Australian Dollar and Credit Cards
12 November 2007
The rise of the Australian dollar in recent week's has given an unexpected bonus to Australian's travelling overseas with their credit cards. 'More bang for your buck' has never been more appropriate since the Australian dollar reached a 23-year high of $US0.9399 on November 7.
This is all great news for both importers and those who like to travel overseas with your Australian currency now worth considerably more than it did just four months ago.
On August 10, the Australian dollar opened at $US0.8496/98, today it opened trading at $US0.9045/53.
When travelling overseas you need to be sure that the places you are visiting will accept your credit card. Some holidaymakers have found that in many places throughout Britain and Europe that their Australian credit card is not accepted because it doesn't have a microchip.
You would be well advised that if you are heading off on an overseas holiday that you make sure that you have a secondary credit card that has a microchip and not just leave for your holidays with a card with a magnetic strip only. Also make sure that you know your pin number.
Britain has moved to microchip cards more than a year ago and many merchants simply haven't given the matter enough thought that there may be one or two credit cards outside of Britain and Europe.
The Australian banks are finally changing their credit cards to the 'new' microchip system. The ANZ has been issuing microchip cards for several years, The Westpac and Commonwealth banks have recently joined the program while the NAB is yet to release a date to let its customers know when they will receive new replacement microchip credit cards.
It can certainly be a sticky situation being in a foreign country and having money but not being able to access it because your credit card won't work.
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