What banks to use while travelling?

carnie

How doo.

I'm going travelling later this year - 3 months in India, 3 months in SE Asia, 3 weeks to a month in OZ, a year in New Zealand and 6 months back through S. America.

New Zealand isn't a problem because i'll set up a bank account when i get over there. My main query is; what is the best irish bank (or even another international one) to use while i'm doing the main backpacking. I'm currently with bank of ireland and i'm thinking about using Ulster bank or Permanent TSB while i'm away because they have a visa debit card, which i would imagine, i can use in every country..

What are the extra fees like for each of two banks i mentions? Would you recommend another international bank like HSBC?

Meathlass

I used my aib laser card while I was in OZ, NZ and South America (not the laser part obviously. I just used it to withdraw money from atm).

You're going to need to do a bit of work and contact the banks and draw up a table of charges. Some charge a percentage of whatever you withdraw, others charge a set fee regardless of the amount withdrawn.

E.G. I was in Poland last week and I withdrew the equivalant of €100 which cost me €1.27 in fees. A few days later I withdrew €25 which also cost me €1.27. I had two other transactions when I was out there, so in total I paid just over €5.20 in fees whereas if I'd been smart and taken it all out in one go I'd only have paid €1.27. :rolleyes: Of course the danger of carrying large amounts of money while travelling is it might be stolen.

I would also recommend bringing 3 cards with you when travelling - a credit card for emergencies, a card for atm's drawing on your main bank account and a back up card (the bank may issue you a second card drawing on the same account). While travelling I lost one atm card and had my credit card swallowed by the machine as I forgot to take it out which is easy to do when you're tired and all the machines operate differently.

carnie

Thanks for the feedback man.

I presume your AIB card is one of those cirrus yokes, right?

I hear what your saying about having three cards.. I'm going to have to see if i can up my spending limit on my card.. it's pretty much maxed out at the moment.. So i'm going to get it paid off over the next couple of months. I probably will bring my boi with me. That account will have my travel money to south america in it.. So i'll still need access to it when i get to NZ.

Another thing i was thinking of; having a visa debit will be well handy in a situation where i can't get to an atm but i could still use one of those check out card machines..

Meathlass

Yeah it was a cirrus card - don't think there was anywhere I couldn't use it.

I had a savings account with aib with instant access. I kept very little money in my current account in case my atm card was stolen and just transfered money online between my savings and current account as I needed it. I probably never had more than €500 in the current account at any one time.

Internet access in South America is ubiquitous, credit card machines are not. You always need to have some cash on you.

Notch000

I used a BOI mastercard all over the world, it will work in almost any ATM. there is no charges for taking money out if you keep your accound in credit. you also have much better fraud protection wiht a cxredit card if your card get lost, scanned or abused.

carnie

Never even thought about using the credit card as the main account.. I always just looked at it as an emergency plan.

Thanks for all the info lads.. You've givin me some food for thought.