Question
Greetings All,
I have been doing a bit a research (or attempting too anyway) into the Australian based credit card that is the most favourable for foreign currency withdrawals or transactions.
I currently have an Amex gold charge card (with ascent) and with the Express Cash option linked to a seperate savings account in Oz. However, I am planning to spend a fair bit of time in the Americas in the coming year and would ideally like to make sure I am not being overcharged for foreign currency conversions.
My experience with the Amex gold card, for cash advances through the Express Cash option, is an ATM fee of A$1.25 and in my estimation 1.5-2% on the interbank rate of the day for US$ and Thai Baht (THB) transactions (as per oanda.com). I note however that the transaction based currency exchange fee varies between 1.5% for US$ transactions to around 3% for THB transactions. Whilst overall 1.5% is acceptable if Amex is charging up to 3% for less common currencies the fees can become quite significant.
At this stage I am leaning towards getting a HSBC Gold Visa or Citibank Gold Visa. The fee free accounts at HSBC and the waived annual fee are tempting. Whilst Citibank's access in the Americas and links to the QFF program are also tempting. I did also read that MC (unlike Visa) hit you twice with non US$ currencies i.e. change the currency in US$ for a small percentage before changing it then into A$. If someone knows otherwise I would be interested to hear?
I know this has been briefly mentioned in a previous thread sometime ago, but I would be interested to hear from anyone with some experience in this area???