I live here and 50% of the time I am living off U.S. dollars and/or euros that I am exchanging on a regular basis, so I know. U.S. currency should only be brought as an emergency cash reserve, no more than $500. If you can buy commission free traveler's checks, use those for an emergency reserve instead of cash. South African banks charge outrageous fees on currency exchange. South African businesses do not want to see anything other than South African currency and plastic and there are plenty of businesses that don't still take plastic, either. Most U.S. cards charge a 3% fee for ATM usage plus another flat fee of $1-$3, besides a fee that may be imposed by the local South African bank. This will still be better than using a currency exchange booth! But there are various cards still that only charge 1% and have no flat fee. Among the bigger banks, I think Capital One was charging less. These days, I use an internet bank called Perkstreet which is phenomenal. Lots of free bonus money, 1% cash kick back on purchases, only 1% on foreign ATM use. So a card like the above should be your primary card but bring others, due to networks being down, "fraud" holds being placed on your card. Bring a cheap netbook computer with skype installed so that you can check your transactions on a daily basis and use the netbook to call your bank whenever there's a problem.
I was just about to make this same post. At this point, my options are limited to using my debit card or withdrawing all my money and getting it exchanged to rand before I leave. Which would be the better option?
Withdraw cash at atms, pay by credit card, have R2000 tops in your wallet. I disagree with BMP, in Gauteng anyway most establishments take credit cards.
Gauteng is not the entire country. And most petrol stations are still refusing to take credit cards in the western and eastern Cape. Many, smaller restaurants outside the big cities also do not take credit cards. A lot of guesthouses don't, most of the non chain stores don't. Laundries and Laundromats don't!!! 20 years ago in California, about the only place that didn't accept plastic was Burger King and now all fast food places do. I used to keep just $20 in my wallet. South Africa is still very much a cash driven society.
For those people from the UK, I recommend the FairFX card. It is a pre-paid Mastercard that can be used at Point of Sale and ATM's. They give you a far better rate than the banks, and charge 1.5% on each transaction. Far less than normal debit/credit cards. Works out much cheaper.
The rate used by the FairFX MasterCard is set by MasterCard, not by FairFX, as with all foreign purchases/withdrawals on MasterCard. The only bit FairFX control is the 1.5% fee.
That's what I am going to do. Some cash and withdraw money directly form my account. I have informed my bank already so they will not block any transaction.
It does, it will charge you a 2.5% FX fee on every transaction. Caxton's $ and € cards are good value, but their £ one not so much. For prepaid cards the cheapest is the Travelex Cash Passport Globe which charges a flat rate of 1.49%, then FairFX at 1.5%. Although with the Travelex card you need to preload it with at least £1,000 to get the card for free. So basically if you are taking at least £1,000 use the Travelex Cash Passport Globe and if you're taking less use the FairFX. There are better credit cards out there, but these are the two best prepaid ones for spending in non $ and € countries.
BMP, so you are saying my hard cold cash is no good in SA? How bad is the exchange rate? Right now 1 US$ is about ZAR 7.7, so lets say using this rate, at the bank, how much would I expect my US$ worth? ZAR 7.5? ZAR 7?
http://www.oanda.com/ is the site I use at work for FX conversions however this a commercial rate so any rate you are quoted must allow for commissions etc.
You can check the exchange rate of FNB in South Africa here:https://www.fnb.co.za/rates/forex/forexRates.html Notes is cash, TCs is Traveller's Cheques, not sure what TT stands for. Most banks are going to be a similar rate.
"specific cards for euros and US dollars" - Why would you take one of those to South Africa? I doubt you will get many euros and dollars out of a South African cash machine, even if you could I doubt you could spend them anywhere in South Africa without some kind of exchange charge. The Caxton sterling card does charge, a 2.5% fee, and as the exchange is done at the point of transaction it uses the standard MasterCard rate, nothing to do with Caxton. That article is also extremely badly written, because it will just confuse most people by only highlighting one or two of the charges, it is very selective. With all prepaid cards, if you are buying them in a foreign currency then the bulk of the charges are paid upfront and they are cheap/free to use and if you get them in your local currency then there are generally no upfront charges and they charge at the point of transaction. Basically the charges are applied when the money is exchanged from one currency to another.
They do the global traveller card, I used it in Morocco 2 weeks ago and with the exchange rate at the time there was no extra charge for atm withdrawals.
No, I just did a lot of research into them a few weeks back when I was looking, I settled on two FairFX cards in the end, if one gets lost/stolen then you can transfer the balance to the other. Here is the description of the three cards Caxton do: http://www.caxtonfxcard.com/cards_description.asp You will notice this under the Global Traveller Card: "The exchange rate applied is fixed at 2.5% from the prevailing interbank rate." The interbank rate they refer to is the rate applied to the transaction by MasterCard, this is the same rate applied to all MasterCard transactions no matter who issues the card, the 2.5% is the cut Caxton take, with the FairFX Anywhere Card it's 1.5% and the Travelex Cash Passport Globe it's 1.49%. There are credit cards that will charge you nothing like the Santander Zero Card, but obviously it's not prepaid, so you have to apply for it. It's only really good for purchases as the cash advance rate for withdrawals is stupidly high. The Post Office credit card is also free for purchases, but charges 2.5% (min £3) for cash withdrawals and then a cash advance rate on top. There are a few other Credit cards that will charge just 1% and Nationwide debit card also only charges 1% (free in Europe), but you have to have an account with them. I would always use a proper credit card for large purchases, even if it costs 1-2% more, as prepaid credit cards and debit cards won't offer any protection if things go wrong.
I'm leaning towards getting a SA Travel Card through Absa once I arrive. Anyone else considering going that route? How much of a pain is/isn't it? A.
You can check out the exchange rate for ABSA here: http://www.absa.co.za/absacoza/cont...rmation/Exchange-Rates/Current-Exchange-Rates You will get the buy rate, currently about 4% below interbank, so it seems an expensive way of taking money, but the upsides are you will know exactly how many Rand you have to spend and you won't have to worry about exchange rate fluctuations.
A great website for UK travellers: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheap-travel-money I've used the tool here to get the current best deal on cash: http://travelmoney.moneysavingexpert.com/
so for someone coming from the states, would it be perhaps best to go ahead and exchange US Dollars for Rand at a currency exchange in an airport during my flight connection? Sounds like I could maybe get more Rand for my buck there then when I actually land in SA. If I'm following correctly. Thanks in advance
dont do the exchange at the airport here in the states. rather exchange some using your local banks because theyll give you a better rate. then exchange some when you get to SA. Remember there is a limit of R5000 cash you can bring into SA. Use your card for purchases too and it works out to be better than exchanging for cash at the bureau d'exchange
When I flew in to JBurg a few weeks ago, no one asked how much I brought into the country. It was not even necessary to fill out a declaration form when going through customs. I doubt they are going to bother anyone trying to bring money IN to the country
I can't walk into my local bank and exchange us dollars for SA Rand. Do many American banks do this? I guess my best bet is to just use ATM machines once there.