Means of paymentWe almost always used our credit card for payment, because this proved itself to be cheaper than changing cash into the Australian currency. In case of cash withdrawal banks always use the more unfavourable exchange rate and in addition charge high processing cost. Visa, Mastercard and AMEX are accepted almost everywhere. Only in isolated, for tourists unexploited places or with very small sums there might be a problem with plastic money. Therefore we also had some cash for saveness which you can withdraw at every ATM (when you have a standard account. Be careful with e.g. accounts for teens or students). People that stay in Australia for a longer period usually open a bank account here.A credit card is also very handy for substantial amounts. One thing we had not considered before our trip was the expiry date of our cash card, because the card got invalid after some time and thus we had to get cash with the credit card. And using a credit card at an ATM is more expensive than with a cash card. |