using ATMs outside Australia - best bank?

Nope!! It charges exactly the same 'exchange' fee as is charged for any
other transaction.

Credit Unions are small operations - they can only provide such a
sophisticated (and expensive to operate) service through major
multi-nationals like Visa and Mastercard!!

There IS no such thing as a Free Lunch - especially in the field of
Financial Services!!



"funkers11" wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi Perry,

A VISA Debit card avoids the Cirrus/Maestro type conversion costs. It
simply debits money from an existing account, but uses the VISA system
to do the transaction. Means it's FREE!!!

Eg: http://www.victeach.com.au/prodserv_cards.aspx

The credit unions tend to give the best deals, though some of them
require a referral by existing memebers.

SOME OTHER HELPFUL TIPS:
1/ You might also want to get two such cards by making a dummy second
card holder and carry them in separate containers, just in case you get
mugged or lose one.

2/ Consider scanning all important DOCO, compressing them using
encryption onto a card-sized CDROM and carry it around at all times in
multiple places. Have the card verified by a local JP to ensure it is
ALL LEGIT. JUST IN CASE!! Can be VERY helpful if you emergency
situations.

Regards,
Funkers
----
Get some funk into ya!!

On Tue, 27 Sep 2005 10:57:53 +0100, gilbert wrote:

David Clayton wrote:

But how useful is a "security guarantee" if you are on the other side of
the planet and your card is cancelled because of fraud?

You may eventually get things sorted out when you get back home, but
it's going to be bloody inconvenient until you do.

You could, of course, stay at home and just have the inconvenient
possibility of burglary, rape, incest, maimed in an accident, run over by
a bus, stub your toe, etc., etc.

The point was - if you bothered to read the rest of the thread -that a
"security guarantee" was a poor substitute for a more secure system that
you could use when travelling overseas.

--
Regards, David.

David Clayton, e-mail:
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
(Remove the "XYZ." to reply)

Knowledge is a measure of how many answers you have,
intelligence is a measure of how many questions you have.

Paul wrote:
Market Theory wrote:
Tom N wrote:

Ken wrote:


I tend to avoid overseas ATMs (and internet cafes) for money
transactions.

That reminds me of the risk of internet banking from internet cafes.


That's certainly a real risk. I know someone whose use of an internet
cafe in Thailand to check his balances lead to a loss of $20k. Expats
tell me these scams are generally run by the friendly cafe staff, not
sinister internet hackers.


I've lived in Thailand on-and-off for 5 years and always use Thai
Farmer' Bank ATM's - never had a problem.

I think the risks are no greater in Thailand than in Australia - the
recent card-skimming case etc. Just be careful, wherever you are.

Fraud at internet cafes has nothing to do with ATMs or card-skimming.

--mt.

Bendigo Bank users can for a small fee buy a hand-held one-off secondary password generator, which adds an
additional layer of security to internet banking. I am not aware of any other Australian banks that offer that.


Sounds like a PITA when you're on the road: one more thing you can't
afford to lose. It's still vulnerable to a real-time man-in-the-middle
attack.
The National is now (AFAIK) offering a feature where when a transaction is
made on internet banking, you get sent a SMS with the details and need to
reply to the SMS or something in order for the transaction to proceed.

Market Theory wrote:
Paul wrote:

Market Theory wrote:

Tom N wrote:


Ken wrote:



I tend to avoid overseas ATMs (and internet cafes) for money
transactions.

That reminds me of the risk of internet banking from internet cafes.


That's certainly a real risk. I know someone whose use of an internet
cafe in Thailand to check his balances lead to a loss of $20k. Expats
tell me these scams are generally run by the friendly cafe staff, not
sinister internet hackers.


I've lived in Thailand on-and-off for 5 years and always use Thai
Farmer' Bank ATM's - never had a problem.

I think the risks are no greater in Thailand than in Australia - the
recent card-skimming case etc. Just be careful, wherever you are.


Fraud at internet cafes has nothing to do with ATMs or card-skimming.

--mt.

I can't recall suggesting that it did - please read carefully and try
and keep up !!

On 2005-09-27, David Clayton wrote:
But how useful is a "security guarantee" if you are on the other side of
the planet and your card is cancelled because of fraud?

You may eventually get things sorted out when you get back home, but it's
going to be bloody inconvenient until you do.

A strategy which worked well for me is the "Oh, ****!" envelope. Carry
your favourite credit and debit cards around with you in your wallet,
along with some traveller's cheques for places which just don't take
credit or you can't find a working ATM.

Back in your lodgings, buried deep in the recesses of your baggage
is your "Oh, ****!" envelope. It contains photocopies of the front
and back of all your credit, debit and ID cards and passport plus
another credit card of a different type to your primary, plus another
couple of hundred dollars worth of traveller's cheques. When the
worst happens, you have a spare card and some spare cash to keep
you going until you can get your primary replaced, plus the
documentation necessary to get everything replaced.

As to which credit and debit cards are cheapest, they're all going to
try and screw you. Investigate the American Express "Express Cash"
facility, whereby your Amex card pretends to be an ATM debit card to the
ATM and Amex do a direct debit for the amount to your nominated bank
account, plus a $1.25 fee.

Cheers, Robert.

Paul wrote:
Market Theory wrote:
Paul wrote:

Market Theory wrote:

Tom N wrote:


Ken wrote:



I tend to avoid overseas ATMs (and internet cafes) for money
transactions.

That reminds me of the risk of internet banking from internet cafes.


That's certainly a real risk. I know someone whose use of an internet
cafe in Thailand to check his balances lead to a loss of $20k. Expats
tell me these scams are generally run by the friendly cafe staff, not
sinister internet hackers.


I've lived in Thailand on-and-off for 5 years and always use Thai
Farmer' Bank ATM's - never had a problem.

I think the risks are no greater in Thailand than in Australia - the
recent card-skimming case etc. Just be careful, wherever you are.


Fraud at internet cafes has nothing to do with ATMs or card-skimming.

--mt.

I can't recall suggesting that it did - please read carefully and try
and keep up !!

My post and the one before that were both about the risks of banking
from internet cafes. If you reread carefully and try to keep up you may
be able to see that. That creates an expectation that your follow-up
might be about the same thing. I correctly pointed out that your post
failed to meet this expectation. Obviously in your case you were just
adding your non sequitur two cents worth and my expectation of coherent
dialogue was mistaken.

--mt.

On 2005-09-27, A User wrote:
bank as well. The emergency replacement option does work ok and can
cover hotel bills and such until a new card is issued and received in
an emergency scenario.

Don't rely on this. After my credit and debit cards disappearing in
Berlin it took me six months (by which time I was at home) to get the
mouth breathing monkeys at my bank's call centre to replace my Visa
card.

Cheers, Robert.

Jonathan Wilson wrote:

Tom N wrote:
Bendigo Bank users can for a small fee buy a hand-held one-off
secondary password generator, which adds an additional layer of
security to internet banking. I am not aware of any other Australian
banks that offer that.


Market Theory wrote:
Sounds like a PITA when you're on the road: one more thing you can't
afford to lose. It's still vulnerable to a real-time
man-in-the-middle attack.

The National is now (AFAIK) offering a feature where when a
transaction is made on internet banking, you get sent a SMS with the
details and need to reply to the SMS or something in order for the
transaction to proceed.

Details here...
http://www.national.com.au/Internet_...,65537,00.html

If you lose your phone, you have the same problem as if you lose the Bendigo Bank Security Token. In either
case, you can contact the bank to make alternate arrangements.

Additionally with the NAB system you have to rely on the delivery of SMS which isn't 100% reliable, particularly
network to network (e.g. overseas).

The NAB system does however allow customers to establish a pre-authenticated payment list which does not
require an SMS code every time.

On 29 Sep 2005 02:49:46 GMT, Robert Atkins
wrote:

On 2005-09-27, David Clayton wrote:
But how useful is a "security guarantee" if you are on the other side of
the planet and your card is cancelled because of fraud?

You may eventually get things sorted out when you get back home, but it's
going to be bloody inconvenient until you do.

A strategy which worked well for me is the "Oh, ****!" envelope. Carry
your favourite credit and debit cards around with you in your wallet,
along with some traveller's cheques for places which just don't take
credit or you can't find a working ATM.

Back in your lodgings, buried deep in the recesses of your baggage
is your "Oh, ****!" envelope. It contains photocopies of the front
and back of all your credit, debit and ID cards and passport plus
another credit card of a different type to your primary, plus another
couple of hundred dollars worth of traveller's cheques. When the
worst happens, you have a spare card and some spare cash to keep
you going until you can get your primary replaced, plus the
documentation necessary to get everything replaced.

As to which credit and debit cards are cheapest, they're all going to
try and screw you. Investigate the American Express "Express Cash"
facility, whereby your Amex card pretends to be an ATM debit card to the
ATM and Amex do a direct debit for the amount to your nominated bank
account, plus a $1.25 fee.

Cheers, Robert.

Same principle, but I kept my backup credit card (we carried
both Visa and MC), spare cash, passport and tickets in my
"secret wallet" inside my trousers hanging from the
waistband. I never left anything like that in bags back at
lodgings - they were easier to steal than ones on me. I
reckoned if it got to the point where I was dropping my
daks, I was in more trouble than just a lost cc, passport or
tickets.

For daily use I kept the "working" cc, some cash and a
laminated copy of the info page on my passport in my normal
wallet. That home-made info page was accepted without
problems at most of the Italian and French hotels that we
stayed at.

That second different organisation credit card was a
lifesaver when the bank staff back home neglected to make
the monthly payment on Visa and we "maxed out" at a French
supermarket. I dread to think what may have happened if we
hadn't had the MC as backup.

My wife carried the opposite cards in her purse and her
secret wallet (on a neck-cord).

Another big advantage was that you never had to hunt for
tickets and passports at check-ins.

Cheers, Alan, Australia