CommBank Travel Money Review

CommBank is Australia's largest bank, and they also offer one of Australia's most popular travel money cards. But is the CommBank Travel Money Card actually useful?

The CommBank Travel Money Card is a prepaid Visa card that lets you load Australian dollars and convert that balance into up to 16 currencies before you fly. When travelling, you spend the money you've already converted into the local currency. The main benefit is certainty, as a lot of travellers like having their Euros converted before jetting off to Italy, for example.

But one huge downside to the CommBank Travel Money Card, like a lot of big bank travel cards, is that it uses its own exchange rate. While advertised as offering zero fees, the CommBank Travel Money Card exchange rate itself has a hidden markup, making it considerably worse than you'd see on Google, or with competitors like Ubank, Revolut or Wise.

You can also leave Australian dollars loaded on your CommBank Travel Card and let CommBank convert when you spend, but that means you'll cop a 3% currency conversion fee every time you tap. This card also charges a fee to withdraw money from an overseas ATM, unlike many alternatives.

CommBank Travel Money Card: Key Facts

Supported Load Currencies

The CommBank Travel Money Card allows cardholders to hold up to 16 currencies, including:

• Australian Dollars (AUD)
• United States Dollars (USD)
• Euros (EUR)
• Great British Pounds (GBP)
• Japanese Yen (JPY)
• Indonesian Rupiah (IDR)
• New Zealand Dollars (NZD)
• Thai Baht (THB)
• Canadian Dollars (CAD)
• Vietnamese Dong (VND)
• Singapore Dollars (SGD)
• Chinese Renminbi (CNY)
• Fijian Dollars (FJD)
• Indian Rupees (INR)
• Hong Kong Dollars (HKD)
• Emirati Dirham (AED)

Note that Fijian Dollars, Indonesian Rupiah and Indian Rupees can only be loaded at a CommBank branch or via NetBank online. They can't be loaded in the CommBank app, but you can still view balances for these currencies in the app.

If your destination's currency isn't on the list, you can still travel with AUD loaded on the card and spend it directly. You will just cop a 3% currency conversion fee on top of the Visa exchange rate at the time (more on that below).

Where Can I Use CommBank Travel Money?

You can spend with a CommBank Travel Money Card anywhere that Visa is accepted. Visa says it's accepted in 200+ countries, so it's safe to say this is nearly everywhere.

The CommBank Travel Money Card can be used in-store, online, over the phone, and at ATMs worldwide - just like a normal bank card.

If the local currency you're spending in is one of your 16 loaded currencies, you spend it directly with no currency conversion required. For example, if you're in Singapore and have loaded Singapore Dollars, your SGD balance is used straight away when you spend.

But if you're travelling somewhere that doesn't use one of the 16 supported currencies, or you simply chose not to load that currency, you can still spend provided Visa is accepted there. In this case, your spending is converted on the spot using the Visa exchange rate, plus a 3% FX fee if Australian dollars are involved in the conversion.

So for our Singapore example: if you didn't load SGD and paid with your AUD balance instead, that purchase would be converted on the spot at the Visa rate, plus a 3% fee.

CommBank Travel Money Exchange Rate

When you're looking for a card to spend on overseas, getting access to a solid exchange rate should be front of mind. The CommBank Travel Money Card is advertised as offering $0 international transaction fees and $0 currency conversion.

Technically, those are both accurate. But what isn't ideal is that the exchange rate used for currency conversion is CommBank's own Retail Foreign Exchange Rate, which is overinflated with a built in margin.

To be fair to CommBank, this isn't concealed in the legal sense. If you scroll right to the bottom and then open the 43-page Product Disclosure Statement, this is explained in plain English: "We use the CommBank Retail Foreign Exchange Rate (which includes a margin) to convert the Australian Dollars you load onto your Card, into the foreign currency of your choice."

Why You Need To Understand The CommBank Exchange Rate

To illustrate just how big the CommBank exchange rate markup is, we ran the numbers to compare CommBank Travel Money to a few of the better travel cards on offer.

The below table shows how many Euros you'd receive when loading $1000 AUD to as Euros. For reference, XE.com showed $1000 AUD was equal to €607.06 on the date we checked.

(Revolut offers free conversions up to a $2000/month limit on the free Standard plan. Table last updated on 30 July 2026.)

As you can see, most of the travel cards that we recommend offered around €605 after loading $1000 AUD. However, the CommBank Travel Money Card offered a mere €587.10 - a whopping €19.16 less than YouTrip.

ATM Withdrawal Fees

This is the one cost CommBank is upfront about. Every cash withdrawal outside Australia costs a flat AUD $3.50, charged in the currency you're withdrawing using the Visa exchange rate at the time.

When withdrawing from an overseas ATM, if your CommBank Travel Money Card has insufficient local currency, the Visa Exchange Rate will be used to convert funds from other currencies to withdraw. When converting from AUD, an additional 3% fee will be added.

It's worth remembering that $3.50 is CommBank's fee only. The ATM operator you're using overseas can add their own fee on top, and there's nothing CommBank can do about that.

Alternatives To CommBank Travel Money

If minimising the exchange rate margin is your priority, a handful of providers use the mid-market rate (or close to it) instead of a retail rate with a built-in margin:

• YouTrip: new to Australia and offering some of the sharpest exchange rates.
• Wise: converts at the mid-market rate with a small, disclosed percentage fee.
• Revolut: similar mid-market-rate model, but with a monthly fee-free exchange limits, and premium card plans.

Eligibility Criteria

You don't need to already bank with CommBank to get one, but you will need to:

• Be at least 14 years old
• Register for NetBank
• Provide a valid email address
• Have an Australian residential address

Note that temporary residents aren't eligible for this card.

Bottom Line: Is CommBank Travel Money Worth It?

I don't think the CommBank Travel Money Card is as bad as some corners of the internet make it out to be, but it's also an option I would never consider for travel.

If you already bank with CommBank and want one less app to manage, or you're only loading a small amount for a short trip, it's not too bad. But if you're converting a decent chunk of money, that hidden markup adds up fast, and it's money you'll never see itemised anywhere.

At the end of the day, "zero fees" isn't the same as "zero cost." The exchange rate margin is the real price tag on this card, and it's nowhere near the headline.