Getting foreign currency
 

In June/July I'll be riding from Calais up to and around the Baltic taking in eleven countries and am wondering how best to manage my money. Some of those countries - France, Belgium, Holland, Germany and Finland use euros but the remainder have their own currency. Should I just use my Visa Debit card to get cash from ATMs or is there a better card? I have a Thompson's Pre-Paid Currency Card but I had to load that card up in October with a few hundred £s worth of Euros. Are their better/cheaper cards?

Always use major bank ATM's, they're much cheaper and safer to use. I get enough out to last me a week. I always have 2 cards one stashed along with some emergency cash. Never use your card elsewhere, pay cash as often as possible, 43 countries visited so far, not 1 issue.

Well once in Bali, I tried a money changer on the street because of the good rate, he short changed me! I picked up the mistake and got my money back then sat there for the next 45 minutes and watched him do it over and over again, the hand is definitely quicker than the eye!

Good advice from Drwnite. We did similar in 2011, only with us it was slightly simplified by having a Euro account in France, so Euros were not an issue. For the rest, we took a mix of Euro and US Dollar cash and never used a cash machine at all for the two or three weeks we spent in 'Eastern Europe' and Russia. We paid cash for pretty much everything (though I'm not sure about our Moscow hotel). Obviously, we ended up travelling with quite a large amount of cash, so we split it up and kept it in separate places (always some of it on us in a money belt, some in a wallet and some in our luggage).

If you do use an ATM, you may find your bank hit you for transaction fee as well as a currency conversion fee. Can quickly add up.

Not only 'your bank' but the atm machines bank can charge a fee too.

the fees can be split into two different calculations;

A percentage of the transaction - the more you get out the more you pay.

AND/OR

A fixed fee. Does not change with the amount of money you get out - so for this type of fee your best off making a larger withdraw.

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You need to find out what your bank/s charge and how they charge it. Best to have at least two different banks .. if one puts a hold on your transactions that gives you another source while you get the first one working again.

You'll not have much control of what ATM you use. You can ask the locals .. but when needs must.

Hi Paul:

I take a two-pronged approach to money management and currency conversion when I am abroad.

I use a domestic (in my case, Canadian) credit card as my primary method of payment for fuel, hotels, and restaurant meals. The credit card I have charges me interbank rate plus 1% for currency conversions. That is - in my opinion, anyway - about as good as you can get. Foreign currency conversions that are 'paper' or 'electronic', rather than cash (bank notes) generally cost less than buying bank notes and using bank notes, hence my general preference to use a credit card rather than cash when possible.

To obtain local cash for miscellaneous expenses , I use a bank ATM card (most definitely not a credit card) to withdraw local cash from an ATM. My experience has been that most foreign ATMs impose a fixed transaction fee of a dollar or two, rather than a percentage fee, so within reason, I try to minimize the number of times I withdraw cash.

If will not have any use for any given country's local currency after leaving that country, I will use up any leftover local cash paying the hotel bill for the last night in that country, or buying fuel the last day I am in that country.

The above strategies have worked well for me both personally (when riding the bike) and professionally (when delivering aircraft... I was in 52 different countries last year). A little bit of research and comparison shopping will be needed to find a credit card in your home country that offers the most competitive cost on currency conversions. Some of the "free" credit cards offered by banks charge 1.5% or even 2% commission on currency conversion, and on top of that, offer a poor rate. Other cards (notably American Express) charge a small annual fee, but only charge 1% for conversions and offer a very competitive rate. Then again, if you find a credit card that charges 1.5% on currency conversion, but gives you back 1% each year of your annual purchases as a refund, well, that nets out to only 0.5% on currency conversions, which is not bad at all.

As for the ATM card one uses at the cash machine - do some research at the bank and find out what they charge as a commission on ATM withdrawals in other countries. Don't accept your bank charging you a rate greater than 1%.

Michael

Prepaid credit cards: best offers - Money Saving Expert

I used Caxton FX in Western Europe, Turkey, the stans, India, Nepal, worked fine but no customer service evenings and weekends- a pain when you need to get cash out in a hurry.

Have a look if in your country are creditcards available -who offers to optain cash at the ATM worldwide without any fee to the daily exchange rate.

Unfortunatelly not every country have these credit cards. In germany the DKB offer these. In Switzerland there is no such offer, but you can get one of these german dkb cards....


Surfy

Thank you so much for the useful advice. I must say I don't have a clue about charges or percentages, etc, nor even my Thomson Travel Money Card which I used last year firstly in Spain then in Belgium/Holland. Today I discovered how to check the remaining balance on it online and have €147 left on it from October. This card charges only £1.50 per ATM withdrawal, which doesn't seem bad at all, but only provides euros. So I think I will stick with this and check up that my Santander Visa Debit/Credit cards don't charge too much, and use the Direct Debit Card to get currency from ATMs in non-Euro countries. Unless this is extortionate and then I'll be back to look at the earlier recommendations.:thumbup1:

@PanEuropean What credit card and bank card are you using? I am also Canadian and plan to hit the road in Central/South America in the near future.

Bank of Montreal ATM card (it is just a customer identification kind of card - maybe it's a debit card as well, I don't know) and a basic, run of the mill Bank of Montreal MasterCard.

The key issue with ATM cards is to look at the back side of the card and confirm that it has Cirrus, Maestro, and/or Interac logos on it. Those indicate compatibility with worldwide ATM systems.

If you have not established a history of using your bank card and/or credit card outside of your home country, be sure to advise your bank (and credit card issuer) of your travel plans, this to avoid having the card blocked due to suspicion that it has been stolen from you.

Michael

Before you go cashing up your euro's in to another currency. I've found that countries at are next door to Euro currency countries will take euro's. In some places you'll see thing's marked in local currency and euros. So before you go getting load of money, just get a small amount and then look round. Or get your self a pre paid euro card. That's what I use.
John933

Halifax in the UK have a credit card called "Clarity", a friend has recently taken one out. It uses interbank rate and has no charges for foreign transactions but does charge a small amount for cash withdrawls. It can be used outside the Euro-zone, unlike most pre-paid cards which can charge for non-Euro transactions.

If you are UK based, check out Sainsburys card. £5 a month charge but nothing else ie NO bank changes, NO cash withdrawal charges. Includes holiday insurance + winter sports so covers the £5 fee. Works worldwide

That approach makes sense if you are only in the non-Euro country for a short time, and don't plan on making a lot of cash purchases. For example, when I rode through the Balkans this past summer, I didn't bother to go to an ATM to get local currency in countries that I only spent a couple of days in. I paid my hotel bills with a credit card, and probably didn't spend more than about 50 Euros on cash purchases.

But, if your cash purchases will exceed about 100 Euros, it probably will be less expensive for you to go to an ATM and withdraw local currency using your ATM card (I stress here "ATM card", not credit card), simply because the ATMs will offer a far better currency conversion rate than the local merchants will offer.

The threshold, the break-point, occurs when the fee for using the ATM (typically about 3 Euros) exceeds the exchange rate losses incurred when paying for small cash purchases with foreign currency.

Michael

What you are saying is true. But don't forget to take in what money you have left over when you leave. Good chance is you woun't be able to change it back. So it's spend it or bin it.
John933