It can be quite daunting for first-time travellers; sorting out your holiday money and budget for your trip; common questions are how much money do I take? how do I keep it safe? well everyone has their own ideas on what is best for travelling with your money. Some people like to exchange all their cash before they go; some people like to only use credit cards, Travelex cards, and some people tempt fate and take only one debit card. There is no right or wrong way of travelling with your money, it is what works best for you. If you are in the planning stages of your trip this is a complete guide to travelling with your money.

Travelling with your money – Cash

Don’t take huge stacks of cash with you; it is risky as you need somewhere safe and secure to hold it at all times. However, on the other hand, there is nothing worse than getting caught out when you first arrive in a country. Wanting to buy a drink or need to use a bathroom that you must pay for, and not having pocket change on you to do so. Tip number one before you go, exchange about $100-$200 worth of your own currency to the currency you are going to be using.

Travelling with your money – Credit Cards

Take a credit card or similar; but ONLY for emergencies, traveling can be so unpredictable; it can change at any moment. You may have to pay for a flight home, changes, etc that you haven’t budgeted into your spending money. Having the credit card for “Just In Case Purposes” and as backup gives us peace of mind. In saying that the credit card is not there to rack up 100’s or even 1000’s in debt; stick to your budget for your trip so you’re not paying it off for 3 years after you get back.

Travelex

These days there are so many companies that offer travel cards; your banks will do it, and the post office will do it; however, many people run into issues with some of them; EG the destination doesn’t accept that card. Or it gets swallowed by a machine or stolen.

The one that we have been using since we started travelling has been the Travelex Multi-currency cash passport; which Travelex has recently upgraded to platinum MasterCard.  It is a pre-paid travel card that can be loaded into 10 different currencies on one card; the card will also hold the exchange rate from when you load the money onto it.

Some of the top reasons we use Travelex

• They have a support network that can be reached from all most all over the world; as well as offices in a lot of countries; so you always have someone to call if there is a problem.
• The card can be used online to book flights etc just as you would your credit card
• Or you can use them to withdraw cash or pay on Eftpos
• You get 2 cards with different card numbers; these are linked to the same money. This is extremely important because if an ATM decides to swallow your card; and you only have one that is all your money inside that machine with no access to it. If the Machine eats one of the Travelex cards; simply report it lost get the card cancelled and use the other one. Travelex will post you a replacement card to whatever major city you will be in next.
• They have a fantastic App that is kind of like your banking app; it displays your balances, activities and it is super easy to transfer the money into different currencies on the app.
• If you don’t use all the money on your cash passport while you are overseas; we see it as the beginning of the next trip’s spending money, or you can simply withdraw the money or use the card in Australia as a normal debit card. ( There is a fee to use it in Australia; keep it in mind) our suggestion save it for the next trip.
• You can either transfer the money or BPAY it onto your card from your Australian Bank account. It does take 3 working days to appear on the card.
• You can load up to 10 different currencies
• Transferring from currency to currency literally takes seconds  on the app

The best part is

**These cards is that it is NOT linked to your Australian bank account; unfortunately there is a lot of fraud and card skimming that happens around the world. Using a card that has no ties to your bank in Australia you are minimizing the risk; of being the victim of credit card fraud or identity fraud. If someone skims the Travelex card; they can only take what is on there and the money is insured by Travelex.**

Set yourself a budget for your trip

You would have saved very hard for a trip, squirrelling away every penny to make sure you can afford it. Set yourself a budget for your trip that is realistic, factor in sightseeing, food, transport, accommodation and don’t forget tipping per day. Check out 4 easy steps on how to save money for a holiday for more tips on this one. 

The way we stick to our budget and control our money is usually we travel with 2 x separate lots of Cash Passports; one in Neil’s name and one in my name. The reason for this is one account gets the (bills); we call it so the money to pay for hotels, transport and activities. The other account gets the spending money/food money; we load onto the cash passport the amount we want for our spending money, and that’s what we have to work with. Have a daily budget for your trip set, every few days pop to an ATM and withdraw 3-4 days worth of spending money. Whatever you have budgeted for a day; gets put into your wallet, and the rest goes away to be pulled out on the 2^nd and 3^rd days.  

Now don’t be Scrooge McDuck; you have worked hard to get to travel and you really need to enjoy yourself. Think to yourselves “when will we get this opportunity again” if you are unsure of the answer; you usually should do or buy the item you are contemplating otherwise you will regret it. Keeping your money under a budget; is just a really good and safe way to keep track of your money; if you go over your budget in a day then you just have less for the following day.

Important things to do before you go

• Tell your bank that you are leaving the country, and which countries you are travelling to. The reason for this is if you do not tell them; you use your card internationally and it gets flagged as suspicious back home the banks will block your card, and you will not have access to your funds until you contact them to sort it out.

• Exchange a small amount of cash into local currency for when you first arrive; we use Travelex for this as well, the reason being they usually have a very fair exchange rate; and the fact we live in a small country town with not much around us. So we order the currency online and pick it up at our local post office.

Order your Cash Passport in plenty of time

• Order your Cash Passport at least 2 weeks before you are due to leave; it takes 3 days to be sent to you, and then about 3 working days for the money to be loaded onto your account.
• Our tip would be to load it ALL in AUD dollars; leave as much as you can in AUD and simply jump on the app, and transfer to the other currency when needed. The reason why we do this is if you transfer $1000 into Thai Bhat; you have your 2-day stopover in Thailand and have only used $500; you are then stuck with the equivalent of $500 in Thai Bhat; on the card that you have to transfer back to AUD; and will most like lose money on the exchange. If you get to Thailand and you transfer $500 and need more; then the transaction is instant from the AUD currency on the card to Thai Bhat on the card; all you need is the app and wifi. That way if you have travelled to 10 countries, and you return home with money still on the card in AUD you can still use it.
• So long story short load all of your funds onto the cash passport in AUD; and then transfer it to the other currencies as needed.
• If you have it in AUD; and you haven’t moved it to the local currency on the card it will still let you use it; it just converts it from AUD to the local exchange at the time.

If you are interested in getting a Travelex Cash passport 

Like anything though you have to be aware there are a few fees involved; they are not too much to worry about there is; a yearly account keeping fee, and a 1% fee on the amount of whatever you load; $20 negative balance fee, $10 account closure fee. The good thing is that they don’t change ATM or transaction fees, keep in mind the merchant you are using might. Read through their website for all the fees and charges before you go ahead with anything

https://www.travelex.com.au/prepaid-cards/multi-currency-cash-passport

1. Click buy card

This page will be asking you how much you want to load initially onto your card; put in the AUD amount and the currency you want to exchange to, it will auto default to USD

Then Click Buy Travelex Money Card

Make sure you add the secondary card to your order which is an additional $5.00

You can pay for it via Bpay or Via Credit Card; pop your home address in and it gets sent out to you. They usually take 3-5 days

So there you have it out guide to how we travel with our money; we hope that it helps and makes it a little bit easier for your travel plans. Travelling doesn’t always go to plan; for some tips on expectations and attitude check out our post.