[cruvon]

Looks like this is the answer to a cheaper card to save on Overseas transaction fees and higher exchange rates, anyone use this card? Enjoy

http://digihub.watoday.com.au/node/1929

http://www.bhatt.id.au/blog/no-forei...ercard-review/

http://www.wizardclearadvantage.com.au/

[Spikey]

Thanks, looks like a nice card for foreign transactions.. I might look further into this one

[orey]

I just went today and got a travel money card, all you pay is the banks conversion rate i.e. was buying GBP xe.com listed as 61.95 to the aussie dollar, bank sold them to me for 59.33. Cost me around extra 50 dollars but at least i know what im paying and there are no hidden fees.

im going to use it tomorrow to purchase some rims from england.

ill let you all know how it goes.

[cruvon]

Anyones ordered this wizard card?

[SharifE]

Yes. I have it it's great. It actually called 28degrees mastercard by GE now.

Originally Posted by cruvon

Anyones ordered this wizard card?

[purifyer]

I just ordered it, see how it goes

[cruvon]

Thanks SharifE. Taking 4 weeks off overseas in April/May so ordered one for me too today to try out while traveling. Plus read on some reviews that they go by xe.com forex rates which is awesome and rare with other cards.

[CRT3]

got one last week...off to New York tomorrow pumped!

[scheps]

how do you tell the xchange rates are better than other cards? coz its hard to know e.g. what the rate is for AMEX for example and the website doesnt actually say it uses xe.com

[SharifE]

You work out exchange rate from amount charged on statement and compare to rate at a site like xe.com.
Usually finance companies such as Amex charge about about 3% ontop as their commission. You can find out before u purchase by asking customer service.
This GE card is great no fees for using foreign currency.

Originally Posted by scheps

how do you tell the xchange rates are better than other cards? coz its hard to know e.g. what the rate is for AMEX for example and the website doesnt actually say it uses xe.com

[scheps]

yea i know, so essentially you would need to have an exchange rate thats within 3% to beat amex. Would be hard to match that up as you would need to make two purchases on the same day with different cards then check statement for comparison unless it does say somewhere that it uses xe.com's exact rates, as it could easily change to something else ....

[orey]

lol you guys are really over complicating this.

the cards you buy from banks etc that you pre-load with cash are charged at a worse (read: higher comission) rate than credit cards.

For example you load your travel money card with 100 AUD dollars and convert that to US whence you load it. So if xe.com says the AU dollar is at parity (for example) you would get ~ 97-98 dollars.

If you did a $100 AU transaction with your credit card you would get your 100
AU at 99c plus 1% overseas transaction fee.

It works out about the same, but IMO best thing to do is go to western union or money change place here and haggle them for a better rate and then take cash over with you.

Suffice to say its a much of muchness.

[cruvon]

Some info listed on their website FAQ on exchange rates. True maybe they should have mentioned xe.com but guess since is a third party website they don't expicitly put it in their disclosure section but reviews say they do tell you that is xe.com rates when call them up. What they do explicitly stae on their website is that they take the exchange rate calculated by MasterCard on a daily basis and charge no transaction fees of 3% as is typical with other cards. Not sure if the Mastercard rate can be checked online somewhere.

How is the foreign exchange rate calculated?
The foreign exchange rate is calculated by MasterCard International on a daily basis according to daily foreign exchange fluctuations. The conversion will consist of two calculations if the transaction is made in foreign currency – it will first be converted to US dollars and then calculated to Australian dollars for listing on your transactions.

http://www.28degreescard.com.au/questions/faqs.html

Here's some user reviews on Whirlpool

http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1471967
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1642443

[CRT3]

99.86 was the exchange rate on the card today when i was shopping in New York.

[scheps]

thanks Cruvon!

WOW lucky you! how did you find the rate for today so fast? i guess you can see the transaction online or something?

99.86.... as in 99.86:1 to USD:AUD? or vice versa.

Looking at xe.com just now, its 96c or 1.03......

[purifyer]

Originally Posted by CRT3

99.86 was the exchange rate on the card today when i was shopping in New York.

hmm maybe orey has a point?

thats ~3.88% lower than the xe.com exchange rate on 2/4 (1.039)

In comparison I bought some stuff online on 17/3 with a normal ANZ visa card

(purchased USD 530, charged USD 561.34 incl transaction fee)

xe.com exchange rate on that day 0.9822
effective exchange rate after charges with VISA 0.9441
= 3.87% lower than xe.com exchange rate

therefore...

This card appears to be a crock of shit, merging the "transaction fee" percentage into lower exchange rates to achieve the same ripoff, just hidden

[scheps]

yea as i was suspecting....

Based on one transaction on the 23rd of March, My AMEX had the same rate as XE.com. But of course, had to pay the 3%

At least got some form of reward points.

That 28 degree card doesn't seem to follow xe.com... would be good if it did.

[cruvon]

Originally Posted by CRT3

99.86 was the exchange rate on the card today when i was shopping in New York.

sounds a bit low, same query as scheps, is it USD->AUD or the other way round? Where did you check it? Sould have been greater than 1$ atleast.

[Ninjaoz]

we just came back from US this week, things are dirt cheap over there! especially those premium factory outlets, you can buy RL polo tops for like $30, armani jeans for $40!!

CRT, u enjoying ur trip so far? it was freezing cold last week when we were in San Francisco and LA!!

[orey]

[QUOTE=Ninja333;9276320], you can buy RL polo tops for like $30, armani jeans for $40!!

[QUOTE]

lol!

[GT1977]

If you load up an international funds card now, and use it straight away, you wont save much over an AUD credit card as both will have fees and charges in addition to the FX rate, or no fees but a lower FX rate. Much of a muchness really unless you are talking purchases of well over a grand, then it might make a small difference.

The advantage of the foreign currency cards really is that once loaded, the balance stays the same regardless of what the FX rate does, so if the USD goes back towards 90c to the AUD, then you are clearly in front, or if it continues to rise above parity, then you lose out. Long term though, it will trend back down more than likely. The thing to watch out for with the FX currency cards is whether there are additional fees if you don't transact within a 12 month period and also the fees if you want to unload the card back into AUD.

[invincible]

Dunno about the calculations you guys made but on my side, the 28 Degrees card has beaten all other products (other CC's, ATM withdrawal, going to a currency exchange office, ordering at the bank, etc).

Load it up with your own money and use it at ATMs overseas.

Use this calculator to work out the effective rate (incl hidden fees) at any given date: http://www.xe.com/ccc/

Anything below 2% is excellent based on the typical spreads from the mid-market rate (this is merely an average of the buy and sell rates and does not reflect an accurate conversion rate - look at the displays on banks and currency exchanges). This is obviously because it costs money to exchange currency and the banks have to make a profit - it's very hard to haggle down the spread towards zero unless you're exchanging a few hundred thousands of dollars at a time.

Some sample transactions I made on recent travels:
Date, Location, Foreign Amount, Local amount (xe.com), Amount on statement, diff%
25/11/10 Kuala Lumpur, 540 MYR, 175.86 AUD, 176.43 AUD 0.33%
1/12/10 Hong Kong, 900 HKD, 119.77 AUD, 120.60 AUD, 0.70%
3/12/10 Shenzhen China, 1000 CNY, 151.96 AUD, 153.63 AUD, 1.1%

Typically, exchanging cash will give you the worst rates and highest fees because obviously there are a lot of logistical concerns of getting cash delivered and then storing it securely.