Westpac and Bank of America
 

We just returned from a trip to Australia and managed our money in a different way this time so we could avoid the 3 percent fees that the credit cards seem to be charging for each transaction.

On previous trips we just used a credit card which was great but this time we used an ATM card from Bank of America.

They are partners in some way with Westpac so you can withdraw money (up to US$300 or about AU$380 at current exchange rates) per day with no fee at all...just like taking it out at your home ATM machine.

There are Westpac ATMs all over the place in Australia. We never had a problem finding one. There is even one in Jabiru in the middle of Kakadu National Park.

The drawback is that you have to carry some cash around this way, but we loved knowing exactly how much we were spending and no hidden fees. Each time you withdraw you get a receipt that tells you how much money you have left in your US bank account (translated into Australian dollars).

Hi LynAK
Glad to see you have cottoned onto the alliance. My daughter spent 6 months going to school in Toronto last year and was able to use ScotiaBank to withdraw money from her Westpac account. We then used the Barclays bank in both England & of all places Tanzania.
It is a great network.

Just not sure why you were limited to A$380 per day. Is US$300 your limit for BOA?

We did the same thing back in November. Westpac is just about everywhere! No hassle or fees. And yes, I think the daily withdrawal limit is $300 for BOC although we never really tried to take out more than that in one day.

HI...yes, our BOA limit on the ATM card from the US was $300 per day. I don't know if this is a general BOA rule for all their ATM cards or if we could have gotten it waived. I just opened the account shortly before the trip to take advantage of this.

The limit wasn't really a problem as we just went several days in a row if we needed to pay for something big, like a car rental, and the Westpac locations were so handy...though we often joked about writing a book called "Australia on $300 a Day"...

This is a great network and I'm glad to hear about other members of the network. I really just focused on Australia-US.

A friend's daughter went to Spain this summer and they had planned for her to use a credit card, but when she arrived she learned that because of a lot of fraud in general they weren't accepting this credit card anywhere in Spain. It wasn't just because of fraud on their personal account. At least, I think this is the story...anyway, these days it is nice to find a way to get money internationally without having to pay the fees that seem to be coming from every direction.