Me and my partner going for a holiday to brisbane for 4 nights and gold coast for 3 nights, wanting to know if it's worth getting something like wise to spend money? Or just use our NZ debit cards. Also if it's worth buying a Sim card when we arrive.
And ideas of what we can also do there, will be staying with a family member so have access to a car and some local knowledge, have planned the Aussie zoo, movie world and a day of shopping (is there any good outlet stores?)
You could also buy a amaysim esim so you dont have to bither with physical sims when you land.
Much cheaper too vs airport sims.
Do you know if you can purchase and activate the esim in NZ or do you have to do it upon arrival into Australia?
You can download the app, pay for the eSIM and set it up in NZ, but activation will be upon arrival.
Loads of providers need ID for verification
Belong is on the telstra network and does not need ID.
Cheapest places to buy sim cards are Woolies and Coles.
As always you need to check with your particular bank(s) to see what the fees are for you and your account specifically. For me (bnz) there is no charge to withdraw cash from an Australia ATM. So I just did that. Does mean carrying cash, and you have to work things out so you don't get left with a bunch of Aussie cash leftover at hometime. I haven't been for 10 years so there might be more places now that don't accept cash.
We went to the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary on Gold Coast. More of a relaxed un-hyped zoo. A bit like Hamilton Zoo vs Auckland if you've been to both of those.
Habour Town is the big outlet. You will end up there for sure. I picked up dozens of All Blacks items at the Adidas outlet. Was super cheap. No doubt less demand/interest among the locals. Cheap local surf branded stuff RipCurl, billabong etc as well.
I’ve done quite a few trips to Aus, usually go once or twice a year. I use my debit card, fees are less than 2%, over $5000, that’s less than $100 and it’s no hassles
In terms of SIM card, I use my work sim which gives me free data but what my fiancée did was order a Kogan E-Sim and added/activated once we landed. Was cheap as and did the job. Definitely do that over roaming
In terms of what to do - Brisbane is super nice, I found it super nice anyway. Really good if you like nature. Definitely catch a bus to Mt Coot-Tha Summit, wander down to the Mt Coot-Tha botanical gardens where they've also got a planetarium.
City botanical gardens is nice too. They've got a large Fig Tree at the end by the Story Bridge which is covered in fairy lights - I proposed under that tree, was really nice. Lots of areas to sit and picnic and relax if that's your style of travel. Brisbane is a bit more laid back than other cities such as Melbourne and Sydney
SIM card for Brisbane I just always buy a prepay sim when you arrive to international airport.
Use discount sites for activities Bookme, Klook, Experience Oz, Groupon and Themeparks. I also collect tourist travel guides at the airport as I often find discount coupons in them. Wise and travel cards are no longer worth it, you get stung fees left right and centre on each transaction which they don't tell you about as it is considered a credit card. Large withdrawal fee too on cash and loading fees. You loose $5 a month if you don't close it too so we lost $100 over covid lockdown.
Thanks for the replies everyone 🙂 will question my bank (TSB) about what there fees might be and research a bit of what was suggested.
1.90% according to this summary from Money Hub
https://www.moneyhub.co.nz/best-credit-card-overseas-fees.ht…
For some reason people push Wises like they own the company.
It has its uses. But unless your planning on spending $1000+ on it there is zero point to get a physical card.
You also will be hit with big withdrawl fees if you need to get cash. (AU$7 was the cheapest my sister could find - and had to use as the card would work at any other terminal until she did. Any savings gone right there).
Your bank undoubtedly has a fee free ATM withdrawl agreement with someone. Your credit card or the rest.
We are off to Sydney soon. Thought about these issues also. Friends said get a 'Wise' card so that banks don't get their transaction fees etc. Well I enquired and the transaction fees for using a Debit card are about 1.4-1.75 % depending on which banks card we use. I really don't care much about that. If I spend $1000 that means less than $20 extra in fees. It's irrelevant to me. Oh and yeah theres paywave fees but the banks couldn't say how much they are but I doubt they'd be worse than Nz. So really to me it's a non issue.
SIM cards. Well I found that with a little research you can buy a prepay sim for anywhere from $10-25 ish AU which will give you from 4 - 30GB and last between 1 week to 1 month. Depends on what provider you buy from etc. I"m gonna do that just so I have data available for things like Google Maps & searches when I'm away from Wifi and etc. I have a dual sim phone so it's easy to slip another card in there.