Commonwealth Bank Travel Money Card

Over a 2-week holiday covering Vietnam and Cambodia we paid about a total 23 USD (about 35 AUD) of bank fees for 4 withdrawals @ ATMs. Expect to pay about 50,000 dong per cash withdrawal in Vietnam in addition to the excess fees the local bank will be charging (depends on your transaction). In Cambodia cash withdrawal fees were about USD 2.50 and the local bank will keep another USD 5.00. In Vietnam, when the card was used in stores an additional 3% tax (VAT) was charged. It felt like daylight robbery. The only positive about the card was the relative ease in which you could use the CBA App to load money in different currencies with a WIFI connection.
Next time I travel to these countries I will be taking cash and exchanging there.

I travelled to Chile. I needed to pay the hotel but it didn't work. I tried then in restaurants, shops, supermarkets, all at different cities, but nothing.
I called customer service and the only solution was to issue new cards which would arrive by the time I was back from my trip.
I strongly recommend not to rely on this card, choose a different one or take cash.

My travel card expired and the money which was left on the card went to unclaimed money. I don't understand why the bank would not have tried to transfer it to the account it was linked to or contact me to advise me. Shows they don't care about their customers. Unable to access how much was in the account. Called customer service who had a don't care attitude and advised I need to go into a bank to make a claim through unclaimed moneys. Difficult when working full time but went to my local branch to lodge a claim. No idea why the bank has to make this so difficult but they have lost me as a customer. I will find another bank who does not do this and cares about their customer.

We used this card in USA gets rejected often and works sometime worst was checking in to American Airlines wouldn't work at all ever!! Embarrassing and frustrating tried to contact Com Bank ha,ha good luck with that might as well be on Mars

I purchased the Combank Travel Money card before I travelled to Europe. I purchased Euros at an extremely low rate of exchange to load on the card. Once in Europe I went to use the card and numerous times I used the card in restaurants & hotels etc. the card charged me in AUS$ and converted it back into euros than back into AUD$ this made a loss after several transactions of over $2000- baring in mind I already had many 1000’s of Euros already loaded on the card. I contacted commonwealth bank at great cost in telephone calls from Europe regarding the technical error built into the cards use overseas and was met by ignorant and non listening commonwealth Bank employees whom would not admit to the cards technical error. The cards use defaults to charging in AUD$ even when you have loaded a foreign currency on the card and there is much foreign currency still available on the card. My advise is DO NOT TRUST THIS Commonwealth BANK TRAVEL MONEY CARD. The COMMONWEALTH BANK rip you off twice on extremely low exchange rates for a technical error within the cards system at no fault of the customer/ users. Commonwealth Bank reply and state it is not there fault! Con artists & theives is a nice description of dealing with this evil money making theiving Bank. DO NOT TRUST!

July 4th 2019 Update: Bad Product- Stay Away

I exchanged AUD to EUROS on this Travel Money Card before leaving Australia for a trip to Europe. However have found out that 1 in 3 transactions in Europe using the card to pay bills in Euros are billed in AUD then converted back into Euros all at my the users expense and ALL transactions I have authorised to be in Euros. After contacting the C.B.A. regarding this error. They basically advise me complete lies that I had the choice to use AUD or EUROS and have chosen AUD. This is obviously not true and correct, as WHY would any sane person use AUD$ in a country that uses Euros to pay for a bill. This card is only good for making money for the Directors of C.B.A. and using your hard earned money to fund these already overpaid criminals! STAY AWAY from this card!

I transferred $8200 to Euros from AUD and received $5000 which seemed about right. It wasn't until I decided i wanted my money back in AUD that I lost just over $750 in fees and conversion rates. Essentially if you don't spend all your money overseas, you loose it! Massive rip off and was told I could convert easily and conveniently back to AUD, no mention of the massive fees associated with this type of transaction. Lucky I didn't discover this overseas, will be cancelling the card immediately after trying to recoup my money.

My card expired whist I was travelling I could not get a replacement sent to Europe so stuck with no money , then my money just vanished 2 months ago and I had to go to the back to reclaim what was mine over 6000 dollars do not get this card theives

If you want to purchase a card so you can pay for things whilst you are on holidays anywhere in Australia or Overseas I would recommend using a Westpac Global Card since it is more secure and you don't need to worry about being scammed also there is no fees whatsoever.

Have USD loaded on the card. About to travel overseas and wanted to withdraw USD to have some cash on hand. Went to George and Market St Sydney foreign currency deal in branch to be told you can’t withdraw USD in Australia. Card can only be used overseas to withdraw cash. Useless.
Have also travelled with it to a few countries now to be slugged fees higher than stated on its website!! Time to look for a better card!!

Was charged 11 1/2 months later for an overseas transaction, but my concern is how do you know it hasn’t already been deducted from your money card? ! Filed a dispute with combank but did not hear anything from them. Very poor customer service!

During the December / January period the card was 'fee-free'. We put in just NZD500 for a one week trip to NZ. That translated to AUD497. We didn't use any of the money, so we closed the card - and got AUD452 back. So in just one week, the Bank ripped AUD45 - that's 10% from our pocket in Bank-generated 'exchange rate difference'. All this time the rate was steady at 0.95. If we'd put in say NZD50,000, we'd have lost AUD10,000 in just one week.
Obviously, outside of this 'fee-free' period, they rip out even more.
It's THEFT, pure and simple.
You need negative stars (lots of them) to rate this insidious product. One star is far too much.

Be aware when your card expires your funds will go to unclaimed money. Now I have to go into the branch to claim it back without knowing how much I had. Could be 1$ could be 1000$ I can't access my account info now so how is someone to know if they are being ripped off?? Trust of a big bank?

I added AU$1000 to the card and exchanged to VND but didn't have a chance to use it due to change of plan. Then I transferred the total VND amount back to AU$ and I lost $150. It was completely ripped off. Do not recommend it to anyone. I wished I should have googled about it first before ordering the card.

Check your expiry date before travelling again and renew otherwise you’ll have to pay for the card again. After travelling for one month through Asia my wife had a Citi bank card which ended up being $50 better off and no cost for the card but Citibank isn’t available for all countries.
When you use travel money card at a restaurant you find yourself signing the receipt all the time instead of pin which becomes a bit annoying. Never had a problem getting cash just remember your slugged with a fee every time you use it at atms so limit withdrawals.

I suggest that you take cash (USD preferably although AUD is acceptable). Used CBA Travel Card at Vietnamese bank ATMs was charged VND50000 per withdrawal PLUS additional fees of the Vietnamese banks. Vietnam is a 'cash' society with even hotels preferring cash (USD or AUD). And yes exchange rate provided by CBA was low and hotels there don't give good rates either. At least I could access the account and load it via NetBank.

Can’t get it to work in commbank atms in Indo. This is terrible, especially because the banks version of Siri is worse than useless and just try asking for help from a real person. Dinosaur bank, unhelpful app, useless travel card. Back to the credit unions it is.

Traveled to Samoa, have just got home and I’m shocked to the terrible exchange rates, Next time I’ll exchange at the airport and take a credit card . Really bad value from commbank- greedy .

I repeat do not get this card! For every 1000$ I transferred I was losing 50 euros on there fees. Also commonwealth update their app every week so I’ve had days where I can’t even use my travel card. Also if you look at the st George travel card they don’t charge fees or atm fees it’s way better. I personal will not be using commonwealth for banking anymore with the fact that they need to update their app and card every bloody week.

Shopped around and got this card recently for the various benefits. Happy with how it works and what it does! Can't quite understand why people are so angry, it's hit the mark easily for me and what I need out of a card.

Worst idea. Do not get this card.
I spent two weeks in the UK and multiple times my card declined with funds loaded to the card.

Attempted to take cash out and declined then took my money. Took commbank 7 days to get my money back.

Then declined at the airport and took my money. Still waiting for that money to be returned to me.

Do not get this card. 9 times out of 10 you will need to sign for your purchases and not use the useless pin they asked you to set up. Super inconvenient when trying to make a speedy purchase on a busy holiday.