My handy hint for operating a NZ card from the UK is that the cheapest and most reliable method of sending money back home is to use travellers cheques. I buy a £20 TC from WHS Smith for £25. Then it costs 65p to post it. No need to register it because with TCs they are automatically covered by a kind of insurance - if you lose them you can cancel them and have them re-issued. So if after a few weeks they don't show up on your balance then you can try again. But it's never happened that a TC I've sent didn't make it through. The bank cash it in and take a fee, but I usually find that £20 is about NZ$45 so the rate is pretty good. And doing a bank to bank transfer costs about £25 (last time I checked!). Sending money orders was also more expensive last time I checked, and more of a phaff.
Sunday 24 January 2010
Credit Card
I use Amazon a fair bit - mostly window shopping, but I pick up the occasional bargain. Anyway they were hassling me to get their credit card and I though well it would be more convenient than using my BNZ Mastercard. I mostly use a UK debit card, but sometimes one needs a credit card! So I started filling in the form, but when it came to filling in the amount earned (I gross about £9000 per year with Income Support and Housing Benefit) it would not accept the amount I was putting in. Too small? That made me laugh. So I'm keeping my NZ card alive while I can because I'd never get credit otherwise.
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As a former bankrupt, I'm not allowed any form of credit card or debit card, but I eventually found that I could buy from Amazon or any other internet retailer using a pre-paid card. As far as the retailer is concerned, it works just like a credit card. As customers, we have to pay the money up front and we also pay a transaction fee of somewhere around 3%, but there are NO credit checks. I save more than 3% buying from Amazon anyway - very important being on benefits.
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