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How do you carry your money when you are visiting another country?

DougK62

DougK62

Diamond Member
I'm visiting Ireland for several weeks and have a few thousand dollars set aside for the trip. What is the best way to carry this? Obviously I don't want a huge wad of cash on me, but I don't want to get dinged every time I use an ATM. Is there some sort of traveler's card that I can put money on and not take a hit when I use it? What have you all done for this?

 
Originally posted by: DougK62
I'm visiting Ireland for several weeks and have a few thousand dollars set aside for the trip. What is the best way to carry this? Obviously I don't want a huge wad of cash on me, but I don't want to get dinged every time I use an ATM. Is there some sort of traveler's card that I can put money on and not take a hit when I use it? What have you all done for this?
Click to expand...

Use your credit card for everything you can, and bring $1000 in cash.
 
I prefer to stuff gobs of cold hard cash down my leopard-print banana hammock when I'm walking around. Nobody in their right mind would reach for that 😛
 
uh, "ding" every time you use your card? 2% transaction fee and 2$ withdrawal charge. so you withdraw, over ten withdrawals, your entire 3k or whatever. Say you pay out 1.5k$ via the card for hotel and food and whatnot. There's 30$ for transaction fees. Withdraw the remaining 1.5k over say ten withdrawals. That's 20$ in atm fees plus 30 in int transaction. So you pay 70$, for the security of not having to carry around all of your cash and have a way to recover most of your money if your wallet gets stolen. This is definitely worth the 70$, I'm sorry.

There's no better way to do it. Traveler's cheques, large quantities of cash, etc. are all a pain compared to using a card.

 
credit cards typically will charge you 2-3% as a foreign transaction fee.

check your atm card.. your bank may only charge a flat atm fee, which can be more economical if you withdraw large amounts at a time.
 
I have always just pulled money out of an atm. Pull out a couple days worth.
The transaction fees are not that bad and you are going to get a better exchange rate than you would at a Forex shop.
 
Originally posted by: Uppsala9496
I have always just pulled money out of an atm. Pull out a couple days worth.
The transaction fees are not that bad and you are going to get a better exchange rate than you would at a Forex shop.
Click to expand...

:thumbsup:

That's how i did it in Australia for 5 months and Germany for a week, no issues at all...
 
If you insist on carrying cash and not using ATMs, Ireland is fairly safe and you should be okay keeping part of the cash in a wallet and stashing some in a safe place in case you lose your wallet. I wouldn't even walk around in my home town with a thousand dollars on me unless I was intending to spend it immediately.

I'll go with the preference of using ATMs every couple of days or every week though. No place is safer than electronically stored.

If you still have some time before you go and have good enough credit that it won't be a problem finding one, you could try and find a credit card that allows you to take out money from ATMs with no fees and eats the cost of foreign transactions. Then you'll be quite well off. (Does any card actually do this?)

 
Originally posted by: DougK62
I'm visiting Ireland for several weeks and have a few thousand dollars set aside for the trip. What is the best way to carry this? Obviously I don't want a huge wad of cash on me, but I don't want to get dinged every time I use an ATM. Is there some sort of traveler's card that I can put money on and not take a hit when I use it? What have you all done for this?
Click to expand...

Dude, you're ass is gonna hurt so bad from the exchange rate that the piddly card fees will seem like chump change.
 
The larger bills go in my bra. smaller ones wallet, that is in my purse, tucked snuggly under my arm.
 
Originally posted by: krunchykrome
Originally posted by: DougK62
I'm visiting Ireland for several weeks and have a few thousand dollars set aside for the trip. What is the best way to carry this? Obviously I don't want a huge wad of cash on me, but I don't want to get dinged every time I use an ATM. Is there some sort of traveler's card that I can put money on and not take a hit when I use it? What have you all done for this?
Click to expand...

Use your credit card for everything you can, and bring $1000 in cash.
Click to expand...

This is what I have done every time I have gone to Costa Rica. I set aside a certain amuont for the day and hide the large amount so that way when i am at a corner store I dont pull out a million colones.
 
Originally posted by: fishmonger12
uh, "ding" every time you use your card? 2% transaction fee and 2$ withdrawal charge. so you withdraw, over ten withdrawals, your entire 3k or whatever. Say you pay out 1.5k$ via the card for hotel and food and whatnot. There's 30$ for transaction fees. Withdraw the remaining 1.5k over say ten withdrawals. That's 20$ in atm fees plus 30 in int transaction. So you pay 70$, for the security of not having to carry around all of your cash and have a way to recover most of your money if your wallet gets stolen. This is definitely worth the 70$, I'm sorry.

There's no better way to do it. Traveler's cheques, large quantities of cash, etc. are all a pain compared to using a card.
Click to expand...


shouldn't be a $2 withdraw charge if the ATM has one of the same symbols that is on the back of your card. Just the 2 or 3% exchange rate charge.
 
I use credit cards with no international fees. For backup, I carry $100-$200 in cash (both USD and local currency) and spread it out between various pockets and backpacks. I also memorize the AMEX emergency number... those guys are amazing.
 
Ireland is safer than the US. You are overthinking things. Just use the ATM a couple times on your trip. Cash exchange places rip you off, making whatever international atm fee your bank has a negligible issue.
 
get a money belt, put extra in there and enough spending money that you can afford to loose in your wallet.
 
Originally posted by: soccerballtux
Originally posted by: fishmonger12
uh, "ding" every time you use your card? 2% transaction fee and 2$ withdrawal charge. so you withdraw, over ten withdrawals, your entire 3k or whatever. Say you pay out 1.5k$ via the card for hotel and food and whatnot. There's 30$ for transaction fees. Withdraw the remaining 1.5k over say ten withdrawals. That's 20$ in atm fees plus 30 in int transaction. So you pay 70$, for the security of not having to carry around all of your cash and have a way to recover most of your money if your wallet gets stolen. This is definitely worth the 70$, I'm sorry.

There's no better way to do it. Traveler's cheques, large quantities of cash, etc. are all a pain compared to using a card.
Click to expand...


shouldn't be a $2 withdraw charge if the ATM has one of the same symbols that is on the back of your card. Just the 2 or 3% exchange rate charge.
Click to expand...

I've never been charged a 2 or 3% rate charge for withdrawing at foreign ATM's, when I calculate out the exchange rate I always get something identical (or very very similar) to the published exchange rates on sites such as XE.com. The most I've been charged for an ATM fee was a flat 2.50 fee, which my bank refunded at the end of the month (because they will refund up to a certain amount of fees imposed by other bank's ATM's).
 
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