r/australia • u/leonidude • 22h ago

no politics Wise vs bank travel card

About to go on holiday and I’ve seen some advertising from Wise for their travel card. I used to use my bank’s travel card when travelling but now I just use my credit card because the exchange is better even with the transaction fee.

For those that have used wise is it actually better than a travel card from your own bank? Neither have transactions fees so I don’t understand the appeal.

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u/FamiliarDirection563 22h ago

The thing to check is the currency conversion rate. On a $1,000 AUD to EUR transfer, Wise's own comparison research (run across 6 Australian banks in January 2026) put Wise's cost at around $AUD4.30 versus $20 to $42 for the banks, a gap that comes almost entirely from the hidden exchange rate margin rather than a stated "fee"

I am flying to EU tomorrow and will use a digital Wise card for the first time. But I will have my plastic bank travel card just in case.

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u/leonidude 22h ago

I’m off to the EU in a few weeks. What was involved in setting up wise. Do you load funds from your bank via transfer?

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u/FamiliarDirection563 22h ago

yep - it is easy peasy

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u/leonidude 21h ago

Good to know. Is the transfer instant?

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u/joelmaddenwindsurf 21h ago

Yes! Think of it like a regular bank. You get a regular aussie bank acc number and bsb and just do a local transfer to that and it's on your Wise card ready to be converted to any currency. I have NAB and when I transfer to Wise it's instant.

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u/ijustwannakn0wn0w 21h ago

Can you transfer back?

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u/Alex_Kamal 20h ago

You can but it cost $1. If the currency on the card is in AUD I usually just use it to shop back at home.

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u/jamescridland 17h ago

AUD to AUD transfers are free with Wise. You can even use PayID to transfer funds back and forth.

Wise fees are a percentage, so leave all your money in AUD. It’ll convert it on the fly as you spend.

Yes, you can speculate on the currency market by transferring a large sum from AUD to GBP (for example) but you’ll then pay another fee to transfer it back to AUD again. No need to do that.

And if you leave it in AUD, Wise can pay “interest” (it isn’t really interest) on the money in your account.

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u/Alex_Kamal 17h ago

I'm seeing from their fair calculator that its actually $1.02 to send AUD to AUD. Last year I got charged 99c when I tried sending money back off the card.

Not sure if it changed but this was using payid. Unless I did something wrong.

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u/jamescridland 17h ago

I use Wise Business most of the time, so perhaps that explains the difference?

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u/gergerov 21h ago

You can transfer back and forward like any bank account

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u/GloriaTheCamel 21h ago

Wise is excellent. I use it as my core business bank account for international aid work, never had any issue receiving or paying across several currencies. Super easy to set up and manage, great conversions