When travelling, you know that you have to work out a way to get cash out of international ATM’s and buy things on card that won’t hit you with tons of fees, but what about an overseas transfer? With my Australian savings account, a commonwealth bank international transfer would have cost me quite a bit, so I was eager to shop around. I read about Citibank’s access account, which had no international ATM fees or overseas money transfer fees.
Sometimes you may need to transfer funds while travelling with an overseas friend or pay for a tour by bank transfer in another currency. Last June, I had to do just that. I was in Europe and I found a blog post about someone visiting the high Arctic of Svalbard – sailing 80 degrees north, searching for polar bears, hiking the Arctic tundra. Ships departed from Longyearbyen from June to September, circumnavigating the Spitsbergen archipelago.
After doing a fair bit of research I found a company offering a last-minute deal (albeit still expensive) leaving in a week. As my credit card limit wasn’t high enough for the ticket, I had to do an international money transfer. The price was in US dollars, so I compared it to CBA exchange rates to see what I would have paid in fees if I hadn’t found Citibank and it worked out to be roughly $80.
Not only was I able to save on that one-off international money transfer but also I am regularly saving on ATM withdrawal fees whenever I go abroad. On top of the $2-4 fee your bank charges you for using an overseas ATM, you’re also charged three percent of the total foreign cash you take out, but thanks to Hot Source I was able to find out about Citibank.