Every trip overseas leaks money in places most Australians never look — the data plan, the foreign transaction fee, the points you bought at the wrong time. I travel about 150 days a year, and over the years I’ve worked out where the leaks are and how to plug them. This is where I keep all of it.
The biggest one is data. Telstra and Optus will happily charge you $10 a day to roam, which adds up fast on a three-week trip. I load an Airalo eSIM before I leave home instead, and the only hard part is guessing how much data to buy — so I built a calculator that does the guessing for you. There’s also the SMS problem nobody warns you about: switch to an eSIM and your bank’s verification codes can stop arriving at the worst possible moment.
Then there’s the money itself. Most Australian cards quietly skim 3% off every overseas transaction — I’ve been stung by it, which is why I built the FX Rip-off Calculator to show exactly what that fee costs you. Pairing the right travel debit and credit cards is half the battle won before you’ve even packed.
The other half is points. Whether it’s buying Qantas points when a bonus lands, buying hotel points for a stay, or moving points around the family with Qantas Family Transfer and Velocity Family Pooling, the maths matters — and it’s easy to get wrong. I show my working every time.
Everything below is the running list: the eSIM tricks, the card hacks, the points plays, and the lounge access that makes the hours between flights bearable. All of it tested on actual trips, not in theory.
Let’s get the disappointment out of the way first: Australian long-distance trains are nothing like Europe’s. There’s no TGV gliding across the countryside at 300km/h, no Swiss precision, no turn-up-and-go frequency. Our trains are slow, often old, sometimes only run…
Most premium travel cards in Australia bundle in complimentary travel insurance, and for a frequent traveller it can offset the annual fee on its own. I’ve leaned on it more than once — knocked out cold on a ski slope…
Updated June, 2026 by Drew That family holiday to Fiji is finally within reach, but your partner is 5,000 points short. As our family’s unofficial ‘points banker’, this is a problem I solve all the time — and the Qantas…
I spend a lot on foreign transactions. More than most — travel four or five times a year, ski seasons where I help cover the family, cruises, subscriptions billed in USD, flights booked direct with overseas airlines. I’ve always had…
Planning a family ski trip but your Velocity points are spread across multiple accounts? For Australian frequent flyers, Velocity Family Pooling is one of two ways to combine points — the other being Family Points Transfers. Most people don’t realise…
Most guides to getting to Sydney Airport by public transport start and end at the train. Pay the station levy, change at Central or Wolli Creek, arrive having spent $20 on the privilege. There is a cheaper, more direct option…
I lived in Singapore for six months before “retiring,” and I fell in love with the place by getting under the hood. I now travel back annually for regular stopovers. Recently, I booked a $400 return Scoot flight that I…
Nearly twenty years ago I was part of the team at CommBank that made SMS verification mandatory for all customers. We were the first major bank in Australia to do it. At the time we thought about security. We didn’t…
I did this so you don’t have to guess. Velocity is running a transfer bonus through May and June 2026 — 10% extra points when you manually move credit card rewards across. Sounds like easy money. But I warehouse my…
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