Foreign exchange

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StellenboschStudent

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Where is the best place to get some foreign currency for a trip? I am thinking about just going to ABSA? What's the procedure? What do I need to show them? Tickets?
 
yeah .. u need tickets as prove of ur travel.
I have heard that it might actually be better to use your credit card/bank card to just withdraw money from the foreign atm when u arrive, as it can work out cheaper on charges etc. Anybody care to comment on this, as I will be traveling soon and was wondering if its worth it to go to the bank and get forex and pay their huge fees/commissions??
 
lucifir said:
I have heard that it might actually be better to use your credit card/bank card to just withdraw money from the foreign atm when u arrive, as it can work out cheaper on charges etc.
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Hmm didn't really pay enough attention last time I drew money at a foreign ATM, so I don't actually know the answer, but it strikes me as exceedingly unlikely. In both cases you pay the selling FX rate, plus a commission/foreign tx fee. Plus a foreign ATM charge on top of that.
 
you can shop around with comission, anything less than 2% is fair, usually from you bank or bidvest. e-ticket and passport should be fine.

It depends which country you going to visit. in my opinion in developed countries - its better to use you credit card (be carefull of cloning etc.) and make sure you notify your bank that you will be travelling and they should enable it for overseas transactions and ensure your daily limits are sufficient.

In undeveloped countries its better to take hard cash (preferably order the local currency one time upto an amount you think you will spend to avoid changing twice and losing more cash on rates and comissions, but the extra take in a common currency such as USD/Euro to ensure when you get back that its easy to change back to ZAR). The reason for taking hard cash this is that its better to negotiate with merchants in cash and secondly most merchants do not have card machines or even if they do you will probably pay a premium which is built into the sale to use it (4-6%).

happy travelling!
 
Tickets + Passport. They charge you a branch withdrawal fee (you have it on your plan) if you're going to pull from your account, otherwise, bring cash.
 
just checked with virgin money and they charge a flat R11.50 for atm transaction worldwide .... u cannot beat that.
You do get some foreign banks now charging a transaction fee, but I think it will be minute compared to what our rip-off banks charge for commission.
Also, we the prob a fluctuating exchange rate that drop in a day, so it is safer(in terms of budgeting) to get the forex up front.
I will probably just use the credit card and withdraw when there
 
StellenboschStudent said:
Where is the best place to get some foreign currency for a trip? I am thinking about just going to ABSA? What's the procedure? What do I need to show them? Tickets?
Click to expand...

Oanda.com do some great currency transfers. You'll have to give them a ring first though.


Sent from the MyBroadband iPhone App
 
Credit card is far the best..... Although I do always arrange some cash just in case......
 
credit cards charge a nice transaction fee, i know std bank cards charge 2.5% of ur purchase value and fnb charges 2.75%, diners club cards are better at 1.7% and iv heard virgin money cards are good but couldnt find out how much they charge. either way u will have to pay for it...
 
Got some euros from absa today... exchange rate is something like 9.91 and I payed just above 10, that includes all banking costs.
They said that withdrawing money from an atm will cost R45 per transaction, didn't say anything about credit card.
 
purejimcn said:
credit cards charge a nice transaction fee, i know std bank cards charge 2.5% of ur purchase value and fnb charges 2.75%, diners club cards are better at 1.7% and iv heard virgin money cards are good but couldnt find out how much they charge. either way u will have to pay for it...
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virgin money does not charge for swiping but charge a set R11.50 for atm withdrawals anywhere in the world. They say they charge the exchange rate of the day, but I don't know that for sure.
 
lucifir said:
virgin money does not charge for swiping but charge a set R11.50 for atm withdrawals anywhere in the world. They say they charge the exchange rate of the day, but I don't know that for sure.
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if its true that they dont charge an FX handling fee then its awesome, just such a hassle to carry an extra card around but for someone that travels a lot that wants to save that extra +-2% its definitely the best deal.

only if they could make their cards look more decent, i would feel like a teenager using those cards ;)
 
when travelling u should always take an extra card ... u never know when u might get a hiccup.
also ... that 2% can add up quite quickly , and I think its more like 3% ....
I actually like the look of their cards .... if they had a rewards programme like ebucks, it would be my sole credit card :)
 
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