Round up of the best travel cards available! ✈️

Planning your next holiday destination? Make sure you have a card that won't charge you any international fees!

Hey friends,

So recently Latitude announced that they were introducing a monthly fee to their super popular 28 Degrees Global Platinum Credit Card:

“Effective from Tuesday 17 September 2024, there will be some important changes to your Latitude 28° Global Platinum Mastercard credit card product.  A card fee of $8 per month will be introduced and the interest rate on purchases will increase to 27.99% p.a.”

This was a popular card used by many when traveling or shopping online via an overseas merchant as it didn’t charge any international transaction fees or currency conversion fees.

However, with the introduction of a new monthly fee, I think that most will be looking to close down this credit card and look for an alternative. Latitude is planning a new reward program that will make you eligible to receive a $10 e-gift card every statement period if you spend more than $1,000. However, in my opinion, most people won’t be spending more than $1,000 each statement period with this card unless they’re traveling.

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💳 Travel Credit Card Alternatives

So here are two of the best travel credit card alternatives that you can consider for your next holiday.

1. Bendigo Bank - Ready Credit Card

• $0 annual fee

• $0 international transaction fees

• Up to 90 consecutive days of international travel insurance

• 90-day purchase protection on stolen, accidentally damaged, or permanently lost purchases

• Up to 55 days of interest-free days

2. Bankwest Zero Platinum Credit Card

• $0 annual fee

• $0 international transaction fees

• Up to 55 interest-free days

Out of the two above, I think the obvious choice is to go for the Bendigo Bank Credit Card as it comes with complimentary travel insurance and purchase protection on your purchases which will come in handy when traveling.

The Bankwest Credit card used to have similar insurance, however from the 3rd of September they removed these benefits:

“From 3 September 2024, complimentary insurance offered through Cover-More will no longer be available on your Bankwest Zero Platinum credit card. This includes overseas travel insurance and other insurance.”

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💳 Travel Debit Cards To Consider

So whenever traveling, I always recommend bringing both a credit card and debit card which don’t charge any international transaction fees. Firstly, because with the debit card you’ll be able to withdraw money as you go along and secondly I think it’s just a good back-up plan if anything goes wrong with your credit card.

So here’s a round-up of the best travel debit cards that you can consider for your next holiday. All of these debit cards come with:

• $0 international transaction fees

• $0 International Bank ATM withdrawals

• $0 monthly fees

1. Up Bank Debit Card

2. Macquarie Transaction Account

3. Suncorp Everyday Options

4. HSBC Everday Global

All of the debit cards above are great options and all serve essentially the same purpose. Up Bank probably has one of the best mobile apps in my opinion, whilst the HSBC card also offers 2% cashback on purchases below $100 which is a nice little bonus.

Anyway that’s it for this weeks newsletter, hope everyone is having a great weekend and I’ll see you all next week!

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