First of all, I am a bit of a noob and I have found a noob way...

First of all, I am a bit of a noob and I have found a noob way to purchase $USD without forex accounts, etc...

http://www.commbank.com.au/personal/international/travel-money-card/default.aspx

Commonwealth Bank offer a 'debit card' where you load up the card with foreign currency at the exchage rate of the time.

You can then spend it with in three years and at the end of that, CBA will buy the remaining funds of you at that new exchange rate.

The main downside is that the screw you over a little with the exchange rate.

What do you guys think? Is there an easier way for noobs to get into FOREX?