sashadan

i heard that bank transactions in oz(ie writing cheques etc.)is abit pricey.
which is the cheapest way to spend dosh in oz.
perhap every thing on plastic,and settle up before interest inccurs??

cheers
sd

tennisoz

Cash has always been the cheapest way of spending 'dosh' anywhere sashadan but it is going out of vogue Seriously have a search at some Aussie bank websites and get a feel for their charges for cheques, credit cards etc. I think everything on plastic and pay within the month or whatever before interest accrues might be the answer. But then again Australians have about the highest rate of 'plastic debt' per capita in real terms in the world. My grandfather used to extol the virtues of cash - if you haven't got it in readies, don't spend or something like that he said.

TennisOz

Jirrupin

My advice is to shop around to find the best bank/ bank account for your needs.

We are with HSBC and incur no bank charges as long as:
* we don't use checques
* make only 5 withdrawals a month from other banks ATM's, we can use HSBC ATM as often as we like,
*have $1000 balance

and we get interest on the balance too, which is nice.

We find this works for us, we also use EFTPOS regularly and pay other items online. There has only been the odd occasion when we have had to use UK credit card for things like stamp duty because we didn't have a cheque book and we couldn't pay online.

HiddenPaw

You're right, cheques aren't commonly used here. We pay for virtually everything with EFTPOS, which also comes out of the current account (it's like Switch & Delta).

We pay for all our bills with EFTPOS, even things like the rent, using BPAY (telephone banking) - you just phone up and key in your account details and the biller code - really simple - don't even need to wait to speak to anyone so it's very quick.

Of course you can get credit cards as well.

tennisoz

H/P

We use EFTPOS on our Commonwealth Bank card a lot when we are over there. (I remember the wonder of using EFTPOS the first time, walking out of the store, putting the card in an ATM to get the balance within a minute and it had been taken out).

I was just wondering if you get more protection when using a credit card than EFTPOS? I'm thinking for example that in the UK when you book a holiday they advise you to pay by credit card rather than debit card (Switch) or cheque because you get travel insurance, full refund in the even of airline failure etc. There is sometimes a small % charge for credit card to partly offset the benefits.

TennisOz