couple of questions about my visit

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couple of questions about my visit
Topic Started: Mar 25 2008, 01:43:10 AM (594 Views)
Pamm	Mar 25 2008, 02:37:38 PM Post #21
True Blue Mate Posts: 1,540 Group: Members** Member #1,765 Joined: Feb 27, 2008 I come from... Glen Burnie, MD I now live in... Kalgoorlie, WA I'm planning to move to... nowhere if I can help it!	Yowch, Tori! I was planning on cashing them as needed to use for cash, and using the cash I'll carry (not a fortune) on the trip over for incidental stuff. We're going to open the Westpac account once we have a firm date and know when I'll be there, so we can do the validating. I'd never heard of Ozforex, I'll look them up. This will be my first trip out of the US, so I'm pretty much mining all these topics for whatever tips and hints I can put on one of my notepad lists grin



minx	Mar 25 2008, 02:44:30 PM Post #22
True Blue Mate Posts: 758 Group: Members** Member #108 Joined: Feb 18, 2007 I come from... South Florida I now live in... somewhere in the hills...	pastrycook-136 Tue Mar 25, 2008 10:58 am Hi Pamm, I wouldn't bother getting traveler's checks. I think I read somewhere that they are not commonly accepted in Australia but I could be wrong. They serve no better purpose anyway when you can just withdraw cash from any ATM in Australia from your American account using your American card that you have now just like you can withdraw cash anywhere in the USA. You can use your ATM card make debit purchaces too, just like here in the US. Any ATM fees you might have should be no more than the cost of traveler's checks anyway. I have done quite a bit of travel and I have not used traveler's checks in over 20 years. They are almost obsolete. You can wire your funds to Westpac directly from the US or use Ozforex to transfer the funds like I am doing. Ozforex promises a better exchange rate. I believe you or your boyfriend must make a deposit within 30 days of opening the Westpac account or it will be closed. This account is deposit only until you present ID in Australia in person. A quick edit. I didn't see Tors post as we must have been writing at the same time! I stand corrected about traveler's checks being accepted in Australia. I still think that nowdays they are not really needed. I have to disagree with you about travelers checks... I've used traveler's checks in the US, the UK, Canada, Europe and Aus. They are certainly not obsolete. :headscratch: Sometimes it happens that your credit card doesn't work - even if you've called the bank before traveling. It's happened to us a few times... which is why we always travel with a variety of ways to pay for things. Cash, traveler's checks, credit card, atm card.



JenbeTas	Mar 25 2008, 08:19:56 PM Post #23
Hippie Wannabe sailing the deep blue sea Posts: 1,197 Group: Members** Member #31 Joined: Feb 18, 2007 I come from... Rushville, Illinois......unfortunately I now live in... Kuala Lumpur till we suffer thru my partner's visa I'm planning to move to... Home to Australia ASAP!!!!!!!	Actually, I just wanted to pop in and say that I used travelers cheques in Europe nearly 14 years ago and were rarely...VERY rarely accepted anywhere I tried to use them. I ended up just cashing them in because it got to be such a pain in the arse.



heykeith	Mar 26 2008, 01:33:55 AM Post #24
Chinwagger Posts: 86 Group: Members* Member #1,730 Joined: Feb 25, 2008	some great stuff in this thread. thanks all!



(kolohe)	Mar 26 2008, 09:07:38 AM Post #25
True Blue Mate Posts: 518 Group: Guests Member #1,320 Joined: Jan 31, 2008	Hi Heykeith, I would get my laptop insured at the airport. In 2004 when I came here for a month, some lady in Melbourne at the airport knocked my nearly new laptop off the conveyer belt onto the floor. She was looking behind her, not watching what she was doing in front of her as she took her suitcase off. I did not have insurance on it. I had carried it onto the plane but when we went thru security I had to hand this security person that works there my laptop and that person checked it out and then placed it on the conveyer belt. I had asked that the laptop be handed back to me but the worker did not do that. As for money, I brought a couple hundred dollars with me in Australian cash that I had gotten at First Hawaiian Bank in Honolulu where I used to live. I called around to different banks to see what the charges would be and at that one it was only about five dollars plus about two dollars for the carrier to take it to the bank. It only took a couple days for the bank to do this. I did not have a bank account at First Hawaiian at the time either. Hadn't for several years. And I was told they did not go by how much Australian money you wanted so I could have gotten more Australian money for the same money as long as they had that much Australian money whereever they keep it. I just did not want to carry a lot of cash on me. There are probably ATMS at the airport and the charges at ATMS in Australia from what I experienced arent much but when I got money out of the ATM in Australia from my American bank I would get the amount I that I needed out rather than to keep using the ATM for bits at a time. I eventually got a bank account here in Australia.


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