Taking large amounts of your own currency for changing when you arrive is probably one of the worst options . . . → Read More: Taking Cash]]>

Taking large amounts of your own currency for changing when you arrive is probably one of the worst options for carrying money.

Your exchange rate will be retail, which is always going to be more expensive that wholesale.

Also, in most places, the person doing the exchanging will always want their little “cut” from the transaction.

Banks and hotels are the best places to change money but you can still get ripped off by the unscrupulous. Keep an eye on the daily rates to avoid this.

Remember, there may also be a fee for currency conversion so always ask about this before handing over your money.

Also, cash is the least secure way of carrying money, once it is lost or stolen that is usually it.



If you do bring cash from home, make sure any bills you bring are clean and brand new (you will have less trouble changing them).

Similarly, don’t accept torn or worn money in developing countries because you will have trouble getting rid of it.

And never exchange money with anyone you don’t know (people off the street, for example), even if they appear to be giving you a great rate.

The black market for foreign currencies in some countries is driven by restrictions on foreign currency ownership and artificially high exchange rates.

As well as being illegal in most countries, changing money on the street puts you at risk of getting counterfeit notes, being short-changed, or even robbed (handing over cash to people you meet on the street is never a good idea).

All that said, some people advise changing and bringing a little local currency with you, if only to avoid the possible hassle of doing it when you arrive at the airport and you need some loose change for buses or snacks.

However, foreign currency can be expensive to buy at home, and for the small amounts involved it usually isn’t much of of a problem to buy it when you arrive.

If you do get it at home, though, try to find a commission-free provider. In the UK this would be someone like Marks & Spencer, Lloyds TSB, the Post Office or Thomas Cook. But check exchange rates before choosing as they can vary somewhat between each of them.

Ultimately, when choosing between the methods above of getting to your money, remember that there are usually only a few percentage points difference between each of them. But it is worth knowing about them, nevertheless, so you can make an informed choice at the appropriate time.

Once upon a time, everyone who travelled carried traveller’s cheques, but not anymore. Nowadays, credit cards are the norm.

Not everywhere takes credit or debit cards so another option is to withdraw cash from a local ATM. This . . . → Read More: Getting Cash from ATMs]]>

Not everywhere takes credit or debit cards so another option is to withdraw cash from a local ATM. This has the same advantage as using a credit card, that of getting the wholesale exchange rate, plus the fact that you can get local currency from the machines.

Again, find out any daily /weekly/ monthly limits your bank imposes on transactions.

Disadvantages are, again, the fees charged. There is the usual currency exchange fee, plus a handling fee (a flat fee of a few dollars/pounds, or a percentage 2-4%, again, per transaction).

In addition, bear in mind that if you use your credit card for a cash advance from an ATM then interest will start to accrue immediately without a grace period (unlike purchases made with the credit card). And of course, with debit cards, there is no interest to accrue as the money comes straight out of your bank account.

For this reason a good rule of thumb would be to use your credit card for purchases and to use your atm/debit card for cash withdrawals (remembering that you also get purchase protection with the credit card).



Another thing to keep in mind is that PINs (Personal Identification Numbers) can work differently in different countries. Some countries use six digits but four is more common, so consider changing to a 4 digit PIN if you can.

Try to make sure that the first digit of your PIN is not a zero either, as this can sometimes cause problems. Conversely, if you do have a four digit PIN and the machine you are using asks for a six digit number, try entering two zeros at the start of the number then your PIN.

If you can, try to find and ATM which is part of the PLUS network (for VISA) or the Cirrus network (for MasterCard) withdrawals. These are interbank networks that allow your cards to work in the other bank’s ATM machines.

A Cirrus system card, for example, will currently work in over sixty countries, including about 10,000 machines in the U.K., 1000 in France, 1400 in Austria, 3000 in Turkey, 300 in Israel, 3600 in Mexico, 1800 in Australia, and 150 in Thailand.

The networks are designed to make available the same services that you get when you use your ATM at home, such as balance enquiries (and of course, cash withdrawals). There is no guarantee, however, that you won’t be charged yet another, additional fee to use the other bank’s ATM (as well as your own bank’s fees on top of this).

Even so, you will inevitably run into trouble using an ATM abroad, so to cover all eventualities, take a credit card, an ATM card, and a few hundred (or thousand) dollars/pounds in cash, as well as a small amount of local currency, and maybe even some traveller’s cheques.

If you are having trouble finding an ATM overseas you can find them using the Internet. Click here for the worldwide Mastercard ATM locator, and here for the worldwide VISA ATM locator.

Credit cards (and debit cards) are usually the preferred option for making purchases overseas because the currency conversion (the . . . → Read More: Using Credit Cards]]>

Credit cards (and debit cards) are usually the preferred option for making purchases overseas because the currency conversion (the actual exchange rate you see in the papers or on the news) is usually at the wholesale rate (or 1% over the commercial bank rate) and not at the retail rate you would pay for changing cash at the airport, hotel, or bank.

Not only this, using cards is just as secure abroad as when you are at home (for example, if used fraudulently). You also don’t have to carry cash around, taking it out and putting it back into your purse or bag each time, and you don’t have to worry about counting out or receiving the correct change.

Credit and debit cards are accepted almost everywhere in the developed world, and Visa tends to be accepted more than the others. Bear in mind, however, that the budget hotels, hostels and cafes used by budget travellers may not accept them.



If you do use them you can also postpone paying the bill (with a credit card) and take advantage of any differences in exchange rates between the purchase date and the money being converted (if you travel to countries with ever rising inflation).

Disadvantages of paying with a credit card include the fact that some card issuers (and this applies to debit cards too), will charge you a fee for foreign currency conversions, perhaps between 2 and 4%, usually 3% of the transaction amount.

Some debit card purchases attract an additional flat fee on top of this foreign exchange fee each time you use your debit card (check with the card issuer).

You can, however, find card issuers that charge very little or nothing at all. For example, check out Capital One in the US, or Nationwide, Lombard Direct and the Post Office in the UK.

You can compare UK card charges for overseas use here.

Remember to find out any daily /weekly/ monthly limits your bank imposes on transactions using your card.

Finally, don’t forget to inform your bank or other financial institution of your travel plans, where you are going and for how long, as automated fraud systems can sometimes block access to you funds at inopportune moments. If possible, give them a mobile phone number where they can contact you 24 hours a day and failing that, find out their customer service number (24 hour if possible), so you can call them if there are any problems.

Once, whilst returning from a trip to Italy, I met a man on a train who was travelling dressed . . . → Read More: Document Security]]>

Once, whilst returning from a trip to Italy, I met a man on a train who was travelling dressed only in a swim suit and a towel. He had left his bag on the beach for just a few moments to paddle in the sea. When he returned it was gone, along with his passport, money, tickets and all of his clothes (apart from his towel).

As well as a lesson on the importance of looking after your possessions as you travel, strangely enough this story also shows how little you really need to take with you. People (including myself) made small contributions to his funds and food supplies (although none had donated any clothes when I saw him), and sympathetic train porters and guards had let him on the train without many questions.

A number of people each year have everything stolen from them as they travel around the world. Most just go to the local shop and buy what they need and go on with their trip. This is made more difficult if you have no access to money, and you definitely will have trouble crossing international borders without your passport.

Of course, the best thing is to avoid getting into situations such as this in the first place. Some ways of doing this, such as physical security (money belts, etc.), are covered in the ‘Packing’ section under ‘Security‘. The following gives some basic tips and ideas for protecting and gaining easy access to your essential travel documents.

Making Copies of Everything

With the exception of cash, there is almost no paper or document that cannot eventually be replaced while travelling if you keep a copy or a record of it. You will probably not lose any of the items below but if you do and have taken elementary precautions, you will be able to get them replaced with the least amount of trouble.



The way I usually do this is to gather together all the documents listed in the ‘Papers‘ section of this website. Then I empty out my travel wallet / money belt and make photocopies of everything.

You can use the photocopier’s zoom function to make everything really small (but readable) to fit two or three documents onto one page. You can also copy on both sides of the paper.

It is not necessary to photocopy every page of your passport, just the photo page and current visas, perhaps. This should make it a lot easier to replace them if lost or stolen. Also, take a copy of your birth certificate to help you get a new passport.

At the same time I make photocopies of all the financial information listed in the ‘Money‘ section of this website, such as credit cards, traveller’s cheque serial numbers, insurance policy numbers, bank accounts, social security number, the serial number on your camera. and so on.

Another, more high-tech, way of duplicating important information is to use a scanner to make electronic copies and then store them on a computer or removable storage. Once a document is scanned it can then be stored using an online file storage service, or even emailed to yourself for retrieval from anywhere in the world (even if you are only left with your swim suit).

If you don’t have a scanner then the local copy shop should be able to help out. As a last resort you can use a digital camera to take pictures of credit cards, passport pages, etc.

Another good idea is to give the photcopies/scans to a trusted friend at home whom you can call on the phone from anywhere in the world to retrieve the information (well, the text and numbers parts, that is, not pictures, obviously). Or if you are travelling with a companion then you can also swap documents with each other.

Encryption

If most of this sounds quite insecure (i.e. having multiple copies of everything, including credit card and bank account numbers thereby multiplying opportunities for loss or theft), then don’t worry! There are some tricks to make the copies more secure.

The safest ways to do this are usually electronic. Scanned documents saved as text files or pictures (jpg’s, gif’s etc.), can be encrypted and compressed (using, for example, Winzip with a password). Email and server storage are quite secure, too. However, bear in mind that this is completely dependent on how strong your passwords are. Also, be careful when retrieving your data from a computer that isn’t yours (for example, in an Internet cafe) as key-stroke logging software may be installed.

A good way to avoid this, and also for securing paper copies, is not to write down the real numbers at all, but simply to alter them in some manner known only to yourself. One method I used to use was to alter one digit (the last number of a credit card number, for example) by, say, adding a 1 to it. Reversing the number can work too, as well as complicated things like multiplying the whole thing by, say, 2 or 6, and so on (and remembering which!).

Portable Storage

Recently, I have been using various portable methods of storing encrypted documents. Most small electronic devices around these days can be used for this, some more obvious than others.

For example, I have encrypted zip files with scans of my passport(s), financial data (credit cards, traveller’s cheque numbers, etc.), licenses, guide books, and so on, copied to a small flash drive which fits quite nicely in my Eagle Creek all terrain money belt (shown here).

Just as a test to see what is possible, I have also made copies of the same zip file onto my camera (copied via USB from my hard drive to the camera’s memory stick folder), my phone’s memory (using Bluetooth to connect) and my iPod (enabling disk use and copying it to the Notes folder), plus I have emailed it to myself as an attachment. And, of course, the original file stays on my laptop.

(If anyone wants any help doing things like the above then email me and I can explain further. If there is enough demand I will write a separate page on it on this website).

There are a number of ways of carrying money, or at least getting access to it, as you travel.