After much searching, I have not been able to find the holy grail of credit cards that so many on the forum talk about. That is, a credit card that allows you to withdraw cash from an overseas ATM with no associated fees.
My feeling is that one does not exist. I've called many different credit unions and looked at even more of their websites, scouring their fine print and it seems that in the user pays society within which we live, these fees are unavoidable.
So I'm now going to use my trusty Bankstown City Credit Union Visa Debit Card. The fees on this are $2 for each cash advance and a commission of 1% for each foreign currency transaction. This compares to $3.75 per withdrawal and 1% for the Travelex Cash Passport and $5 + 2.5% for the ANZ Frequent Flyer Visa. This for me seemed to be the most expensive in terms of fees. Definitely not good value for money. Gold Card holders have the flat $5 fee waived, but even still, 2.5% is quite steep.
So my question is, how to use a Visa Debit card in an OS machine... I think I used this card once in Switzerland, but I really didn't know what I was doing (and I was desperate!) and really don't have a clear idea what the procedure is.
Is it that I just put the card in the machine, enter my PIN and then select credit? How does the international machine know what my PIN is? If it communicates with my bank in some way, why can't I just use my normal savings account? :)
Anyway, I can't help but feeling ripped off being charged for the privilege of accessing my own money. :)