Have Money, Will Travel – How to Travel with Money
Travelers Cheques Credit/Debit Card or Cash. With Which to Travel?
An important thing to consider when traveling is in what form you will carry your money. Cash? What denominations? Checks? Credit Card? Choosing the right monetary medium for the trip will help things run smoothly.
Not everyone who travels needs money. I have crossed paths with many travelers who are impecunious, relying on hitchhiking, charity, and—occasionally—sleight of hand or petty theft to get by. Then there are those with a “traveler’s skillset.” This versatile group includes artisans, mechanics, cooks, and people with regional specific skills. They can find a job (generally low-paying or work-for-trade) by painting, playing music at bars, repairing broken boat motors, helping preparing food, and leading kayak trips, scuba diving trips—or whatever the regional activity calls for.
The latter group generally requires you to be quite good, or at least experienced, at some job that is needed in your destination. You cannot expect to get a job as a motorcycle mechanic if you only know how to change the oil in lawnmower. Or you can’t expect to find work singing in a bar just because you can play guitar (I have tried this before, and the fact that my musical repertoire is limited to an eclectic mix of difficult to listen-to music often closes the door. Another reason is that everyone plays the guitar—learn the fiddle or flugelhorn). Both groups generally require time to find work, set up a network, and get settled. So even if you do have some skills, but you just want to travel for a few weeks or keep moving for a few months, you will need to spend some money. How to travel with it?
Probably the most popular forms money takes are: Travelers Cheques; Cash; and Card.
Travelers Cheques are only issued by a few companies, the largest being American Express. In fact, I have only ever seen AE Travelers Cheques, but I am assured other companies exist (it was probably AE’ idea to spell it in such a spellcheck unfriendly way). You generally have to acquire them through your bank. Simply show up at your bank, give them some cash, and they will give you some Travelers Cheques in the value of your cash. You will have to pay a service charge, usually 3%-5% of the total value of the Cheques. So if you want to take out $1000 USD in Travelers Cheques, you will need to pay the bank somewhere around $30USD to $50USD in fees. Travelers Cheques are nice, because they require your signature before having any real value. You sign the Cheques once to acquire them from the bank, and then sign them again at a foreign bank to exchange them for cash. So, on the upside, if someone steals your Cheques, they can’t really do anything with them, unless they have a copy of your signature, and a photo ID of you, and they look like you. If you have an evil twin, don’t use Travelers Cheques. On the other hand, you need to know how much money you want to take with you before you leave, and you also have to find an open bank to convert your Cheques to cash. If you are traveling throughout Central America, for example, good luck finding a bank open on Saturdays, Sundays, or most Fridays. Often they are shut down for labor reasons, too. Banks can be surprisingly fickle.
Cash is another option. Just pack a bunch of cash and catch your plane. This option is probably the worst choice. If you have a lot of cash, you will have to put it somewhere, and even though money is flat, a lot of it stacks into some pretty sizable, hip-hop music video worthy wads. You become a quick target when you pull out a wallet and flip through some hundred-dollar bills like Young Jeezy or Chamillionaire to get to your lunch money. It is good to carry some US dollars with you at all times, though. I think it is good to carry some cash, though.
I try to keep the equivalent of $10USD of local currency in my pocket, just in case I get robbed, I can hand them the money, and they can make the quick getaway. Nobody gets hurt. A taxi driver in Honduras was threatening me with violence once because I refused to pay the equivalent of $25USD for a 5-minute taxi ride. So I just tossed him 3 bucks and he walked away. They generally just want the quick money with no trouble. $100USD in 10’s and 5’s is good to have on hand for emergencies, as every money-changer will take US Dollars, and often hostels or hotels will take it instead of local currency as well.
The final option is Cards. Traveler, Credit, and Debit. Banks now offer a type of Travelers’ Debit Card, which is essentially a prepaid debit card that works in the same way as a normal debit card, except that when you sign up for it, you put a limited amount of money on the card. The benefit of this is that if you lose the card/the numbers are stolen, your checking account will not be emptied. The downside is that, like Travelers Cheques, you have to know how much money you will need for the trip in advance, and you are also charged about 3%-5% of the value you put on the card as a fee. Credit cards are good to have with you, maybe zipped into a pocket of your money wallet, but only used in emergencies. It is frighteningly easy to steal a credit card number and run up charges. The final option is Debit cards. Debit cards are my favorite option for traveling, but only if they are set up properly.
Banks will charge you for a prepaid travelers’ card, but they will not charge you to set up another checking account. So, simply set up another checking account with your bank, and they will mail you your own brand new “travelers’ debit card”—free of charge. All you have to do to limit the amount of money that can be stolen is to go online and transfer amounts of money bit by bit. The other checking accounts and savings accounts are protected, and if this card gets stolen, you still have your other accounts in good shape—no fuss with restarting accounts, or making your life at home hectic. Simply transfer $300USD into the account, and use it for a week, then add a little more over the weekend. Every time you withdraw from an ATM, however, you will be charged between $2USD and $3USD, in addition to about a 2% bank fee. This works out to be about the same fee amount as the same relative Travelers Cheques fees, and a little more than Cheques if you make more frequent, smaller amount withdrawals. Overall, my banker was impressed with the idea and said she would suggest it to future travelers.
For me, the slightly extra fee amount is worth the convenience and not worrying about what happens if that card gets nicked.
How do you travel with money? Wad it up and go? Trade your farming skills for transportation? Travelers’ Cheques? What do you think about the improvised Traveler’s Debit Card?