micnic

Hi

This may be a stupid question but on our reccie in April we plan to simply withdraw cash from the ATMS rather than take travellers cheques etc.

Have any of you experienced problems doing this (other than a charge for each withdrawal)

Nicola

Gibbo

If it's a Visa you shouldn't have any trouble, don't know about others. Just use it as a credit card for accommodation, meals etc and use the Atm if you want some cash for little things. Have done this all round the world. Never use travellers cheques.

Swing-Your-Pants

Travellers cheques ? How 1980's

All ATM's in Oz certainly take our Nationwide Debit Cards with no charges and we get the Bank Exchange (not the Tourist) rate of the day. Check with your Bank to see if they charge for oversea's withdrawals. If so, open a Nationwide Flex Account and put your holiday spending money in it. Job done.

PS we lived on our UK money from Nationwide for the first 2 months of being in Oz.

yanH

HSBC Switch Card worked fine for withdrawing cash from ATM's. I wasn't able to use it as a Debit Card though. People in the shops didn't know what to put it through as. Any card with Visa or Master Card on it should work fine in shops though.

RubyPearl

Ours worked OK for all ATM withdrawals. As long as it's a Cirrus (it'll say on the back)....you'll be fine.

micnic

thanks for the advice - thought it would be o.k.

yes travellers cheques are very 80's. didn't give them a thought til someone mentioned it to me - then it got me thinking!

will rely on my cards and will check re: charges and probably open Nationwide a/c

Caroline G

Good Advice - We opened a Nationwide account and lived from the money in the account for a while too. My parents opened one specifically to visit us and use whilst here. It is easy and a non-expensive way of getting your pounds out until you've set up Oz bank accounts etc.

Josie1100

We have just opened a Nationwide Flex account for when we go to Oz. We have a Barclays debit card and have been told we will be charged to use it in Oz. Seems the flex account is our best option.

LittleHobo

we have just opened a nationwide account and got the CC too for emergencies only! Seems like the best idea at the moment...

Pollyana

Cards with the Plus symbol on should be OK - Lloyds ATM cards for instance.

Centurion

Perhaps the most silly thing, but when you use any type of credit card machine to pay for anything here you'll be asked by the check out chick - "cheque, savings or credit ?". Avoid the bemused look, make like your local and say credit - even though its a debit card as all non australian cards are treated that way.

Its simply that here we have cards which are linked to several types of accounts and you can withdraw from savings or cheque account when using a machine.

Plug

I remember that bemused look on the first days here, also when the chick say 'fly buys?'.....wtf......