Tap and NO-Qantas travel cash card

[julie]

Qantas sent me their new travel debit card with assurances that it would pave the way to my money being secure and available for my recent trip to Thailand and Cambodia. It was a disaster. I was unable to use it anywhere otherthan one five star hotel and one department store. Luckily my sister was with me and lent me money or my trip would have been ruined. I also had to use my credit card. I rang them to complain and they said there had been some technical problems with the card. My trip could have been ruined and I could have been stuck in a foreign country with no money and they explain it as a technical problem. Now I can not transfer the money back to my account for a month and incur all the money exchange costs and the interest on my credit card etc. I am writing this to warn others to be careful with such cards as the advertising I got for it was just '"Tap and Go" but alas it was "tap and NO""

 

[alexlee]

Why would you travel without multiple forms of payment. More than one card, and a decent amount of local currency and US dollars should be standard.

Sure, the qantas thing should have worked, but even if it's just to guard against losing your card, why wouldn't you have a backup?

 

[julie]

ofcourse I had back up. I took my credit card and cash but my point was the new card was promoted in such a manner that one expected it to be of some use and it was not. The idea of the card is to convert your money into the currencies you might need and then toddle off and enjoy your trip. The card was USELESS. Actually it was worse than useless as I now have to wait a month to get my $2000 back and I have to pay transfer costs. Anyway I just wanted to warn others to avoid this card.

 

[mrsdawnrazor]

I used mine all round Europe and it was fantastic. Better than the Virgin one in terms of fees. The only drawback I had was the 3 days it took to recharge. I think it all depends on your experience. Don't write off the card because of one bad experience

 

[bashworth]

For the past 4 years we just pre-load a 28 degrees credit card with cash.

Worked great in Asia, US, and Europe, and no conversion fees.

 

[chrispy]

I use the Qantas card all the time without a problem. Through the USA and Europe. The only drawback is the 3 days waiting for the top up.

However, I recommended it to a friend for her January trip through Europe and UK and it let her down. She got locked out of it and was stuck without money. She had used the currency she had taken with her, so for the last 8 days although she constantly contacted Qantas, she was unable to purchase anything even a cup of coffee

I think it was a technical hitch but a real problem for anyone travelling at that time.

I always make sure I have two spare debit cards and a credit card as well as the Qantas card but it works out expensive if you are unable to use the Qantas card.

Lets hope it is now fixed

Chris

 

[westminster]

I used it in Japan and it worked ok but yes I had back up credit card and yen before I left.
During the time I was in Japan they were having a lot of problems with all overseas credit cards. Usually you could use the 7eleven atms but they were all unable to work with certain chipped cards. Luckily the Japan post office ATMs were able to accept my credit card and although there were less of them than 711s it wasn't too bad.

 

[baby blue eyes]

I use 28 degrees, but now you can't preload cash and withdraw from ATM. It's treated like a cash advance.

I have now a citibank plus debt card which has no fees either. Will be testing it out in a couple of months. 28 degrees will be used for credit. I have several other back up cards if needed.

Qantas and the other cash cards have too many fees for me

 

[Aaron_C]

I think your biggest mistake was to rely on any form of debit/credit card for travel to developing-world Asia. Always use cash for these places.....it's a no brainer. If you are going to a developed country like Japan then no worries because they actually have the technology that is similar to here.