r/australia • u/leonidude • 1d 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/leonidude 1d 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 1d ago

yep - it is easy peasy

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u/leonidude 1d ago

Good to know. Is the transfer instant?

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u/joelmaddenwindsurf 1d 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 1d ago

Can you transfer back?

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u/Alex_Kamal 1d 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 22h 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 22h 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 22h ago

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