Best Bank for Overseas Transactions

[admiraldata]

Hi Guys,

Even though I'm based in Singapore, I spend MOST of my time traveling - I'm in Singapore 3-4 days a month, generally. I don't necessarily spend too much time in one country, it's generally across ASEAN (Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand), though i've been traveling to Australia regularly too now.

Does anyone have any recommendations on a specific bank or bank account which is most friendly to making withdrawals outside your home country? Any recommendations? Thoughts?

Cheers!

[Strong Eagle]

Get an account that comes with a Visa debit card. You can use it in virtually any ATM and use it to make purchases in place of a credit card. Stan Chart offers this.

[admiraldata]

Thanks Strong Eagle... But any place which accepts Visa Debit card will also accept credit cards, and that's not my target shop.

Maybe I didn't ask the question clearly enough - my bad. What i'm looking for is if anyone is aware of banks (or specific bank account types) which offer a reduced (or no) surcharge when withdrawing from their own or their partner bank's ATMs in foreign countries. I know American Express used to offer this, but they don't have any personal banking in Singapore.

Any advice?

Cheers!

[Splatted]

I used to use my (Australian) Citibank readycredit account when withdrawing overseas, through ATMS that are a part of the PLUS network.

No fees, only the currency conversion (which seemed reasonable conversion rates, though not as good as some Singapore money changers).

Readycredit is a redraw facility, but to avoid incurring interest, just add extra money to it so that the account is in credit, and you don't pay any interest on any international atm withdrawls, but rather spend you own money.

I'm not sure whether its the same deal with the Singapore version of Citibank's Readycredit.. no harm asking

[BillyB]

From my experience if you find a bank willing to not charge you a fee for using the card abroad, you will always get stung in the conversion charges - huge spread between the rates in the markets and the rates you actually get.

I use StanChart but they gave really poor x-rates and also charged me for using international ATM's over the holidays.

If you are changing large amounts it would be more hassle but make more sense to carry cash and use the local money changers.

If you find any accounts of note, please keep me informed as I would like to find a better service than what is currently available.

[stiwi]

It seems that UOB has waived the overseas ATM cash withdrawal fees for their debit cards. They seem to have also quite good exchange rates. Question is what % do they levy on currency exchange.