Not sure what to do as far as spending in South America- I'm getting so many opinions!
Hi all,
I'm and Australian travelling to South America soon and am unsure as to what form to spend money in, ie: via my existing commonwealth debit/credit or with a travelex pre-paid card. I've come to the conclusion that commonwealth bank are quite hopeless when it comes to giving you advice. I thought I'd decided against using my existing card due to the huge 5 dollar withdrawl charge at international atms, and was reccomended to buy the travelx pre-paid card. After scouring forum after forum though, I can't seem to find anything but poor reviews of this pre-paid card that apparantly accumulates huge amounts of hidden fees etc...
Has anyone had a bad experience with these so called pre-loadable cards? I'd be especially curious to hear from other Australian travellers that have been to South America, and whether or not a regular commonwealth debit card actually worked in their favour.
Thanks!!!!
Reply to this You are probably back by now but just noticed your post. If you haven't gone then you will also find that most banks also charge something they will call a foreign exchange fee or similar. Normally a percentage of the amount of the withdrawal. We carry a card from a bank but normally use a debit card from the Aust Central which just charges the $5.00.
We investigated the travelex pre-paid a couple of years ago. It would have been expensive for us and, at that time, you had to both pick it up in Australia and top it up there. You can now top them up on-line but it looks like they still charge a 1% commission on top ups.
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