How to organise money while we are away.
Im travelling to Hong Kong, Vietnam, Singapore, New Zealand and Fiji next month and am very confused about how to organise my money. Does anyone have any advice on whether to take cash, travellers cheques or a card?
Thanks laurie
Reply to this I live off my credit and debit cards. Travellers cheques are a waste of time - the exchange rates are bad and often places won't take the brand of cheques you are carrying. Don't carry too much money. Just take a small amount for emergencies. In a few countries (not many these days), you do need cash, in those cases buy your dollars in the country bordering the country where there might be difficulties. The only places where I had that problem was in some West African countries - even then I was usually able to get money from the banks - a cash advance over the counter in the branch. (West Africa is one of the few places left in the world without ATM's!) If that doesn't work you can have money wired. Looking at the list of countries that you have given you should have no difficulty using credit and debit cards. I also have internet banking for all my bank and savings accounts. That means you can keep track of all your spending whilst on the move.
Reply to this We also lived off plastic everywhere - never an issue.
Maybe too late for the OP but it's worth noting that most organisations (at least here in the UK) charge an extra fee for foreign transactions on credit and debit cards, but it is possible to find credit card issuers at least that don't. There are not all that many (I know of Nationwide and the Post Office - www.fool.co.uk allows a search on this criteria) and maybe they compensate with poorer exchange rates, but it is a little galling to be charged extra just to get at your own money in a foreign land.
I would also suggest advising your bank that you're off, otherwise they may see an unusual foreign transaction, suspect fraud and stop your card.
Reply to this Hi Laurie
I use my Visa all the time, I don't get charged either if I am in credit but while in Mexico, Central & Sth America I was charged by the bank which was like 4/5 dollars a go, kind of annoying really, but yeah I think Visa/plastic is the way to go.
You can keep an eye on it through internet banking and also you can give one of your family authorisation to cancel cards etc if you write a letter to the bank to let them know, handy if your cards get stolen and you cant get in contact with them.
Store emergency numbers for Visa in your email account and have the address of your countries embassy aswell. Also if you are travelling with a friend you can set up their account on yours for transfers if you lose your card, it happened to me in Central America, Visa was stolen and I did it all ass ways, I had to borrow from my friend over 1 month while I waited for my card to arrive from home to the consulate in Boliva when all I had to do was set up my friends account on mine and get so much transferred over..no mess and no mistakes as to how much I borrowed, also never knew that I could have called the emergency number for Visa and have an emergency card sent out to me within a day or two.
Also happened here in NZ last week and already have it...bit of a disaster when it comes to cards..and my advice to you is all of the above. Try and have another card, ATM of your current account just to be on the safe side.
By keeping your cash in another account you can transfer over to visa via internet banking when you need it, if you keep your visa in credit you wont or shouldn't be charged a fee to take cash out.
Hope it all makes sense
Brigette
Reply to this Alternatively Visa and Mastercard both have travel money cards now, the Visa one is an electron card and the Mastercard one is through www.cashplus.co.uk.....................both cards you just load up with the cash you need and so if it gets stolen the is no access to your main account and if you call mastercard or visa they will courier out a new card and reload it with the same amount of cash.
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