TOP FIVE: Save Money While Traveling

Here are a few tips from seasoned travelers on how to make your money go further while traveling abroad:

5 – We’ve all heard, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”  This adage is applicable for travel frugality. Review your travel plans.  Are you planning to take a lot of pictures?  Do you like to read while waiting?  Are you a germ freak? If so, you may want to pack extra batteries, memory cards, literature, and hand sanitizer (in wipe forms, as not to alarm security).   Take a travel sized Bible, First aid kit, sunscreen, camera, extra batteries and SD cards or film.  Not only can these items be costly, but sometimes difficult to locate.

4 – Check your wireless communications provider’s international rates.  Some companies offer international rates pro-rated to your traveling time.  Some companies are willing to negotiate travel/roam fees. Purchasing a pre-pay plan in-country may be worth your while for extended stays.  “Another important tip would be to check with phone company before traveling to negotiate a rate for international service, if planning to take and use your cellphone. It may be cheaper to pay for local service in foreign country, depending on length of stay.

3 – Don’t get mugged, pick-pocketed.  Duh, right?  Certainly, this seems obvious.  However, habits Americans have with handling money stateside could forfeit your funds abroad.  Avoid “flashing” currency.  Pull currency from your purse/wallet only when paying a cashier.  Never count your money on a street corner/in the open. Don't treat it like play money...it's very real and it can go fast.  While we’re on the subject, although  acceptable in the United States.  Counting money that cashier has given you, in front of the cashier, is considered rude in many foreign countries.  Avoid pickpockets by wearing your money, either in a fanny pack or in a secret pocket, rather than in an external pocket, backpack or wallet. The big cities have lots of `pickpockets'.

2 – Spend the currency from the country you’re in rather than using your debit/credit card.  You will avoid further exchange fees.  Literally having crossed the globe, Greg W., USA, travels extensively as a musician.  He writes, “…when leaving the hotel I would try to use all my local currency to pay off the hotel so I wouldn't get the change fee back to dollars.”  A helpful side note from Greg, “Europe has a "PIN chip" in their credit cards, so when you use your check card like a VISA, many times it won't work because there is no PIN chip in American credit cards. In other words, you enter a PIN for credit just like we do for a debit card here…[although European] hotels always honored the Visa without the PIN chip.”

1 – Get local currency from the airport upon arrival.  Austin B.’s enlightening experience details the advantage of acquiring cash at the airport, ”Going on a trip with lots of US dollars didn't make much sense. I got to where I brought just enough US cash to use in the US airports in transit. When in country, I would always use my Visa/check card first. I found that changing from US currency to the another currency and then changing it back COST ME MORE than the fees that Visa charged for the transaction.  In many countries, I never needed local currency and did everything with visa. But some countries I knew I might need to take a taxi (cash is MUCH easier there), or use a vending machine, so I ALWAYS GOT MY CASH FROM THE ATM AT THE AIRPORT before I went into town. Many times ATM's inside the country will not talk to the US banks for you to make a withdrawal, but the ATMS at the airports always do. I got nabbed in Athens on this very thing; the only ATM's that would work with my US bank for withdrawals was at the airport, a 30-45 minute drive away, etc...”

Using these tips should help you make the most of your funds and keep them safe!