DianneH68

Hi all,
Can anyone in Aus tell me if many places will exchange travellers cheques commission free, especially when you get away from the main cities?
I was planning to get the cheques in Aussie dollars.
Makes a difference as I've just discovered the exchange rate for travellers cheques at lloyds TSB is much better than for cash, but obviously I would lose any benefit if I end up paying a load of commission whenever I change them!
Thanks,
Dianne

worzel

Bear in mind that if the current exchange rate is 2.40:£1 you will probably only get 2.30:£1 when you buy the cheques. And you may pay commission when you cash them as well. Use your credit/debit card to purchase wherever possible and withdraw cash with it when needed. You may get a small charge or a marginally worse FX rate but it will work out much better than travellers cheques rate wise. The advantage of travellers cheques is the security.

elksa

Not to sure if you can get TC's changed up commission free in Aus, but if you change up larger sums less frequently then you may well reduce the commission that you pay. I think that commission is a standard flat fee so changing more up at once will safe you some commission costs. Lloyds are certainly the best for TC's. When will you need your TC's for?

DianneH68

We're leaving in a couple of weeks. We'll be doing lots of travelling so wasn't too keen on carrying loads of cash.
Was most surprised that the Lloyds rate for cash is 2.24 but for TCs is 2.34!
I will be setting up some kind of Aussie account (if I can one without a permanent address!) when I get there but wanted to take cash/TCs with me to tide us over until we get sorted. Just wondered which would be best.

elksa

I bank with Lloyds and after looking into it I have come to the conclusion that TC's will certainly be cheaper than using my Debit Card. Lloyds give a very competitve TC exchange rate compared to other companies but also offer a very crap and expensive foriegn card usage rate with lots of charges. We're heading out for a holiday this weekend and I'm also intending to open a bank account whilst out there. I understand that your passport and maybe driving license can't remember is enough to open a bank account and that you don't need to provide a permanent aussie address.

DianneH68

Thanks very much for that info, most interesting.
I bank with HSBC and I imagine their card charges will be extortionate (given that everything with HSBC seems to be!) so I'm going to get plenty of cash/TCs in advance to keep me going til I open an account.
That's great news if you don't need a paermanent Aussie address to open an ccount.
Where abouts are you headed?

ABCDiamond

My most recent HSBC UK credit card transaction was done on 3-Jun-05 @ 2.3411. No other costs.

The Interbank rate on that day was 2.40477 / 2.40702 (bid/ask)
with the typical credit card rate being: 2.357 per www.oanda.com

Most Australian Banks do state that you need to have a permanent Australian address, but in practice you can normally use a friends address.

worzel

I tried to open an account out there before our trip 2 years ago and couldn't do it from either the UK or Aus. Money Laundering rules means you need an address (they don't know if it is permanent or not) and we didn't have one as we were always on the move.

From memory LLoyds were giving me about 2.48:£1 on card purchases when the rate was 2.50 plus £1.50-ish extra for cash withdrawals or thereabouts.

DianneH68

sounds like a bit of a minefield! Think I'll just take a small amount of cash/TCs then suss out the situation when we get there!

worzel

That is what we did in the end. I also made sure I had a PIN for my credit card and access to my bank and credit card statements on-line so I could settle them and review charges etc.

In defence of travellers's cheques, we tried to cash some in the Commonwealth Bank Alice Spring over the Easter holiday and despite joining the wrong queue / not having the right documents they were really helpful. That was worth them doing as I have just used them to open my migration account.

mand8002

We brought travellers cheques form Lloyds and they are actually American Express travellers cheques so you can look on the Amex website and it tells you where you can exchange them commission free. We paid ours into our newly opened bank account and just got charged $6 for doing so. Well worth it in my opinion.
Hope this helps.
Amanda

DianneH68

ah thank you!
Didn't realise you could look on a website to find where you can exchange them. And if we open a bank account then any problem will be solved!
Many thanks