i was just approved with a $3,500 limit and i'm a student (however I have had a credit history with GE and i have an ANZ credit card - which is nearly paid off).

was so easy!

Quote:

Originally Posted by arthur_read

Um all credit card companies are like that - against money laundering policy legislation - the fact that there is no 100 point check and anyone can Bpay the account - if there is no reason for the account in credit, banks assume that you're trying to hide (illegal) money

As somebody who works in AML for a major bank I can tell you that's not the case. More to do with the product not being used in the way it's intended.

I've had the NAB Gold card for quite a few years but just heard about this card. http://www.28degreescard.com.au/ From what I can tell taking out cash at an ATM would incur fees and therefore NAB > 28 deg

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lewis_Woot

I've had the NAB Gold card for quite a few years but just heard about this card. http://www.28degreescard.com.au/ From what I can tell taking out cash at an ATM would incur fees and therefore NAB > 28 deg

28 degrees is a credit card. NAB gold is
A bank account. There is a different. It's great to have both when you travel. (I now do myself)

As ppl have stated above, you load the credit card with 'extra cash/above your credit limit' and then you are able to withdraw cash using it the same way as a bank account.

I have the nab account for my cash and will use the credit card for booking plane flights/tickets etc.

If people read the whole thread, this is explained on numerous occasions.

Time to bump this, just got a letter in the mail stating there are changes coming to the NAB Gold card from August 18 on foreign currency transactions.
- $4 ATM withdrawal fee
- $1 per balance enquiry
- 2% foreign currency exchange fee

What a fucking rape party that is?

You can change across to a Traveler card, which is basically a Travelex card.
More info on that here - www.nab.com.au/travelcard

I'll definitely be closing our account and going elsewhere.
Any ideas?

These are the only 3 (free) cards you need for travelling overseas:

1. Bankwest Mastercard Zero Platinum credit : no account keeping fee, free international n domestic travel insurance ----- use to purchase all tickets and accomodations only, so will qualify for free travel insurance (zurich)

2. 28 Degrees Mastercard credit: no account keeping fee, no international transaction fee, excellent exchanged rate ----- use for purchase goods overseas only. (no so good for cash withdraw because, cash in credit will not protected by bank if money gets stolen, after all this is the credit card not debit card, IYKWIM)

3. Citibank Plus Visa debit: no account keeping fee, no international transaction fee, no atm transaction fee ----- use for withdraw cash overseas. (protected by bank if money gets stolen)

I stick with the 28 Degrees CC...never had problems with this card...

28 degrees is teh bomb. After my trip I now use it for all my overseas purchases. There's no atm withdrawal fee on it overseas so really can't see why you wouldn't use it unless you're wanting to do your trip on credit and have low cash flow.

^ There's times you gotta have the folding though...used 28 Degrees all over South America with no dramas...only thing with getting cash out is that the interest starts ticking over sooner, straight away I think, rather than purchases getting 55days interest free. But it's still so much better than many other cards as all credit cards I've had charged interest on a cash withdrawal immediately

28 degrees is the best. just load up some extra on it every few days $300/500/1000 whatever you need and it can be used as an ATM card with no fees, just do a cash advance and it comes out of your own cash with no fees. I just bpayed a grand onto it every now and then and payed with credit, got cash out etc, just keep an eye on it that when you are getting cash out you still have your own money on there.

^ Exactly. Random kiwi, there's no interest because it's your own cash above your credit limit. So when it's paid off you put extra money on it and then it becomes like a savings account. Perfect card.

Lucky I checked this thread as I'm with NAB and in London at the moment. Looks like I'll be cancelling the gold visa fairly soon and moving onto the 28 degrees.
Thanks

the 28 degrees card loads on in AU $ correct?

Wanting to stock up on US $ as it looks like it's about to flop but the 28 degrees card doesn't allow to load local currency?

I was considering loading US $ onto the CBA travel card

^ Yeah it does.

Glad I'm traveling to Europe. Hopefully the Euro is even more fucked in 2 months.

so glad to be reading this had the NAB gold card last year, devastating to hear about them changing it. pigs!!

So general consensus is 28Degrees preferred over CBA TravelCard?

Man the gold visa rocked, you just log in to internet banking and check how much balance you have. How will this work with the 28 degrees cards? Is there an easy way to check balance online? How fast are transfers from your bank account to the card? How accessible is using this card with foreign ATM machines? Seems like mastercard is not so good for the lesser known cities. What are the fees to transfer money to your 28card?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Movendi

Man the gold visa rocked, you just log in to internet banking and check how much balance you have. How will this work with the 28 degrees cards? Is there an easy way to check balance online? How fast are transfers from your bank account to the card? How accessible is using this card with foreign ATM machines? Seems like mastercard is not so good for the lesser known cities. What are the fees to transfer money to your 28card?

Easy to log in and check balance, there's even a bar graph representation for you. You bpay it and should take a day but you have credit as well so if you went into it the transfer would pay it off as soon as its in. It's very accessible in ATMs, in Europe it didn't fail me in any hostel, shop, ATM, restaurant etc. and often when other peoples didn't work. There are no fees to transfer money to it.

so glad I read all this, useful stuff thanks

And just saying...

28 Degrees won the Best Travel Money Card Award for 2012...

Got my 28D card in the mail the other week, thanks to the advice from this thread. Will be loading it up and using it in NZ in a few weeks time. Much better option than the cash passport I used last year...

So just so I am clear on this card (which I have already applied for and will be sent out this week), you load up the card via BPAY with funds from your bank account and then essentially use it as a normal ATM card? This takes a day or two to process, and will then just convert to the currency rate at the time in your relevant country where you are withdrawing money from?

Also, if I withdraw from a Barclays ATM in London, this looks to be a partner with Westpac so no ATM fee at all yeah?

If the answer is yes to all those questions, what an impressive card.

^ no fees charged by 28 Degrees no matter where you use the card...you may still incur fees from the owner of the machine you're using just like you do here though...but as for 28 Degrees, nope, no charge...no currency conversion fee, no percentage of transaction charge, nothing...interest charged on cash advances from that date though (if drawing money from credit, nothing if drawing from money you'd already put on the card.

Awesome, cheers. Pretty much the perfect travel/purchasing goods overseas card.

It is. It's serving me well now on my second euro trip within a year. Happy we could help you all.

Seriously this thread should be stickied and the thread titled renamed to "Need a travel card? Get 28 degrees"

We should get commission from 28 Degrees at this rate!

You guys wouldn't believe how many people get a 28 degrees card, a small loan, fill up the card with the loan funds and use it to move o/s and never pay their financier back. >_>
My boss used the 28 degrees card in thailand earlier in the year and she said it worked really well for her, she was using the citibank alternative before she went and said it was significantly better use while traveling.

as for getting paid commissions to flog GE's products? I do.

28 degrees PR department would be undoubtedly aware of this thread. And loving it. Get them young kids hooked for life.

Got the 28 degrees and pretty disappointed that i wasn't informed anywhere on the PDS or anyone here saying that you CAN'T top more than the $1000 credit limit. How exactly is that like a travel card when you only have a $1000 to spend? I'll be going to places where there's no internet access so i can't exactly check my balance and then BPAY monies to 28degrees. Furthermore i talked with the rep and he said the CARD WILL BE LOCKED if you top up more than a $1000 WTF?

Screw this i'm going to go with citibank plus and use the 28degrees as a backup card, too much hassle and restrictions.

Nobody said it here because you can top it up over your credit limit as we've all said we do. I've just done that for the past month as I traveled Europe and no angry emails from 28 degrees.

When I'm not traveling I use it as my CC for foreign purchases so don't think they would wanna lose that business just for my bit of traveling.

You always love a good rant from retards...

well it's the retard representative that explicitly told me over the phone that "no you can't do this". I called another rep and they said no that's fine. I guess indian call centers aren't fully trained to answer simple inquiries.

Anyway i'm still going to stick with citibank plus card as i don't have to worry whether i'm going into my credit or not.

So primary travel card: citibank plus
backup: 28degrees

Dumb. Drunk. Racist. 2 Credit Cards.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Whitey1981

Dumb. Drunk. Racist. 2 Credit Cards.

Nail. Head.

Currently in Europe, using 28 degrees without any issues daily. Still got a backup card though if the limit becomes a sticking point (very unlikely given just about everyone's experiences so far with the card)

So I used the card with no issues for cash out and a bunch of purchases on a trip to NZ recently.

A small word of caution though. I loaded the card with cash over the credit limit and read all the advice about making sure your cash withdrawl doesn't drop the balance below the credit limit. Well, I got money out as soon as I got off the plane, all sweet. I then went and paid for a rental car 30 mins later, with the credit card. When I got home I noticed that I was charged interest, and I can only assume that is because the rental car transation was processed before the cash out.

The interest charge was a whole $0.88 total, so no issue at all, but had I known that might happen I probably wouldn't have cared about loading up the card above the limit in the first place.

Quote:

Originally Posted by primalstatik

Nail. Head.

Currently in Europe, using 28 degrees without any issues daily. Still got a backup card though if the limit becomes a sticking point (very unlikely given just about everyone's experiences so far with the card)

Awesome. Good to hear the card works a little better than their customer service department

I'm using the 28 degrees as my backup, but looking into getting a Commbank travel money card as there are minimal fees compared with using my standard debit. Anyone else had any experience with this card?

Why wouldn't you use it as your primary card? it's the best card going round for traveling.

I think some people here are a little too evangelical over a credit card that wasn't meant to be used as a ATM... they're probably just employees of the company... i really can't see this being an ideal primary card because you are screwed if gets stolen with your own topped up cash. Someone can easily go on a spending spree pressing credit and you won't be covered squat. You also bare the high risk of dipping into credit where you usually have dodgy internet access and you don't want to acces sensitive bank information over a dodgy public wifi. Too much too worry about for something that should ideally give you peace of mind, and this doesn't give you that. That's why i think too it's only best used for backup when your primary card is lost/stolen.

Two months into my travels and the 28 degrees card is working like a trooper. Not one issue regarding withdrawing money or loading up the card.

The interest I pay would be less than any cash out fees I would incur. With out a doubt.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mikewebster

The interest I pay would be less than any cash out fees I would incur. With out a doubt.

Can you clarify this please? Not sure how interest is even a factor with 28 degrees if you are simply using it as a load up debit style card to avoid cash out fees. Using it as a credit card will definitely incur much higher interest than other cards out there regardless.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dow_ney

So I used the card with no issues for cash out and a bunch of purchases on a trip to NZ recently.

A small word of caution though. I loaded the card with cash over the credit limit and read all the advice about making sure your cash withdrawl doesn't drop the balance below the credit limit. Well, I got money out as
soon as I got off the plane, all sweet. I then went and paid for a rental car 30 mins later, with the credit card. When I got home I noticed that I was charged interest, and I can only assume that is because the rental car transation was processed before the cash out.

The interest charge was a whole $0.88 total, so no issue at all, but had I known that might happen I probably wouldn't have cared about loading up the card
above the limit in the first place.

Cash transactions are processed instantly while credit transactions take a few days to hit your account so I dot know how that is possible? Are you sure you didn't use all 'your' money on the card and then used a portion of the 'credit' facility on the card? This may have caused a small amount of interest to accrue.