N1cks

With the new Travelex OneSmart debt card, you can now set the default currency to Australian dollars.

This has me wondering if it's possible to transfer money directly from an Australian bank account to OneSmart.

Does anyone know if this is possible?

sbiddle

Topping up a OneSmart account is no different to any other international bank transfer. It's always been possible but you'd have to be stupid to do it with all the fees involved.

I seriously don't know why anybody would actually be using the Travelex OneSmart. It's a truly terrible offering with poor rates compared to the non white label offering and support is just atrocious.

N1cks

I just did a quick comparison for transfer rates between AirNZOneSmart & Velocity Global & they're similar:

Money Transfer rate (different from load rates):

AirNZOneSmart

$100 AUD = $104.87 NZD
$100 USD = $137.22 NZD

Velocity Global Wallet

$100 AUD = $102.96 NZD
$100 USD = $141.20 NZD

But yeah, you may have a point.

Anyway, to transfer money from an AU account to an NZD OneSmart account, I'd need a SWIFT number. Just wondered if anyone has done this...

In any case, I'll give AirNZOneSmart a call.

N1cks

Just rang AirNZOneSmart customer service - apparently transfers from international bank accounts is not permitted.

Oh well... was just an idea.

dadig

I really can't comprehend transferring (what would be considered) the target currency to NZ? Is it so you can spend the money in NZD?

N1cks

To clarify, the goal was to transfer AUD from an Aussie bank account to AUD in OneSmart (you can change OneSmart's default currency to AUD). There would be no currency conversion fees (asides from bank transaction fees).

The target currency is not NZD. Will probably be USD or AUD.

dadig

Ah yes that would be the use case for a travel card - I had various currencies (GBP/AUD/USD/HKD) from trips and thought it would be good to load up OneSmart that way. Sadly not how it was intended

sbiddle

The card doesn't actually work the way you think it does.

With the old OneSmart you had to load NZD and then move money between wallets. With the new OneSmart you can load currency direct to foreign $ wallet you want -but it doesn't really work any differently - you enter into an agreement to purchase $x of a foreign currency and then need to load NZD of the specified amount to purchase this.

Transferring money from an AUD bank account to any NZ bank account will automatically be converted to NZD unless it's a forex account, so even if you did have the SWIFT code to transfer money to the OneSmart account it would be converted to NZD, and then to AUD at the agreed purchase price.

I'm still confused as to why you'd want to load AUD onto a NZ based account and lose somewhere in the vicinity of 2.5% when you could just load AUD onto an AUD prepaid card with no commission at all.

OneSmart is a terrible product, and I see no logical reason for anybody to use it. If you do want a travel card and don't mind supporting Travelex then simply get the non white label Travelex offering which has vastly superior rates.

Kiwiwings

I have some USD cash that I would like to load onto a card, which would then let me spend USD. Are there any cards in NZ that would let me do this or do I need to buy a card in the USA?

N1cks

Well, the OneSmart customer service person said if I were to transfer AUD from an NZ based foreign exchange account, then yes, the OneSmart would receive the currency in AUD without exchanging it...

However, I suspect she may be wrong on that ... & the money would go from AUD to NZD to AUD.



Yes, there're lots of travel cards out there. I use Onesmart purely to grow my Airpoints, convenience, & customer loyalty.

It's one thing to be ripped off by Travelex's exchange rate... & another to be ripped off by banks for currency conversions fees. I was hoping to avoid the latter.

Xiaotung

No, all these cards only accept NZD deposit first then they can make money when you move between foreign currency wallets.

Even if you have a USD account in a New Zealand based bank, when you deposit foreign cash, they will charge you a foreign cash handling fee in the vicinity of 3%.

Ellice

Hi this is a related query to onesmart.
Is it too late to transfer money in my onesmart account over to top up an airpoints account? The original transfer to onesmart was done before the change to onesmart, with a view to possibly wanting to use the funds to top up and airpoints account. I suppose I'm too late but wanted to double check. Thanks in advance.

sbiddle

No you can't. Your original OneSmart card and OneSmart product ceased to exist on the 1st February and any money still on it was refunded if you didn't transfer it to the new OneSmart.