credit card for overseas cruises

[gogo65]

We also use the citibank card.

However we have the bank west MasterCard, which is also fee free and also has great travel insurance plus we use it in Oz and get 1point/dollar to qantas.

Be careful of the virgin/qantas cash cards, they say there are no fees however the exchange rate is poor.

With the 28 degrees/bankwest credit card and citibank cash card they use the prevailing MasterCard/Visa rate of the day.

[kc20202]

I have a 28 degrees card which I got earlier this year. I've been using it to pay for overseas bookings and purchases, and recently had an email telling me I'd saved $91 on international purchases in the last 6 months :)

 

I recently opened a Citibank Everyday Plus account to use overseas too, after I'd read reviews online.

 

I was going to get a travelcard of some sort but after researching, they really don't sound like such a good deal. They're useful to lock in your money if the exchange rate is really good, but I'm not going to have the cash available until just before travel time anyway.

[OzKiwiJJ]

I was going to get a travelcard of some sort but after researching, they really don't sound like such a good deal. They're useful to lock in your money if the exchange rate is really good, but I'm not going to have the cash available until just before travel time anyway.

 

They are also a complete pain if they get stolen while you are overseas, unless they provide you with a spare card like Amex do. We tried the Australia Post travel card a couple of years ago. Two weeks into a seven week trip my handbag was stolen. We had several thousand dollars locked into that card which we couldn't access until we returned home and were able to get a replacement card. We also lost a couple of hundred dollars converting the pounds back to AUD. Never again!

 

Luckily we had sufficient funds and credit limits on other cards so our trip wasn't impacted financially.

[goodycruising]

They are also a complete pain if they get stolen while you are overseas, unless they provide you with a spare card like Amex do. We tried the Australia Post travel card a couple of years ago. Two weeks into a seven week trip my handbag was stolen. We had several thousand dollars locked into that card which we couldn't access until we returned home and were able to get a replacement card. We also lost a couple of hundred dollars converting the pounds back to AUD. Never again!

 

Luckily we had sufficient funds and credit limits on other cards so our trip wasn't impacted financially.

 

A very good point. There needs to be a back up if your card gets stolen. The Travellex card has a backup to get cash from Western Union outlets overseas, but the best thing would be a second card on the same account, as long as it is not stolen at the same time. Or an account that you can online and transfer money to something else.

 

Our only advantage is we have so many cruises planned that if we lost the Aust Post travel card we would be able to use the $US next trip anyhow.

 

That is where a card with a good currency rate and low fees is probably more practical for most, as you can get any left over $Au (if it is a debit card) and use them when you get home.

 

The Aust Post travel card doesn't have to have the overseas currency locked in, we just found that handy on a previous trip where the dollar dropped a couple of cents on the 2 week cruise and we had our budgeted amount locked in on the card. Over say US$800 a couple of cents works out maybe about $30 difference at the moment (roughly), and we were happy not to think about the exchange rate.

 

If you have that amount in cash and it gets stolen many travel insurance policies give you minimal cover for cash lost.

 

Many people I talk with find it simpler to use their own bank's credit card, but the fees are so high these days compared to even a couple of years ago. The banks are changing (as did 28 degrees) their terms and conditions so often. We had a shock when we had been using our NAB card with minimal fees and then they changed the T&Cs. We read them but didn't really understand the terminology at the time.