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There could be quite a few different prices available for travel. How can you ensure you will get the very best rates? Where can you find hidden fees? Will the South Africa Rand Travelex Cash Passport provide you with the value you want to see when you’re traveling?
Don’t place your trust in the myth about commission-free travel
Don’t fall for the hype of commission-free travel money. Too many people believe that a zero commission rate translates into a zero exchange rate margin – and that there won’t be any additional charges. This is really the biggest myth about it! You should be sure to research exchange rates for currency and also examine any fees for foreign exchange prior to placing an order for travel monies.
What is a foreign exchange fee and why do you need to be aware of them?
Let’s say you’re heading to South Africa and make a quick stop on the way or you have some money left on your travelex card when you make it home – in either case, you’ll probably use your card beyond South Africa’s borders. If this sounds like your situation, you will find yourself presented with Travelex Cash Passport foreign exchange expenses. If you return home with 500 pnds of cash left on the Rand card, you may find yourself charged upwards of 28.75 pnds to take any of that money out of a bank or cash machine.
Exchange rates for Travelex Rand.
The first thing you will notice about Travelex’s rand currency exchange prices largely vary as contingent upon the location in which you top-up your Cash Passport card. For the best rates, you’ll need to load up your card online before you leave the country while the worst rates will probably be incurred at the airport kiosk. Just how good are the better prices, and how poor are the airport rates from Travelex?
We made a choice to study Travelex’s Cash Passport prices at 11:30 a.m. on May 12th, 2010. What we found is as follows.
The online selection allowed you to add to your Travelex Cash Passport Rand card at 10.752 rand to one pound sterling, near but not equal to the interbank exchange rate of 11.2087 being offered at that same time as listed on XE.com. So Travelex’s margin for this transaction was 4.07%. So much for the commission-free travel cash, huh?
But if you instead chose to charge your card at Heathrow airport on that same date, you would have received 10.1527 rand per pound sterling which is 9.42% less than the interbank exchange rates that were being reported by XE.com. If you had exchanged 2000 of sterling to rands at that rate, Travelex would have made a profit of 188.40. And don’t forget that 5.75% fee you’ll be charged when you try to exchange your remaining cash when you finally make back home!
Being that the Travelex card appears to be a poor choice, what would be the more favorable pick?
Since Rand Travelex Cash Passport apparently doesn’t provide good value for your money, this isn’t to say that travel money cards are a poor choice altogether. We’ve checked out lots of different money card options and the one stand out in all of them is the FairFX Anywhere Card.
Why would you want to pick the FairFX Anywhere Card over any others?
It offers you an incredible values for your money. There aren’t any foreign exchange costs, and the exchange prices roughly fall at 0.25% lower than interbank exchange fees. There is a one-time 1.5% transaction charge that is employed with ATM withdrawals and buys. So no separate rules or charges for using an ATM.
Can you really save a lot of money by using the FairFX Anywhere Card?
Let’s take another look at that 2000, but this time with the FaixFX Anywhere Card: you’d keep an additional 46.40 over the Rand Travelex online exchange and an unbelievable 153.40 more than the Rand Travelex exchange at Heathrow airport. (This is just an example of how much you may save and is only intended as a demonstration – the true amount saved will depend on current exchange rates at the time of the transaction.)
Make sure you get a lower price on south africa travel money, and have a look at our table, which clearly shows all the charges and costs with the different card suppliers.
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