Travelling with a Multi Currency Account
How do you get the best deal for your online shopping and travelling? Are you getting a better deal, while using your credit card overseas, especially when your bank is promising you rebates and miles? What do you do when you run out of cash while travelling overseas? Maybe a DBS Multi Currency account can help you!
Overseas reward points and rebates always sound good, but are you aware that you need to pay overseas transaction fees that may negate your points and rebates. Why carry a large stack of cash and run the risk of getting robbed? Surely there is a smarter way of travelling and spending your hard earned cash online!
Introducing the DBS Multi Currency account, where there is no foreign exchange change fee and you can buy your currencies at your preferred rates.
The DBS Multi Currency account offers consumers the possibility of zero foreign currency transaction fees while enjoying the convenience of buying forex on-the-go. It currently supports 12 different foreign currencies: US Dollar, Australia Dollar, Canadian Dollar, Chinese Yuan, Euro, Hong Kong Dollar, Japanese Yen, New Zealand Dollar, Norwegian Kroner, Sterling Pound, Swedish Kroner and Thai Baht.
The thing about paying with your credit card overseas is that when you pay for your credit card, you are hit by 3 different charges.
1. The Currency Spread
The practice most banks have for foreign currency transactions is to convert them into USD before converting into SGD.
If you are in the UK and you are paying for product with your VISA, you need to pay a double currency spread. First the GBP is converted to USD, and then coverted from USD to SGD. This is the standard practice and therefore you are losing money in this double spread (Don’t forget the fact, that you are getting a really lousy exchange rate).
2. Bank Fees
Your bank will charge you a fee for using your card overseas.
3. VISA/MASTER/AMEX Fees
Visa/Mastercard/AMEX will also charge a fee for using your card overseas. This is generally 1%
Generally you will be paying fees of 2.8% and higher for Bank Fees and Visa/Master/Amex Fees (Charges vary per bank).
Yes! There are so many hidden charges when using your credit card and that is why paying in cash works best when you are travelling overseas. However, we have all faced situations when we have run out of cash, as we just don’t want to carry so much money in our wallet.
Stumbling upon a sale or a big dinner bill to pay, we have all whipped out our credit card overseas and incurred unnecessary charges. However, we can make better use of our money by linking our DBS Visa Debit Card to our DBS Multi Currency account and pay for such expenses prudently.
This same DBS VIsa Debit Card can also be linked to your Amazon account, so that you pay for your US purchases using your foreign currency! 🙂
I don’t know about you, but this sounds like a great financial hack for my family! 🙂 The only catch that I can see is that you need to maintain $3000 (can be in SGD or foreign deposits) to avoid the monthly maintenance fee of $7.50.
What the DBS Multi Currency Account Does:
Access 12 foreign currencies and the Singapore dollar conveniently with one account and buy the foreign currencies at your preferred rates wherever you are, 24/7.
Pay for shopping, dining and leisure with your linked DBS Visa Debit Card in up to 11 foreign currencies* with no foreign exchange fees. Your foreign currency transactions will be debited directly from the respective foreign currency wallet.
For example, when you make a EUR300 purchase in Paris using your linked DBS Visa Debit Card, EUR300 will be deducted directly from the available EUR funds in your MCA. There will be no foreign exchange conversion fees and no additional administrative fees incurred. This multi-currency feature also applies to online shopping as well as for overseas ATM cash withdrawals.
We opened our account by doing it via your DBS online account and you can do the same. If you want to find out more about the DBS Multi Currency account, do click over to the DBS Multi-Currency Account.
This article is brought to you in collaboration with DBS.