The best credit card for australia (2022): withdraw money for free in australia and save!

Withdraw money easily with the right australia credit card and save unnecessary costs? Is that possible at all? Yes you can! How we explain to you in this article. We have summarized all important information and compared two recommended credit cards for australia.

Not too long ago, we traveled around the country by camper for seven weeks ourselves and were able to put our australia credit cards to the test during that time, both in the major cities and outside of them.

In addition to all the important information, we therefore also report on our own experiences and clarify the most important questions about withdrawing money in australia. In addition, there are topics such as security, differences between australian banks and exchange possibilities.

More articles for your australia trip:

Important requirements for an australia credit card

• Free withdrawal in australia or. Worldwide possible
• Free use abroad (d. H. Payment abroad free of charge)
• Credit card free of charge
• No annual fee
• Modern, simple and travel-friendly TAN procedure
• Friendly, helpful and fast customer service
• Convenient and travel-friendly smartphone app

Before we consider a new credit card, we always orient ourselves on these criteria. The good thing about travel credit cards are the low to non-existent fees, but also the ability to use them for free not only in australia, but in all other countries.

Credit card australia: comparison table

Now let's have a look at the credit cards for australia. In this section we compare our favorite with a possible alternative or. Replacement credit card. Our winner is the hanseatic genial card*. It offers some advantages that we have not found with any other card. The barclaycard is also a top credit card for australia with very good conditions and many plus points, but can not quite keep up with the genialcard.

(on the smartphone, the table can be moved from left to right.)

Our winner: hanseatic genial card

The genial card of the hanseatic bank is undisputedly the most advantageous credit card for australia and all other countries. What makes the credit card so special, we have clearly summarized in this section.

The most important advantages

• The credit card is completely free of charge.
• You can withdraw worldwide free of charge.
• There are no annual fees.
• You can pay with the card free of charge. So there is no foreign use due.
• You can also apply for the credit card individually and thus without a current account at hanseatic bank. You must then specify another account from which the amounts are debited.
• Withdrawal limit of 500 € per day
• User-friendly, easy-to-understand app
• Payment with apple pay possible
• Bonus: 15% cashback in over 300 online stores

The disadvantages

• Foreign fees, which may be incurred when withdrawing in australia, are not reimbursed.
• High debit interest rate of 12.82. Therefore, pay your credit card bills on time every month.

TAN procedure of the hanseatic bank

Hanseatic bank offers two TAN procedures: pushtan and phototan. Both are excellent for travelers!

With pushtan, a TAN is sent to your smartphone via the hanseatic-bank app. With phototan, you have to scan a colored QR code with the hanseatic app to do online banking. Then the QR code is converted into the respective TAN number.

Installment facility

As a fully-fledged visa card, the genial card is accepted worldwide. The settlement takes place monthly, but there is an important detail that you should pay attention to: the so-called installment facility.

The hanseatic bank takes only three percent of the monthly credit card bill from your account. This means that the remaining 97 percent will not be debited automatically and must be transferred to the card independently by you. If you forget to transfer the money in time during a trip, interest will be charged.

But now comes the big advantage of the genial card: you can completely skip the annoying installment facility in online banking. Afterwards, the entire amount of your credit card statement is automatically collected and you no longer have to remember to transfer the money. Top!

Application

• Video ident: A bank employee identifies you via webcam (faster).
• Post ident: you'll need to go to a post office and have an employee identify you.

Afterwards, the bank will check your application and your details. If everything fits and is approved, the australia credit card will arrive in your mailbox within a few days or weeks.

Alternative and backup: barclaycard

The barclaycard is our backup in case the hanseatic bank credit card gets into trouble or gets lost against all expectations. In addition, it is also free of charge and is used in conjunction with an additional current account.

The most important advantages

• There are no annual fees.
• You get up to 50 euro starting credit when opening the card.
• Mobile payments with apple pay or google pay are possible.
• Withdraw cash free of charge worldwide
• Pay free of charge worldwide (no foreign transaction fee).
• The barclaycard is completely free of charge.
• The barclaycard can be applied for individually and without a current account.
• Students can also apply for a barclaycard.
• Withdrawal limit of 500 € per day
• User-friendly, easy-to-understand app

Disadvantages of the credit card

• Foreign fees in australia are not refundable.
• The credit card can only be used in conjunction with a current account (which can also be an advantage).
• Only mobiletan procedure

TAN procedure

Application

Foreign fees in australia

Depending on the country, it may be that the local banks charge so-called foreign fees. In australia, the charging of fees depends on the bank: some charge foreign fees, some do not. Depending on the bank, the fee is up to 5 australian dollars (approx. 3 euros) per withdrawal. Whether the fee is collected, the respective machine shows you in time.

Be careful with the commonwealth bank and westpac. With the ANZ bank or the NAB, however, there are no foreign charges. When possible, we always went to one of these two banks.

Should you ever withdraw from an ATM with foreign fees, we unfortunately have bad news for you: currently, there is no good travel credit card that will reimburse you for these fees. Banks such as comdirect, DKB and santander used to offer this service, but unfortunately have since discontinued it.

Pack a spare credit card!

Better safe than sorry – a replacement credit card is more than just a precautionary measure and absolutely worth its weight in gold in an emergency. Those who have been traveling for a longer period of time can certainly confirm this.

Sure, the main credit card can be stolen. This is what most people think of at first. Often it is enough that the credit card is accidentally broken, heavily scratched or simply confiscated by the ATM for no reason. We have experienced this ourselves.

For all these and other cases, a replacement credit card should always be at hand. If you never need it – top! If they do, you will be infinitely glad and avoid unnecessary stress.

Tip: speaking of theft! Stow and carry your replacement credit card separately from your main card. In case your wallet or credit card gets lost, you will still be liquid.

You can apply for the replacement credit cards here:

Security: use the australia credit card correctly

So that you can roam the towns and villages of australia with peace of mind and hopefully never have to use your spare credit card, we have summarized the most important tips and information on the subject of safety in the following sections.

Credit card fraud in australia

Stick-on keyboards, tiny mini-cameras or self-made card slots – fraudsters try to get your credit card data in a variety of ways. This is also the case in an otherwise very safe travel destination like australia.

Often they try to read the credit card number, the IBAN and the CCV (three-digit PIN on the back) and record or film the PIN entry.

To make sure that atms are reliable and in order, we stick to the following tips every time we make a withdrawal:

• We briefly check the keypad and card insertion module of each machine.
• During PIN entry, we cover the keypad very well.
• We only withdraw from machines that are part of banks, supermarkets, gas stations or shopping malls.
• We completely avoid atms that are abandoned on the side of the road or in dark corners.
• We use RFID blockers* on all of our credit cards.
• By taking these little precautions, we've never fallen victim to credit card fraud yet – toi, toi, toi! Still, there is no 100 percent guarantee, as scammers are always coming up with new scams.

Never let your australia credit card out of your sight!

One of the most important tips: never let your credit card for australia out of your sight! No matter what the staff in the hotel, restaurant or clothes store wants to tell you, insist that the card stays with you.

After all, if it disappears into the hands of an employee in the next room, you won't be able to track what happens to it there. If the card is read or copied? Does it ever come back at all? All questions that you do not have to ask if the card always remains in your own hands.

Consequences of this kind of credit card abuse often come weeks or months later: either you see strange withdrawals on your next credit card statement or the bank contacts you itself due to conspicuous withdrawals.

Withdraw small amounts

We only take off what we need. As a rule, this was never more than 150 to 200 euros in australia. Since the price level is relatively high, sometimes it could be a little more.

The idea behind this is: if your wallet does get stolen or lost, only a small part of the money is gone and not all of it.

Sometimes we had to withdraw larger sums, for example to pay for a tour or the camper in cash. In these cases we withdraw the money at relatively short notice or hide it extremely well. By no means carry it in your wallet all the time.

Loss, theft or similar – what now??

First things first: don't panic, usually there is always a solution!

Banks, financial institutions and credit card providers have 24-hour hotlines or emergency numbers, sometimes even extra overseas hotlines that you can call. If the card is lost, you should have it blocked immediately. Here's how to prevent someone else from taking advantage of it.

All further steps you discuss afterwards with the respective contact person of your bank. Depending on the provider, the opportunities could differ. Basically we have made the experience that banks are very interested in finding a reasonable solution for you and the existing problem.

Visa or mastercard – which makes more sense in australia?

Visa and mastercard are accepted in australia at pretty much all atms and also in stores. There are no advantages or disadvantages.

While researching other countries, however, we came across that mastercards sometimes cause problems. In some cases, they don't always seem to work for operators of stores, restaurants or hotels – especially in asia. In australia, however, everything is fine even with a mastercard!

Apply for a credit card for australia in good time

The online form for your australia credit card is completed quickly. Nevertheless, the data has to be read in, checked and approved by the bank. The card itself must also be produced. Depending on the size and current business volume of the bank, it may take several weeks to complete the process and receive your card.

We therefore recommend applying for a credit card for australia one or even two months in advance if possible. This way you will have enough of a buffer in case there are any demands or you are turned down and have to apply for another card.

Apply for credit cards here:

Banks in australia

You can easily find banks and atms in every major australian city and even in smaller villages. The most popular four money houses in australia are:

As mentioned above, NAB and ANZ bank do NOT charge third-party fees, but the other two do.

Note: we do not guarantee the accuracy of our data, as third-party fees can change regularly.

Bringing cash to australia – makes sense?

We also usually always have a small nest egg with us in the form of cash (euros). If times really all ropes break, a few bills, which one can exchange fast, are never amiss. But most of the time it is not more than 100 euro.

On the other hand, we never take really large amounts and prefer to withdraw more often instead. For us personally, it is simply too unsafe to have several thousand euros permanently in our luggage.

Cash exchange

If you want to change euros into australian dollars, you can do this without any problems in australia. Exchange offices can usually be found inside bank branches. On the other hand, we do not recommend independent exchange offices, because the rates are much worse than in official banks.

Tip 1: if you have cash with you and want to exchange it, avoid the exchange bureaus at the airport or exchange only what is necessary. The rate here is often much worse than in the city.

Tip 2: exchanging some start-up money already in germany unfortunately makes very little sense. The rates at home are even worse than at the airports in australia – often also because the german banks must first order the foreign currency.

Exchange rate in australia

We would like to give you a brief overview of the current exchange rate in australia and compare the price level a little bit. Australia is a modern and highly developed country, fully absorbed in the western standard of living.

The current conversion is therefore very simple: 1 euro = ca. 1.60 australian dollars (november 2019)

There's no question about it – australia tends to be one of the more expensive countries to travel to. Especially the costs for hotels, alcohol or the camp rent have it in itself. For this we found food relatively cheap. In addition, prices vary widely by region and city. But what you have to remember with all the costs is that australia is very pleasant to travel around and has an excellent, tourist infrastructure!

By the way, we summarized the exact costs of our trip to australia in this post: australia costs & prices – here's how much you'll pay for 7 weeks of vacation

Do you have any other questions about "credit card for australia" or would you like to add something?? Then just drop us a comment!

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