National Australia Bank (NAB) has teamed with Travelex to launch a reloadable PIN-protected travel money card designed to replace paper travellers cheques.
Issued by Travelex, the cards can be loaded with British pounds, euros and Australian or US dollars. Customers can use the card to obtain local currency from Visa and Plus ATMs worldwide.
The card can be reloaded over the phone, via the Internet through the bank's BPay service or at NAB branches.
Maria Tassone, general manager working capital finance and trade, NAB, describes the Cash Passport as a "plastic traveller's cheque".
"We have launched this card in response to customer demand and research which clearly tells us that travellers want uncomplicated, simple and secure methods to access cash overseas," says Tassone.
NAB says it expects to sell around 20,000 Cash Passports over the coming months to inbound and outbound Australian travellers, particularly around events such as the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.
In a separate announcement NAB has apologised for an overcharging error in which customers were charged an 'over the counter' fee when bank staff processed an error adjustment on their accounts.
In a statement, the bank says it is working to resolve these issues as quickly as possible and any customers that have been overcharged will be reimbursed with interest.
The over-charging error is the third disclosed by the bank this year. In July NAB was forced to apologise for wrongly charging customers A$62 million in fees. The bank said it had incorrectly collected debits tax from approximately 140,000 accounts, mostly business customers, amounting to A$10 million. In addition, the bank said there had been an error in the annual fee relating to certain financial packages which amounted to $52 million.