Contactless credit cards, mobile payments, money transfers, one click purchasing, debit cards. They are all beautiful things, and make many of our daily transactions very simple and quick. However, despite regular prognostications about a cashless world, we nearly all need good old analogue money at some point – whether to pay for an on-arrival visa, a taxi, a massage, a beer.
You can absolutely travel throughout Australia, New Zealand, and most of Europe with barely any cash at all. And South Africa has almost universal contactless payment. If you are staying in Hong Kong for an extended period get an Oxygen card, which can be used in many places cash would normally be called for. Similarly, if in Kenya for a while, see if Safaricom makes sense to use as your payment service. But be prepared to carry some indigenous cash.
I believe that it is a good idea to have about $200 and 200EUR on me at all times, in a mix of denominations. This is used for expenses that demand a specific currency (arrival tax in Nicaragua), as well as a reserve for when my cash access is fouled up.
For me, the eighth wonder of the world is the ATM. I am awed that when in a place that I consider to be rather exotic and remote there is a little robot that gives me cash, reliably and swiftly, when I ask it to. Of course not all ATMs are created equal. Some are tied to specific banks and serve only customers of that bank. I just stick my card in, and if they do not want to do business with me, they spit the card back out. Broadly speaking my cards are happy when they see a VISA, AmEx or Cirrus (MasterCard) logo. Even so I have done business with ATMs that reject one card on these networks, then approve a different card on that same network. The key is to have plenty of cards to try. My suggestions are:
Bank cards (debit cards) from two checking accounts from two different banks. Based on travel patterns, and despite me giving travel notifications to my banks, they occasionally flag transactions and lock accounts. Debit cash withdrawal from a checking account should have the most favorable exchange rate. Be sure that your bank reimburses the dreaded fees charged by other banks (on average my bank reimburses me $30 per month). In the US this can be $3 per transaction; the highest I have been charged was $5 in Djibouti. Stop press…a new high of over $8 in Tanzania. Wow. $8.50 in Bosnia. Stop stop press… $10 in Uganda. And the winner is: Argentine bank ATMs lead the fee league. If they have cash at all, often have a limit of around $80 withdrawal (at half the street exchange rate), with a fee of $10 – an amazing 12.5% slice. Again, my US bank reimburses all these fees (a new record in ‘24 of nearly $50 in one month).
TransferWise (now branded as Wise) debit card (see Money Transfer ). I use this once a month. $200 in withdrawals is fee free (but the ATM bank owner still charges you) every 30 days.
Credit cards. I carry three flavours (VISA, MasterCard, AmEx) to try to cover as many bases as possible. These are the cash card of ‘last option’ since advances on credit cards, once fees and interest are combined, can total 10-15% of the withdrawal amount. In most cases the option to use them in ATMs requires extra activation, as well as establishing a discrete PIN number. Go through this process and be sure to conduct a test run withdrawal before launching on travels.
When withdrawing cash, ask for an amount that is not a big round number. This way I get some small denominations which are useful for most daily activities like taxi rides and food. Previously I occasionally received the equivalent of $100 notes, which many places cannot change.
Western Union and the like. If all else fails and you have already sold your kidney for cash in Mombasa, use a wire transfer service. It is how most transactions were handled in the pre-ATM era. It is a useful exercise to initiate one of these, from a retail storefront, their app, and a phone call to your bank. Learning about how this works and the rough costs involved (10% in my limited experience) make that one time per decade that you really need to do this much less intimidating.
Two cautions when using ATMs. The first, which is fairly common, is an option that you are offered to ‘use local currency’ or ‘convert from USD’. Euronet ATMs, found in very many airports and tourist locations, exploit this confusion. Always choose local currency (same if you are paying for dinner with a credit card and the card reader asks this question). Choosing USD conversion initiates a costly exchange (in my experience it is roughly 10% of the withdrawal amount). There is often a follow up screen ‘confirming’ your choice, but that is actually trying to revert to the convert option. Read that verbiage carefully before hitting ‘okay’. The second caution is that in some airports there are currency exchange machines that masquerade as ATMs. Withdrawing cash is, again, initiating a potentially expensive conversion. There will be a telltale screen that flags this as an exchange, so look for that and abort.
It is a good idea to exercise cash and credit cards regularly. Instead of keeping some hidden away for emergencies only, use them once a month or so. Nothing sends up the account security flag faster than seeing a transaction request from an exotic location after months or years of inactivity.
As with almost everything in travel, research a little, plan a little, but do not sweat it if you ‘lose’ some money along the way. I perform a type of mental accounting where I think to myself ‘I get that XY thing/service for Z% less money for the rest of my life now that I learned that lesson’. Pretty much everything I have learned has cost me something. I amortize the cost of the lesson over recurring future benefits.
