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| I couldn't find anything that really answered my question anywhere else, so excuse me if it's already been posted somewhere.
My boyfriend (English), lives in France, works in Switzerland but wants to move to Australia with me. Until he finds a job over there, he'll probably need a credit card to get him by and just for general emergencies.
He obviously won't be able to apply for a credit card in Australia until he gets an income, so I'm guessing his best bet would be to apply for a Swiss credit card for the time being. We're both Kantonal bank account holders, and I have a BKB visa card of which the entire balance gets drawn from my swiss savings account the next month, I find this odd, and a bit of a nuisance, but it was the only option with the BKB and it's probably not going to help him much. Does anyone have a suggestion for any other bank that he might be able to apply to with good exchange rates/charges? Or would he be better off applying for a french or UK credit card?
Thanks in advance for any help.  | |
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If he qualifies and if he has assets in Sterling to pay the bills, the best credit card is a Nationwide Building Society VISA card
http://www.nationwide.co.uk/creditcard/default.htm or else their Debit card based on a Flexaccount. They charge zero loading (commission and fees) on use within Europe and 1% elsewhere.
If you want to use a Swiss (or any other) card, make sure you are not paying a high loading (Amex charges 2.7% -- I remember when it was 0.5% -- on foreign transactions. As both MasterCard and VISA add 1% to foreign transactions (regardless of currency) the Nationwide deal is particularly good. I know of no US or other non-US financial institution that charges 0%. Many US credit unions, and USAA Federal Savings Bank, charge 1%. (Many other US and foreign banks charge 3%, which is extortionate. At least with Amex you get some free insurance, car rental CDW, travel accident, theft & breakage of new purchases, etc.)
All VISA and MasterCard currency conversions go via the US dollar. Whether that means anything in terms of cost I've never been able to figure out. But it does seem to mean that the USG can spy on you if they want to.