June 10, 2010

Money money money


Everybody has their own opinions about how to travel with money.
My opinion (and everybody is entitled to my opinion) is to bring a combination of Travelers' Cheques, a good amount of cash, and different credit cards.
Traveler's Cheques: American Express.
Credit cards: Bring both Master Card/Visa and American Express. Remember to alert your banks of your travel plans. Ofen they block your account if they suspect fraudulent purchases. I can't tell you how many times this has happened to me.
Cash: Bring both large bills and a lot of one-dollar bills. You can use the large bills for large purchases. The one-dollar bills come in real handy when you want to tip someone. Keep the small money in your pocket. Tuck away the large bills in a secret pouch. When carrying a lot of cash, it's so important to keep it ON you. Not in a shoulder bag, not in your pockets.  I always travel with a hidden money pouch. Something like this from TravelSmith.com works well:

This money pouch is pretty ugly, but that's okay. You wear it under your clothes. Thanks for visiting my blog. Namaste!

Money often costs too much.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

12 comments:

Brian Miller said...

i had a snarky comment but then i remembered that your students may be lurking...lol. this is definitely good advice...now i just need enough moeny to travel...though that may leave me little to hide on me...

tut-tut said...

Namaste to you, too!

Ms. Gibson said...

Brian, you are not capable of snarky comments!!! You are way too nice.

TutTut, I'm having trouble flying to your blog!!! Wah. Let me try again...

Baino said...

Good advice although you probably don't need travellers cheques these days. We just roll with a debit card and a mastercard. Then India isn't exactl ATM central I'm guessing.

Ms. Gibson said...

Hi Baino,
I hate using my Debit Card because it's linked directly to my bank account. I've also had bad luck with using my credit cards when traveling abroad. People manage to get my card number and try to use it. Sheesh. Thankfully I have theft detection on my cards.

Rajesh said...

Nice. I agree with you.

Dot-Com said...

Very good advice, though I don't remember the last time I actually used travellers cheques :)

Brian Miller said...

smiles. ok, i'll be nice...

yeah the summer cuts are a compromise we made about 3 year ago...one of the big things they look forward to when the summer comes...and they never disappoint with their choices...

Cloudia said...

wise post & quote...thanks for the tip :)





Aloha from Waikiki

Comfort Spiral

Linda Bob Grifins Korbetis Hall said...

smart ideas...

Subby said...

I always carry me cash in th' front pocket(s) of me trousers, and dinna have a use fae a wallet onymair. Wasna aware of the credit card block thingy ( then again, I dinna hae ony major credit cards ).

When we were in the Navy, we'd get our deployment allotments in advance. A few of us would register our cash with the Yeoman and put it in the boat's safe; to be taken out as needed. Worked pretty good :)

Ms. Gibson said...

Hi Subby,
You know, mens' pants tend to be loose-fitting, which makes it easy for pick-pockets to take your cash from your pant pockets, no? Even the front pockets are kind of loose.
One day I had hundreds of $$ in my front pocket and on that very same day my PURSE got stolen. wow. Talk about luck.