk will give you is not very good.

[cactusrose]

Tom O. is correct. I was in banking for 38 years so have some background in this area. Most banks now charge an exchange fee plus and ATM fee. Check with your bank to see if they are in a network that allows you to use their partner banks without the ATM fee. It's still cheaper to use your bank ATM as you will get the interbank rate. Most credit cards now charge between 2 and 3 percent for foreign transactions, but again you will be getting the interbank rate so it's still cheaper than using a currency exchange. The Diamond will have machines where you can exchange currency, but the rate is bad and they also charge a fee. Take Tom O.s advice and use your ATM and credit cards. I recently set up an account with an internet bank that does not charge fees for using other banks ATMs just for this purpose. I only use this account when I travel, but it saves me around $8 per transaction.

[WAVTAM]

Back from a month on the Diamond. Totally agree with above posting. Get ATM card for small cash needs and use credit card for big items. We paid no fee with ATM and credit card conversion fee was only 1% WAVTAM

[Andrea A]

We do plan to use credit cards as often as possible, but will want some local currency for cabs, tips,snacks, etc. It was our bank that informed us of the 2 additional charges to use ATM's ( we bank with Wells' Fargo) so I was curious about the ship's rate. I agree with the statement about currency exchange offices. I always avoid them ,as well as the counters at the airport.

 

Thank you all for making traveling easier as I enjoy getting answers to my questions on the CC boards.

 

Regards,

Andrea

[AWOL]

The Diamond Princess uses Exchange Machines for exchanging to Ozzie and Kiwi currency when we were on her over Christmas. They did not exchange money at the pursers desk

 

Regards

 

Roger