Cash Passport

[mathijohn]

A family member is going back to UK for a few months - I am wondering what is the best option to move cash from Australian account for use in the UK. I am considering a pre-loaded Cash Passport but there are costs involved, some which can be negated by moving all the cash out on arrival at a bank branch and opening UK account. The rate is back up at .67 today so it would be a good time to do this.

 

Any better suggestions gratefully received.

 

Moira:skeptical:

[snifter]

Cash passport? You mean like a pre paid credit card type thing? I know those are popular now but no idea about costs or exchange rates. I know some of our Aussie relatives used one when they came over to visit in the summer. Was really simple for them to use to pay in store and withdraw cash etc.

[Lazy Cow]

We used Cash Passports when we went to America, then again when we had to visit the UK and they were pretty straight forward.

 

We used them like normal EFTPOS and we felt it was a safe way for the kids to carry their money. The best thing about them was that we could transfer more cash over, using our ordinary bank account and the internet, when we needed it. It was also useful that we could check our balance, again using the internet.

 

When we were in the UK we made the mistake of using our regular Australian accounts and used the Cash Passports for the kids- we knew there would be less that we would want to bring back from the UK so didn't put so much on our Cash Passport. That turned out to be a bit of a mistake as every time we used our cards we had to pay conversion fees etc...and it mounted up!

 

There were a couple of times we couldn't use the Passport and you have to try very hard to use up all the money on it as otherwise you end up paying another fee to get the money off the Passport!

 

There are a couple of places, including the Commonwealth Bank, that offer a cash passport-thing but we used the Travelex one from the travel agents. They gave us a better exchange rate, possibly also because we were buying currency at the same time.

 

HTH

LC

[mathijohn]

Thanks all, this was very useful.

 

Moira

[RockDr]

We've had issues in the past with Cash passports vs chip and pin machines and places not accepting signatures any more

 

eta: the cards have always worked at atms, so can always get cash out for most things.

 

also need to bear in mind that the cards don't have your name on, so can't be used for things such as car hire etc.

[snifter]

We've had issues in the past with Cash passports vs chip and pin machines and places not accepting signatures any more

 

eta: the cards have always worked at atms, so can always get cash out for most things.

 

also need to bear in mind that the cards don't have your name on, so can't be used for things such as car hire etc.

 

Yup, all of the above affected the family when they were over this summer. We had to hire the car and they gave us the cash. Just had to list one of them as one of the drivers was all so they could use the car.

 

And they had to rely on cashpoints most of the time rather than spending in store.

[Guest loopylisa]

I used a cash passport for my reccie over easter. Had no problems with store refusals- just had to spend over the eftpos amount and lost a couple of bucks left on it but I really preferred it to travellers cheques. I also used travelex cash passport- no complaints at all and would consider it for other holidays abroad.

[Guest tinkham_lee]

We used travellers cheques and paid them into my English bank account when we went to England. A friend who came with us used a money passport (not sure which one) and found lots of places wouldn't accept it as it didn't have a chip. couldn't understand why as all the eftpos machines still have the swipe facility available, he also found it varied within shop chains and even in the same shop but with a different sales assistant, some would accept it and some wouldn't. In one shop we were even told it was illegal to use it as it wasn't chip and pin.

I think its more a case of the assistant doesn't know how to use swipe and sign rather than the machine can't accept it.

[snifter]

I think its more a case of the assistant doesn't know how to use swipe and sign rather than the machine can't accept it.

 

Good point. And probably true.

 

The daft thing is until more recent years we always used to have to swipe and sign (or insert card and sign). For debit and credit cards. Then of course it all changed and now its all done with swipe/insert card and entering a pin code. If you don't know the pin it doesn't work.

 

They can still accept a UK card with a signature but only if the pin machine isn't working or some such. For overseas cards I think most places other than banks/PO are not really aware of what they can do and therefore don't.

 

Our family just used to withdraw from cashpoints and carried the cash. They would use the card in store where it was possible, otherwise pay with the withdrawn cash.

[Lazy Cow]

Oh, that's interesting. I wonder which cards you guys used?

Our Travelex one didn't always work in the cashpoints but it didn't particularly worry us as we had cash...which is why i forgit to mention it lol!

I'd love to know so maybe we could try them next time.

Thanks,

LC

[Jenny]

Travelex worked for us every time, we had no problems anywhere - definately the way to go for me.

 

Jenny

[RockDr]

The ANZ travel cards have recently been revamped to include a chip. We still had to sign for things using them in France though, so would probably still be an issue in the UK. They also still don't have your name on them, so the car rental issue still stands.

[RockDr]

I still don't get why the banks in Australia use this system, it would far less processing costs etc if they just put equivalent charges on people's normal debit/credit cards, rather than charging the fortune they currently do and making people get the useless travel cards instead.