Westpac Travel Card Saves On Hassle

Media Release
 

5 March 2009

Westpac Travel Card Saves On Hassle While Travelling

Westpac NZ Ltd has announced the launch of the new Westpac Travel Card, a Visa Prepaid card that allows travellers to keep better control of their finances while enjoying the sights around the world.

The Westpac Travel Visa Prepaid Card has been successfully trialled over the last three months, and is proving to be a popular asset in the financial armoury of travellers. The Travel Card is loaded with a preset amount of money of the traveller’s choice, and is not linked to their everyday bank account, making it safer and easier for travellers to stick to their holiday budget. A PIN number is required to access the money, like a normal debit card, adding to the card’s security.

“The Westpac Travel card has proven extremely popular with young travellers over the trial period, with over 500 cards activated in the last month,” states Westpac’s Senior Product Manager, Philip Muldoon.

“The main benefit for our customers is the Travel Card can be used anywhere a credit card can be used – to purchase travel online, at merchants overseas, as well as accessing the money via the ATM network. Customers can ‘ring fence’ the amount of money they want to spend, and then use the card to help budget their spending.”

Similar travel cards are available from other financial institutions, but Westpac believes it has a superior offering, in that the Westpac Travel Visa Prepaid Card has lower fees to load money onto the card, a substantially lower minimum load limit (of NZ$50 compared with US$200 for the National Bank and ANZ cards) and the ability to access the card using Westpac Online Banking (other cards require a separate website and therefore additional log-ins and passwords need to be remembered). Westpac also sends all Travel Card customers free statements, and due to links with the Global Alliance ATM Network, does not charge for ATM withdrawals through Global Alliance banks around the world (only the standard foreign currency exchange fee is incurred).  

Westpac prides itself as an innovator of financial services to help customers save and spend their money more wisely. The Travel Card is part of a suite of Visa Prepaid Cards released by Westpac since December 2008. The Westpac Express Visa Prepaid Card (designed for sending remittances to the Pacific Islands (but can be sent to other countries also) and help save the Pacific Island Community a huge amount in money transfer fees) and the Westpac Prepaid Visa Card are the remaining two cards in the prepaid offering. 

The Westpac Travel Visa Prepaid Card can:

Be used to withdraw cash from overseas ATMs
Be used wherever you would use a Visa credit card or an EFTPOS card
Help you stick to a holiday budget
Be topped up in branch, or by using an ATM, Phone Banking, Online Banking or as a bill payment.

The Card was designed in association with Visa and can be used to access the EFTPOS and Visa networks around the globe. Accessing money overseas only incurs the 2.5 percent foreign currency conversion fee for each transaction made on the card if it is made from a Global Alliance Network ATM. The Westpac Travel Visa Prepaid Card is not a credit card – only the funds actually loaded on it are available for use. A minimum deposit of $50 is required (which includes the $20 purchase cost) and there is a $3 charge for a manual top up, or $1 for an electronic top up.

- Ends -

© Scoop Media