Best way to handle money overseas

[Dusty Dave]

Hi all, there's apparently no end to the breadth of knowledge on this forum so I thought I'd canvas some opinions on this

We're going overseas soon, most of the time in the UK but a couple of stop-offs in other places.

I've always used traveller's cheques in the past, but with the magic of modern technology and worldwide ATM access I'm wondering whether to bother this time? It's probably cheaper and easier to just put everything on the visa and get a bit of pocket money out from local machines right?

Looks like our debit cards will charge 2.5% for overseas cash withdrawals from partner ATMs, but from what I can tell actual purchases are fee-free except for the exchange rate.

Not sure exactly how much traveller's cheques cost, but is there any difference in the exchange rates? Any good arguments for using TC's these days?

[Chesand]

We have been o/s regularly over the last few years and have not taken traveller cheques.

Take a small amount of cash in the currency of the country/s you are visiting so that you have some spending money on arrival for coffee or meal.

Put everything else on credit card and pay it off when you return. If the current level of credit on your card is not high you can load it up before you leave.

Hope that helps

[Shutterbug]

We have been o/s regularly over the last few years and have not taken traveller cheques.

Take a small amount of cash in the currency of the country/s you are visiting so that you have some spending money on arrival for coffee or meal.

Put everything else on credit card and pay it off when you return. If the current level of credit on your card is not high you can load it up before you leave.

Hope that helps

What Chesand said, plus have an alternate backup card with you.
Don't let the card move out of sight when paying bills.

Mike

[damian]

Or if your more paranoid use a debt card linked to a seperate account. Log on and via internet transfer money into that account as required. Thus if anyone steals your cc details they can only drain a relatively small amount of $ and your main account is safe.

I've considered opening a seperate account specifically for direct debit account transfers with people I don't know when paypal etc isn't an option. It protects my main stash...

2c

[Fuzzie]

My preferred way to get cash is to use my banks EFT card, not the Visa debit cards now being flogged around the place. The exchange rate has always been better than foreign exchange shopfronts.

My NAB EFT card is part of the Cirrus/maestro network and will let me withdraw money directly from my bank account at most atms worldwide without extra charges. I think you will get hit for an extra (2.5%?) foreign currency handling fee if you use the Visa/Mastercard network via a Visa debit card.

There has always been a bank ATM machine at whatever airport I have landed at, but having a few notes in the local currency is a comforting precaution. A couple of hundred dollars stashed away in Aussie $'s as an emergency fund, if ever needed is useful and no cost if you don't use it.

In Europe I found cash to be preferred by most establishments. It is not uncommon to find restaurants or smaller accommodation do not take credit cards at all. In fact in France it seemed common that petrol stations wouldn't recognize international credit cards even though they had Visa/MC signs up.

[Fuzzie]

Oh and make sure the bank eft card you use has only one account linked to it. You don't always get the chance to select account at overseas atms and they will usually default to the cheque account entry.

[Chesand]

I should have added that you should leave a photocopy of your cards with a family member at home in case there is a problem

Also leave a photocopy of passport at home and take a another copy (passport only) in luggage.

[bsrlee]

If you still have some Traveller's Cheques left from a previous trip, take them with you, just in case.

A friend of mine just got back from a month o/s, and had several embarrassing moments when his credit card was rejected by overseas networks - seems that if there is any sort of interruption in the phone lines between where you are & your bank's card computer system, the o/s credit card computer will reject your card, leaving you stuck with a bill & no money. When he rang to complain about being stranded the bank offered to send him a new card - to his home in Australia, although the staff could see the funny side as he was on the other side of the world, trying to get to his flight.

[johnc]

When O/s we take a cash passport card which is essentially a debit VISA, normal Visa and mastercard with a lowish limit as a back up. Normally we have enough currency picked up at the airport here for taxi's etc for a few days. Travellers cheques are fine, work easy in the U.S. but I haven't used them elsewhere.

[Toolin Around]

My prefered method when the wife and I did the round the world thing was to put a huge chuck of cash on our two credit cards. That way visa and master card owed us money. I never found anywhere that one or the other weren't accepted. In 10 months it ended up costing us $500 in fees. There were no fees on any normal CC tranaction but they did charge a fee for cash advances.

The CC you choose will make a huge difference also. At that time we applied for and got gold cards. It cost $150/year membership fees but in the end it turned out to be the best thing we did as my visa card was stolen in Aus. All I had to do was phone visa and a new one was delivered to me the next day. And if it were used all I'd be responsible for was $50. If you get one that has air miles or something else you may end up with a nice prize at the end as ours did.

[BobL]

A friend of mine just got back from a month o/s, and had several embarrassing moments when his credit card was rejected by overseas networks - seems that if there is any sort of interruption in the phone lines between where you are & your bank's card computer system, the o/s credit card computer will reject your card, leaving you stuck with a bill & no money. When he rang to complain about being stranded the bank offered to send him a new card - to his home in Australia, although the staff could see the funny side as he was on the other side of the world, trying to get to his flight.

This exact thing happened to my wife but we always travel with at 3 credit/debit cards each, only one of which are the same, so at least we had the others. We also only every carry one real credit card in our wallet/purse so if they get stolen we have the others.

I also put a couple of old credit and video library cards and an old drivers licence in my wallet in case it gets nicked. One time this caused a major headache when I went to hire a car in Rome I handed across the old licence and it although it was all checked out OK by the desk clerk, when I went to pick up the car there was a mini mussolini inspector at the gate of the car park who checked out the paperwork and licence spotted it was out of date and all hell broke loose, even though I showed him the new licence! All the paperwork had to be redone - I'm sure he was just being a prick!

We found many small B&Bs still do not accept credit cards. Just to be on the safe side we used to carry a couple of travelers cheques with us although we have never had the need to use them, but we guess that as soon as we stop carrying them we will need them.

[Dusty Dave]

Thanks everyone for all the great tips!

I'm curious about Fuzzie's comment regarding the banks EFT card being better than the debit Visa - we've got two EFT cards, one's a debit Visa and the other's a debit Mastercard. I was under the impression that they operate just like a normal EFT card, PLUS the visa/mastercard option - is that not the case?

Wouldn't it just depend which button I hit at the ATM whether the transaction was an 'ATM' type transaction or a 'Visa' type transaction?

Might have to try and speak to the banks next week and get the lowdown, although I had to get to the bottom of a few issues last week and found the customer support people to be little more than brochure readers - the more complex your question, the louder they read the brochure

[TomH]

Hi Dave,

EFT cards will cost you on every withdrawl, so you have to withdraw lots of money to make it worthwhile.

I backpacked around Europe, Africa, Middle East for 6 months with my good wife, and took travellers cheques as a kind of insurance policy. Did I use any. Nope..... Was my credit or EFTPOS card every rejected - not that I could recall, even in the depths of ZImbabwe or Morocco. When we used to withdraw money, we generally took 400 Euro at a time. The only difficulty I can recall is that in Australia we have cheque and savings accounts, which requires different options on the EFT machine. In some parts of Europe / Africa / Middle East you will only have one option and if you have the wrong one if will not find the account. I can't recall, but maybe they call them "Cash Account" and "Other".

When I travel for work or pleasure I take credit cards, and might withdraw some money when I'm in the major countries. The exchange rate is generally the same as the bank exchange rate for EFT. UK will be fine - the only thing you will need is a credit card with a pin number (chip & pin). The UK transitioned over to this system 3 years ago and while they still accept signatures it is a lot easier with a pin number (and no signature). You will have no problems in the UK and most of Europe.

UK is safe, but in some other cities / countries (Rome in particular) I would carry a money pouch instead.

Hope this helps.

Tom