Could they all transfer money into your account, then you can do the conversion and fire it off. Saves 10 different people trying to do a currency exchange. As long as you're happy being responsible for it and having to organise everyone, which can be a pain in the arse.

If you are the one organising the money add an extra ten percent or something to cover contingencies like currency fluctuations, transaction fees etc, if there is coin left over us it for taxis etc or buy a round of beers once it's all paid for and you know what's left.

I haven't looked into it yet, But i was told this morning to get a OZ Forex debit card. Apparently they only charge .5% to transfer money. Instead of 2% by most major Credit Cards..

jbshack said..

I haven't looked into it yet, But i was told this morning to get a OZ Forex debit card. Apparently they only charge .5% to transfer money. Instead of 2% by most major Credit Cards..

Been using these guys for years. You can transfer money to USD accounts online via B-Pay and with a huge saving in rate raping you get from the banks.

Normal banks not only charge you a transaction fee but give you bad rates. eg if the Interbank (like you see on TV) is 90cents they'll change you at 95 or 96 cents and then whack you for $40 for the transaction...... A joke.

Oz Forex have very small transaction fees and will save you around 4 cents on the same transaction. Make that over $20K USD you need to pay and you just saved yourself almost a grand. That's a lot of Bintang and you don't even need to go the branch.

Open a US$ bank account and get your mates to transfer US dollars to it.

Tux said..

Are you booking it through surf travel co or one of those mobs or doing it straight to the boat? We ended up going though a travel agent so we were covered if the charter didn't go ahead for some reason...apparently there have been cases of boats not going in the past.

My normal credit card has the same feature, plus it gives me and family full travel insurance..Thats the only thing that has held me back. I may book with my card and use the other for normal spending..