money in new zealand
 

hi travellers, whats the best way to take your money into n/z is it to use atm,s or take travellers cheques and some cash. how much do the banks charge for using their cash machines. hope you can help

Don't rely exclusively on your ATM card. I've had trouble using it to withdraw cash in stores (it works as a credit card though). I also had a hard time in a small town that had lost its only bank branch. Most of the time, it worked fine, though.

As almost anywhere in the world, atm cards work best but be prepared for unlikely snags with dribs and drabs of alternatives (backup cards, a few trav chex and cash in home currency). I would never except in emergency use for cash those credit cards that immediately start clocking interest fees; also most credit cards recently have started charging hidden, unposted exchange fees (3%?).

As for fees, I had the oddest experience in my last visit to NZ and OZ by not getting ANY fees charged at all - could this be some new regulation? And a rough mental calculation suggested I was getting practically the optimum exchange rate!

Once I used my trusty credit union atm-only card, which usually has the least fees. But many other times I used a newfangled debit card that has the feature of refunding fees. Never was a fee charged, although they are charged then refunded around home!

ATMs seemed everywhere, except I can't guarentee there will be one without a line in the airport arrival area (can't say since I had some cash and ran by). A weird article in Australian newspaper claimed many atm machines had been modified by crooks to trap your card info, but you could tell the card slot had an alien looking card slot extension.

But atm cards are so reliable, my travel checks have never been needed. In fact they may not work since my signature has evolved over the many years and probably can't duplicate my old, funny-looking signature on the fadey old checks...

Are you an American? If so, the Bank of America has an alliance with WEst-Pac Bank in New Zealand. It does not cost anything to use the ATM's.
The same alliance is with Scotia Bank in Canada and Barkley bank in Britian.
So, open an account at Bank of America and you won't pay any fees.

WE had our Canadian ScotiaBank card and didn't have any problems at all. But I do bring a different bank card as a back up , as well as my Visa card. For the first time, I didn't even bring ANY currency, but went straight to the ATM when I got there.

We always rely on our ATM card, and haven't had any problems in NZ.

EFTPOS is widely used in NZ (Electronic Funds Transfer Point of Sale) so this is also an option if you have a credit or debit card, but your credit card company might charge a conversion fee - ours does.

We used to rely on traveller's checks, but discovered even with the ATM and credit card fees, we were saving money over the traveller's checks as we got a much better exchange rate.

ATM and Visa got us through three months in New Zealand, with no problems.

Likewise us - ATM and Visa have taken us through NZ, the US, Vietnam and China with no hiccups. We do take the precaution of carrying cards from two institutions - a bank and a credit union, as a sort of belt-and-braces routine in the event that a machine might swallow a card but have never had to fall back on Plan B. We've always checked with those institutions pre-departure to be sure, but a Cirrus sign on a foreign ATM has always taken care of things (although we did have to look for Bank of China ATMs in China).

thanks for your welcome help . i think we`ll take a bit of everything but use our cards regular.

Forget about travellers cheques, no one uses them nowadays.

You will find your credit card will get you anything you need in NZ. You can get money from any ATM which displays the "Cirrus" logo, but you have to use your bank debit card (we call them EFTPOS cards) A credit card won't work in a ATM unles it's a dual purpose card (Credit and Debit). Most ATM's are loaded with $20 bills, so you have to make withdrawals in $20 multiples.

A word of warning. Each person should have their own credit card in their own name. If you have a joint credit card, and one of you dies (perish the thought) then the card will be frozen. and you will be stranded without money. Happened to a friend of mine in Europe last year, caused all sorts of problems.

We used our ATM card, looked for the 'Plus' network, got money from our checking account. Got money as soon as we got to AKL airport, and made sure that we did not run out of $$NZ.

If someone dies in NZ, how would the CC company in the US know, unless you told them? And why would you? If I died, 8-X my wife could withdraw money since she knows the pin #.