International forex advice

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Antelope

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What's the best and most cost effective payment method during overseas travel?

The capitec card seems to be the cheapest when it comes to exchange rates and extra fees on foreign purchases.

Would a capitec credit/debit card be a better option than taking a prepaid forex card?

Will there be any difference between using the capitec credit and debit card overseas?

Or will taking hard cash be the best option (besides the safety aspect)
Theres too many posts regarding capitec for me to browse through all of them,although I have seen some say that capitec is cheaper than the other banks for foreign purchases.
 
Cash withdrawal at the ATM is usually a better option for me.
Capitec charges around R60 per swipe & R60 per withdrawal. Makes better snse to just carry cash.
 
The Rand fluctuates too much. Use a combination of a prepaid forex card and cash. Apart from the costs associated with a credit card, there are also exchange rate risks
 
According to quite a few posts on the forum(most are quite old) capitec doesn't charge any fees for international pos purchases (swiping internationally)
This could have changed since then.
ice_cubes said:
Cash withdrawal at the ATM is usually a better option for me.
Capitec charges around R60 per swipe & R60 per withdrawal. Makes better snse to just carry cash.
Click to expand...


Could anyone confirm this
Click here for for an example

From what I've understood (subject to correction) from the capitec price Leaflet is that
PURCHASE FROM INTERNATIONAL MASTERCARD MACHINE FREE

Cash withdrawal international
Mastercard atm R55.48
Card machine R7. 06
 
Antelope said:
According to quite a few posts on the forum(most are quite old) capitec doesn't charge any fees for international pos purchases (swiping internationally)
This could have changed since then.



Could anyone confirm this
Click here for for an example

From what I've understood (subject to correction) from the capitec price Leaflet is that
PURCHASE FROM INTERNATIONAL MASTERCARD MACHINE FREE

Cash withdrawal international
Mastercard atm R55.48
Card machine R7. 06
Click to expand...
I just checked my December statement again, you are correct. Capitec didn't charge me for any of the card swipes I made...its Nedbank! I think I mixed them up.
 
International prices have increased, while other fees have decreased.

Cash withdrawal international
Mastercard atm R60.00
Card machine R8.00
 
Hi

Also need help. What card should i get or should i just use my nedbank credit and debit card in europe?
 
Antelope said:
International prices have increased, while other fees have decreased.

Cash withdrawal international
Mastercard atm R60.00
Card machine R8.00
Click to expand...
I believe that R8 is for declined transactions. International payments list as free

Edit: sorry just saw that's for cash withdrawal at merchants. Better than the R60
 
Urg, I've been through this comparison many times, at the end of the day I realised that it's all just a waste of time.

Everything costs more or less the same and if you spend a whole lot of money overseas, you may end up with R500-R750 worth of bank fees worst case scenario.

I came to the conclusion that if you are worried about saving R250 in total bank fees with all sorts of loopholes, you probably cannot afford to go abroad to begin with.

I take my FNB credit card and my Nedbank credit card as backup (if one bank has tech issues). Just activate your cards with your bank before leaving.

At the end of the day I've used my cards almost everywhere without problem. It's always handy to have 100 USD/EUR/GBP/Whatever cash with you just in case, but I've never really had such a situation.

My 2c
 
werfie said:
Urg, I've been through this comparison many times, at the end of the day I realised that it's all just a waste of time.

Everything costs more or less the same and if you spend a whole lot of money overseas, you may end up with R500-R750 worth of bank fees worst case scenario.

I came to the conclusion that if you are worried about saving R250 in total bank fees with all sorts of loopholes, you probably cannot afford to go abroad to begin with.

I take my FNB credit card and my Nedbank credit card as backup (if one bank has tech issues). Just activate your cards with your bank before leaving.

At the end of the day I've used my cards almost everywhere without problem. It's always handy to have 100 USD/EUR/GBP/Whatever cash with you just in case, but I've never really had such a situation.

My 2c
Click to expand...

Thanks

Thats what i was going to do but i hear people say this and get this card and that. So don't know.

I may get the Capitec CC and then use the Nedbank Credit and Capitec Credit.
 
Duhkmeerkat said:
Thanks

Thats what i was going to do but i hear people say this and get this card and that. So don't know.

I may get the Capitec CC and then use the Nedbank Credit and Capitec Credit.
Click to expand...

To be honest, it's not even worth the effort. I just always make sure to take cards from two seperate banks, just in case.

Also remember to activate your cards with your bank before you go, else they detect international transactions, try to call you to verify, can't get hold of you and then block your card. So letting them know beforehand that you will be out of the country is important.

Other upside of using your CC card is that you will probably still score on your rewards with your bank (if you're into those things)
 
werfie said:
Urg, I've been through this comparison many times, at the end of the day I realised that it's all just a waste of time.

Everything costs more or less the same and if you spend a whole lot of money overseas, you may end up with R500-R750 worth of bank fees worst case scenario.

I came to the conclusion that if you are worried about saving R250 in total bank fees with all sorts of loopholes, you probably cannot afford to go abroad to begin with.

I take my FNB credit card and my Nedbank credit card as backup (if one bank has tech issues). Just activate your cards with your bank before leaving.

At the end of the day I've used my cards almost everywhere without problem. It's always handy to have 100 USD/EUR/GBP/Whatever cash with you just in case, but I've never really had such a situation.

My 2c
Click to expand...
Paying an extra R500 to spend my money? No thanks. I'd happily spend 30 mins in a Capitec branch to avoid that. But hey, different strokes for different folks.

Btw, there are "hidden" costs in using FNB, Nedbank, etc when spending overseas, and that's currency spread. You won't see it as a cost to you, but essentially everything will cost you more because you're getting a worse rate. Capitec doesn't have this
 
jman said:
Paying an extra R500 to spend my money? No thanks. I'd happily spend 30 mins in a Capitec branch to avoid that. But hey, different strokes for different folks.
Click to expand...

Well the R500 is in total of which a certain % could have been saved. Maybe R50 to R100... and that amount of money isn't worth my time in research nor admin to get a different account/card, etc.

But like you say, different strokes :)

I think the moral of my story is that you shouldn't really be worried about being hit by a HUGE unexpected transaction fee bill at the end of the day like you would if you forgot to turn off your data roaming, the amounts involved here are relatively small ;)
 
im going to India in a few weeks and am intending to use my Capitec Debit card to swipe & to withdraw cash .
with regard to swiping i have found out its free- YAY!
but apparently i will be asked if i want to pay in local currency or Rands & i have to select Rands- is that correct?

when it comes to withdrawals, im not clear about the rate i will get when im withdrawing Indian Rupees.
Xe Currency Converter shows that R1=Rs5.0373
is that the rate that i will receive with Captec?-if i was in India right now and i withdrew cash.

i understand theres a R60 per transaction fee but apart from that i would like some clarity on the rate i will receive.
can anyone here tell me for sure?
 
You will select the foreign currency (from what I remember)

You could get slightly better or worse rate that the xe rate
Capitec rate fluctuates, they give you the mastercard rate, which they are charged, without any additional costs(except for withdrawals)
 
jman said:
Btw, there are "hidden" costs in using FNB, Nedbank, etc when spending overseas, and that's currency spread. You won't see it as a cost to you, but essentially everything will cost you more because you're getting a worse rate. Capitec doesn't have this
Click to expand...

Not 100% correct, the spreads are just wider.

Investec and FNB seem to be 20 - 25c on the R/$ so @ R14 they charge R14.25
Capitec charge around 15c (if I remember correctly)
 
msmoorad said:
im going to India in a few weeks and am intending to use my Capitec Debit card to swipe & to withdraw cash .
Click to expand...
The last time I was in India most establishments refused to accept credit cards and demanded cash. In the major cities hotels and some restaurants will accept credit cards but in the northern parts of India they only take cash - that includes hotels.

Also, do not assume that you will find many ATM's. I have been to a number of airports in India where there are no ATM facilities available.
 
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