Westpac Global Currency Card

This card is a complete rip off and scam, I am devastated at the amount of money I have lost using it. I have just calculated that in a ten-day trip to Bali, it cost me $500 in conversion and ATM fees. I would have been better exchanging cash over there... While it has been helpful in the past with a backup card in case one is lost and general reliability in obtaining money overseas and making payments, the cost seems far too unreasonable.

I got scammed using this card with travel to NZ. Westpac bank actually blocked this transaction using my nirmal credit card, as it was a known fraud site, so in my wisdom I then used my worldwide card, and it accepted payment, and done, went to Florida in America, and westpac Worldwide would not investigate, wanted me to investigate the… Read more

fraud site myself to give them proof, and click on the infected links, when I refused to they would not help. I am disgusted with the lack of help. Do not use this card

My wife and I both chose Westpac Global Currency cards, but when trying to set them up, we both had problems. Due to this, I decided not to add funds and chose a currency card from another supplier, but my wife stuck with Westpac as out bank accounts are with Westpac and she believed it would be easier to transfer funds. While in the UK, her card… Read more

appeared to be working, but during week 3, she tried to add more money onto the card but was unable to do so. She logged into the website but could not access any of her transactions or add funds. She contacted the Westpac helpline who told her they would get the technical team to call her as a matter of urgency. This would take 5 DAYS!! Luckily I went with another card and was able to add extra funds onto my card. If I had stayed with Westpac, we would be stuck in the UK with very little money. I cannot recommend the Westpac card

Great experience! – I was unsure about this card due to the reviews online, however I found this card great! I used this card throughout Europe and Dubai. Very easy to use, I was able to move money across and see my exchange rate online, to which Westpac exchange rate was very competitive and better than other banks. Once I returned to Australia, I was able to move… Read more

my money to one of my every day accounts without hassle. I was able to use my card everywhere. I will definitely use this card again.

Worked perfectly – I was worried about using this card, as other reviews were so poor, but having to travel last minute, this was my best option. I'm so glad I did. The exchange rate was good and fees were fine. Worked everywhere I tried to use it - ATMs, tap and go with small vendors. The app worked well and I could check transactions and transfer funds. Wouldn't… Read more

hesitate using it again on my next trip. I also tested the card before I left to make sure there were no issues. I also only converted to Yen what I knew I was going to use (and when the exchange rate was good), so that if I need to transfer back to my account I wouldn't lose more money. Westpac also recommended this to me.

Perfect! Trouble free across France, Italy and England – I was worried about using this card on a recent trip as I had read really bad reviews online. Well I can honestly tell you that Westpac Worldwide Wallet was exceptional. Before I left I loaded some Aussie dollars and had a test run before I left, worked perfectly. I only loaded a small amount of Euros and GBP in case there were issues. There… Read more

wasn't any, I soon loaded it with all the funds we needed. You can use tap PayPass for purchases under €50 or £50, over that you just need to insert and enter your PIN. On two occasions I was asked to sign. We used this card for everything! I'm so glad we got it, it made for easy hassle free finance while overseas. We even used it for Uber, but I don't think you can use it to secure a Rental Car.

I also took a Qantas Money with me that worked just as good but the Westpac exchange rate was better than Qantas.

Set up the card in advance for our Italian holiday worked well for 2 days then on the 3rd day I could not use it at all it declined all my purchases but still held money for every attempt at one point I had over 500 euro locked and unable to access or move. Very disappointed contacted Westpac multiple times was bounced around and was eventually rectified but not until withdrawal and conversion costs were incurred Show details

Used to be good but twice today, even after I called Customer Service, my card was blocked. Why? Because I was trying to book tickets online for tours of a Castle in Czech Republic and the Hungarian Parliament building in Budapest, prior to my travel. And just because Westpac's system doesn't recognise the vendors, they put a stop on my card!!!! … Read more

I even gave CS the details of the 2nd tour which was then added to my account and they still blocked my card!! What happens when I get to Eastern Europe and want to eat at a restaurant the bot has never heard of? Total waste of time and utterly useless. I will now look for other options. Thanks for nothing Westpac.

I had an issue where an ATM in Phuket would not let me withdraw money ($1000 AUD in Thai Baht) but charged my card. I was given the run around for months trying to chase it up until too much time had elapsed and I was unable to have the issue resolved. This time I was unable to transfer money from my main account. I contacted support from overseas… Read more

to see that my account had been suspended because I had somehow overdrawn it. No message or warning, nor any explanation on the app. It takes 5 days to fix it so now I’m forced to use my main debit card and get charged high fees. Never again.

Worst card ever – I could not set a pin on my travel card online or via customer service , to withdraw cash from Phuket. Which means I had all this foreign currency sitting there that I could not use. Phuket takes a lot of cash still and not card and me and family were stuck. This is unacceptable . The customer service team put it on technical glitch and when I… Read more

asked for her to write a complaint she said it wil be a closed complaint. Now I have to take out cash on my debit card which means I will pay a foreign currency fee and a withdrawal fee as westpac does not have any ATm alliances with any banks in Thailand

Westpac Global Currency Card – The card was cumbersome to access and not always accepted. I would not recommend it. The only plus is that I could transfer unused dollars back into my bank account. Use ‘Wise’ card instead.

Amost $6000 US on it and not able to access it – Terrible. I just recently had 4 cruises and a hotel stay where I tried to use my card. I loaded about $6000 USD on it. Unfortunately none of the cruises or the hotel could use the card. After months of not being able to use it overseas I got told that it declines because the card is not a personal card. This is due to no name on it. It just says… Read more

Prepaid on the front of the card. So when putting it as the card held by the proprietor it at check in it cannot be used as it doesn't have my name applied to it. Apparently for security reasons their systems won't accept non personal cards as this prevents someone using a card they just found or stole. Hence why just having Prepaid on the front of the card instead of your name quite often causes problems and declines. It did however work fine at stores and food outlets etc. It just needs to be like other Mastercards prepaid or not, and be issued with my name on it.

Not available disappointed – I went to westpac to get this card for my European holiday next year,and its not available though my branch told me it was and I had to get it online, I rang to worldwide wallet number and was told it will be available but they didn't know when, very disappointed I decided on this card because I have westpac accounts and can transfer money easily from one account to this one

Terrible time in Japan with the world wide wallet – I have used this card many times before overseas and it was great. On Tuesday 19 November, I travelled to Japan and my card/s were declined. I was stranded in a Japanese airport with no money. I had used the card in Singapore on the 18 of November and it was fine. There was maintenance conducted over the weekend - impacting many cards. I rang… Read more

the Worldwide Wallet team and they told me my card had been reported lost / stolen ( not by me) and was going to take 5 days to get this lifted. All associated with the maintenance conducted over the weekend. I spent all of Tuesday on the phone to Westpac trying to resolve the issue. One staff member was great and did all that she could but the two other men dealt with were horrible- kept putting me back into the call system... It was very frightening for me as I had no money/ was very sleep deprived ( flying) and wasn't sure what I was going to do. Apparently westpac was flooded with complaints..I would think twice about using this card again. I am also thinking about putting in a complaint.

UNHAPPY WITH PRODUCT – Setup before leaving Oz and was great. Now in Sth Africa can use to pay BUT cannot view my balances, cannot transfer any extra money and cannot convert currency. Only got this as my westpac bank said it was really good. DONT GET THIS CARD!!!! Have rang twice fir support and they can’t correct it so luckily I am not travelling alone Show details

Policy change sucks – Have been advised that from 30 Sept​ember 2024, you’ll only be able to transfer funds INTO your Worldwide Wallet from your eligible Westpac accounts. Therefore, you’ll also no longer be able to directly transfer funds from other financial institutions to your Worldwide Wallet. When I opened up my Worldwide Wallet, I was initially advised that I… Read more

had to open up a Westpac Savings account only if transferring funds OUT of Worldwide Wallet. Such an account would;ve charged me $5 per month account-keeping fee, unless you're retired, getting Centrelink or deposit a minimum amount in savings account each month (e.g. having your pay put in there).

Seems like just another money-making grab in my book.

If you want to go overseas and have no access to your prepaid money get thus card – I wish I could give this card a -5 star review! Declined multiple times even though there was plenty of money available. Took money even though it declined in store, online app showed "pending" has been showing for over a week now which is half of my holiday. Had a system update that crashed everything meaning I got locked out of the online login… Read more

system and the contact center was unable to do anything about it apart from tell me that the card wasn't going to be usable while the system was down and no one able to say how.long it would be down for leaving me with no money. I would not under any circumstance use this card.

ENDLESS STRESS AND ISSUES – I bloody hate this card just problems problems and more problems. It stopped working half way giving the well known wrong pin issue this card is famous for. Then when I desperately needed to convert for my taxi to the airport, the app is conveniently "unable to access conversion rates" I also will be closing all my Westpac accounts upon my return this card has caused SO much stress and additional issues (all this was in Thailand)

Left me stranded – Would give this zero stars if I could. Desperately need money on the card but I am getting an error that they cannot get the current exchange rate. This has left me stranded. Only support is via phone which is not possible for me overseas, chat support should be available for these issues. Show details

Terrible and not value for money – Claims to be a Westpac product, but bank can’t help - you need to call Worldwide Wallet Support. They are useless and the common go to response to any problem is “cancel card”…not great when travelling different places. Takes a long time to load balances and often times out or states there’s no internet connection when I’m connected & using… Read more

internet Holds on cards take 30 business days to be returned by Worldwide Wallet, despite holds being returned by hotels upon leaving or 3-5 days and the process to have the hold authority lifted is convoluted and not guaranteed to be honoured, often support will pass responsibility to Mastercard Currency conversion is not comparative, often much lower than other sites and converting from CAD to USA I lost over $100 which is ridiculous! Next time I travel I will not be using this card, but shopping around & I highly recommend others do the same - it’s convenient at many costs

Do not use – Do not use this card for the following reasons -No support at a Westpac branch -Exchange rates not good - When a car hire company puts a $3000 hold on the card. It is not released for a calendar month. Not when you return the car same applied to hotels -on line support useless I am reporting these issues to the Banking Ombudsman Show details

Coud be better – Advertising suggests you are getting a good deal, with no conversion fees. This is true but it is built into the rates they give you to load the currency you need. The rate to convert back to aus dollar was terrible, but you have no choice if you want to be able to withdraw any balance in aus dollar. Show details

Japan: Card did not work for me – I tried to use the westpac global wallet card in Japan in Feb 2024. I couldn't use it in any of the 4 ATM's I tried. I ended up just using my debit card from another bank. I lost money in the conversions Au $ to Jpn Yen and then back again. I did not find it useful in Japan. I also discovered 10 yrs ago that westpac ATM cards don't work in Hawaii… Read more

as there was no "bank of America " (there is bank of Hawaii ) My experiences have taught me to not rely on Westpac cards for travel.

Great concept but a lot of improvements needed - unreliable and hard to use – We had a number of issues using this card: -whilst it appears to be a Westpac card, if you go into a Westpac branch to ask for help they can’t! I was fobbed off and told to ring the phone number for Worldwide Wallet. Really - if it is advertised as a Westpac card then a Westpac branch should be able to help! -on a number of occasions when I… Read more

tried to convert ccys, I couldn’t as there was an error message. One time this lasted for a couple of days. I rang the helpline and was told this was a very unusual situation and was related to a computer issue and shouldn’t happen again. But 3 weeks later it happened again so I couldn’t use it!

-one of our cards was stolen in Rome (my husband’s wallet was pickpocketed on the metro). Great that we had 2 cards and I could cancel just one, but it was so slow to open and use the functionality on the app! I use a banking app for another Aussie bank and it was so much quicker to load (and cancel card) - the Westpac app was about 10 times slower to load and cancel the card.

-it was hard overseas to find an ATM that I could take cash out of - I had thought that any ATM with the Mastercard logo could be used but this wasn’t the case! Also the card couldn’t be used in a number of shops / hotels for some reason.

In the end I mostly used my Visa card (issued by another bank) given these challenges. Will be closing the account and won’t be using these cards again - too unreliable!!

Manage to get money out at some places but their travel delay policy is all lies – Took to Japan and loaded money on prior to trip. It was difficult to get money out in Japan and only some atm would accept. The biggest downfall is the delayed lounge acces promises they give. We were delayed for 11 hrs over 2 airports on the way home and they wouldn’t honour their lounge acces policy. Wouldn’t bother using this card again for… Read more

either money or the supposed benefits that are offered. Please westpac you are better not offering a service than using technicalities to get out of services you have offered. Very disappointing