Travelex Australia: fees, currency exchange, and what changed in 2024

Travelex stopped doing international money transfers — here's what happened

Travelex's own money-transfer FAQ states plainly: the Travelex international money transfer service "is no longer available as of 31 March 2024." From 1 April 2024, anyone who used to send transfers with Travelex continues "with the same account details via the Instarem service, which is operated by Nium Pty Limited and its affiliate." You log in with your existing Travelex credentials but the transfer itself now runs on Instarem's platform and Instarem's rates.

This matters for anyone searching "Travelex international transfer" expecting to compare it against Wise or OFX as a like-for-like option — that comparison no longer exists under the Travelex brand. If you want to send money to someone's bank account overseas, you're choosing between Wise, OFX, Remitly, Instarem directly, or a bank, not Travelex. See our /blog/international-money-transfer-fees-explained for how those actually compare, and /blog/instarem-australia-review-fees-limits if you want the platform Travelex customers were moved onto.

What Travelex still does: currency exchange and the Travelex Money Card

Physical and online currency exchange is Travelex's core surviving business. Travelex's own site lists more than 45 foreign currencies available in-store and online, sold through more than 99 stores across Australia (Travelex's own count, September 2026) plus airport locations (including Sydney Airport Terminal 1), with click-and-collect available at Travelex stores and over 3,000 Australia Post outlets. You can order online for store pickup, or buy over the counter on the spot.

The Travelex Money Card is the current name for Travelex's prepaid travel card (this replaced the older "Cash Passport" branding). It's a Mastercard-network prepaid card that can hold up to 15 currencies at once out of 22 supported currencies. Per Travelex's own card page: the initial card is free to get, online loading is free, and overseas ATM withdrawals are unlimited and fee-free from Travelex's side (though the ATM operator itself may still charge its own fee). Loading the card with cash in an Australian store, rather than online, carries a fee of 1.1% of the amount or $15, whichever is greater.

Travelex also buys back leftover foreign banknotes, converting them to AUD, and runs a currency converter and rate-tracking tool on its site.

How to order Travelex currency online, and check the rate before you commit

Ordering online rather than walking into a store is the single easiest way to get a better rate from Travelex, and the process is straightforward: go to Travelex's currency-exchange page, select the currency and amount you want, and the site shows you the rate and total AUD cost before you pay. You then choose store pickup (usually available same-day or next-day at a Travelex location) or, for a fee, home delivery.

Before confirming, open a second tab with a mid-market rate lookup (xe.com or Google's currency converter both work) for the same currency pair, and compare it to the rate Travelex has just quoted you. The percentage difference between the two is your actual cost for that transaction — Travelex won't state it as a number, so you have to calculate it yourself. If the gap looks wide compared to what a transfer app like Wise would charge for the AUD-equivalent sent digitally, that's your signal to reconsider whether you need physical cash at all, or whether a digital transfer plus a smaller cash withdrawal on arrival works out cheaper.

Online ordering also lets you lock in a quote and pick it up later, which store or airport pricing on the day doesn't offer — useful if you're watching the rate ahead of a trip and want to buy when it moves in your favour.

The exchange rate margin — the real cost, whichever service you use

Travelex doesn't publish its foreign-exchange margin as a stated percentage anywhere on its site — you only see the buy and sell rate quoted in-store or online at the moment of the transaction, compared against whatever mid-market rate you look up separately (for example on xe.com or Google's own currency converter). That gap between Travelex's quoted rate and the mid-market rate is the actual cost of the exchange; there's no separate line-item fee to add on top for a straight cash purchase.

What's consistent across every physical currency-exchange provider, Travelex included, is that airport counters price worse than ordering the same currency online for store pickup, and both price worse than a specialist transfer app working off the mid-market rate. If you're comparing a cash exchange against sending the same amount through Wise or OFX to a bank account, the transfer app is very likely the cheaper route for any amount you don't need as physical notes in your hand immediately.

The practical rule: before exchanging or loading currency with Travelex, check the mid-market rate for the same pair, then compare it against the specific rate Travelex quotes you at that moment — not a percentage you've seen quoted elsewhere, since Travelex doesn't publish one and it can vary by currency, location and channel.

When Travelex is actually the right tool

Arriving with foreign cash and needing AUD immediately. If you land at an Australian airport holding banknotes in your home currency and need AUD in hand for a taxi or first-day costs before you've set up a local bank account, an airport currency counter — Travelex or a competitor — is the only same-minute option. Accept that the rate is worse than any digital alternative; you're paying for immediacy.

Buying foreign cash for travel home. If a destination genuinely needs physical notes (cash-preferred markets, family who don't use bank transfers), ordering online for store pickup ahead of time gets you a better rate than walking into a store or airport counter on the day.

A prepaid card as a spending buffer while travelling. The Travelex Money Card's fee-free overseas ATM withdrawals and free online loading make it a reasonable no-fee-surprise option for a trip, separate from its exchange-rate margin on the initial load.

What it's no longer the right tool for: sending money to someone's bank account overseas. For that, compare Wise, OFX, Remitly or a bank transfer directly — see /blog/wise-australia-review-fees-limits and /blog/international-money-transfer-fees-explained.

Regulatory status and reporting

Travelex is registered with AUSTRAC as required for currency exchange and remittance-adjacent services in Australia, meaning it operates under Australian anti-money-laundering and counter-terrorism-financing rules — customer identification, transaction monitoring, and reporting large or suspicious transactions. Physical cash transactions of AUD 10,000 or more trigger a threshold transaction report to AUSTRAC, which is standard for every currency-exchange provider in Australia, not something specific to Travelex.

A worked comparison: cash exchange versus a digital transfer for the same amount

Say you want the AUD-equivalent of USD 2,000 in hand for a trip. Buying that as physical cash from an airport counter — Travelex or otherwise — means paying whatever margin the counter applies to a live cash sale, which every independent rate tracker consistently reports as the worst pricing point across any currency-exchange channel, physical or digital. Ordering the same USD 2,000 online for store pickup a few days ahead typically improves the rate, because you avoid the airport-specific premium; that's a real, verifiable pattern, not a specific percentage Travelex publishes.

The alternative — sending the AUD-equivalent of USD 2,000 to your own account with a specialist transfer app, then withdrawing cash from an ATM at your destination or loading a prepaid card there — usually lands closer to the mid-market rate, since apps like Wise publish their margin as a small, fixed percentage rather than an undisclosed spot rate. The trade-off is timing: a digital transfer takes a day or more to arrive, while a currency counter hands you notes on the spot.

The honest takeaway is that Travelex (or any airport counter) is a convenience premium, not a bad-value trap specific to one brand — every physical exchange provider in Australia prices similarly at the point of immediate cash sale, and the way to minimise the cost is to plan ahead, order online, and reserve the airport counter for whatever small amount you genuinely need on landing.

Can I still send an international money transfer with Travelex?

Not under the Travelex name. Travelex's own FAQ confirms the service "is no longer available as of 31 March 2024" — from 1 April 2024, existing Travelex transfer customers use the same login on Instarem (operated by Nium), which now runs the actual transfer. New transfer customers should compare Wise, OFX, Remitly or Instarem directly.

What is the Travelex Money Card and is it the same as the Cash Passport?

Travelex Money Card is the current name for what was previously branded the Cash Passport. It's a prepaid Mastercard that holds up to 15 currencies at once from 22 supported. The card itself and online loads are free; loading with cash in a store costs 1.1% of the amount or $15, whichever is more; overseas ATM withdrawals are unlimited and fee-free from Travelex (the ATM operator may still charge its own fee).

Is Travelex's exchange rate good?

Travelex doesn't publish a fixed margin — you only see the quoted rate at the time of exchange. As with every physical currency provider, airport counters are consistently priced worse than ordering online for pickup, and both are typically worse than a mid-market-rate transfer app for the same amount. Check the mid-market rate for your currency pair and compare it to what Travelex quotes you before exchanging.

Are Travelex's airport rates worse than its online rates?

Yes, consistently. If you can plan ahead, ordering currency online for store pickup gets a better rate than buying at an airport counter on the day you fly or land.

Does Travelex still have physical stores?

Yes. Travelex operates more than 99 stores across Australia plus airport locations including Sydney Airport Terminal 1, alongside click-and-collect at over 3,000 Australia Post outlets. This is separate from the discontinued international transfer service.

Where do I go now if I want what Travelex's transfer service used to do?

Compare Wise, OFX, Remitly or Instarem (the platform Travelex customers were moved to) directly for a bank-to-bank transfer. See /blog/wise-australia-review-fees-limits and /blog/international-money-transfer-fees-explained for how they compare on fees and exchange-rate margin.

Does Travelex report currency exchanges to AUSTRAC?

Yes. Travelex is registered with AUSTRAC and must report physical cash transactions of AUD 10,000 or more, along with any suspicious transactions, as required of every currency-exchange provider in Australia.