Find out how to:
Plan a route and choose your travel destinations
Make money from overseas jobs
Select the best travel insurance to cover you while working abroad
Make your travel money last longer
Choose the best ways of keeping in touch with friends and family
Pick the best time to visit
Pack the health essentials with your first aid kit checklist
Find the best opportunities for volunteer work overseas
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Help fund your next overseas trip by completing Paid Surveys at home or on the road.
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A few words of warning about Prepaid Travel Cards. Examples of these cards are Visa Travel Money, MasterCard Traveller’s Cash cards and and the Travelex Cash Passport card. With these you load the card with money before the trip, and then use it for overseas ATM withdrawals and purchases.
These cards are a bit like plastic travellers cheques, with security features such as 24-hour support if they’re lost or stolen. A free second card is often provided.
You need to
read the fine print on these type cards as quiite often there are hidden
fees that quyickly add up. Costs such as...
Cost to load money on to the card (appx 1%)
ATM withdrawal fee (approximately $4)
A currency conversion fee anywhere around 2% to 6%
The Working Nomad on Credit Cards
Choose your credit cards carefully
On a recent trip to Malaysia we needed some cash late at night so off to the nearest ATM we go. Insert the card, the machine makes a few clunking noises for a few minutes and rather than delivering your cash, it keeps your card and puts itself out of order. Hmmm, you know something’s gone wrong. What do you do?
Well luckily for us a few minutes later the lights start flashing again on the ATM and our card is returned to us. Apparently this is not an uncommon problem.
If this happens to you, you need to contact the bank that has the ATM, and
also your issuing bank if any transactions are recorded against it. All this might take several weeks to be resolved. You might also consider using ATMs that are attached to branches or bank exchange booths during working hours so that you can make a report directly and immediately. These ATMs are also slightly less prone to having skimming devices attached, which is a big problem in Asia as well as other more developed countries.
Most expats living in Thailand would now be aware of the new 150 baht ATM fee applicable to cash withdrawals for credit and debit cards registered outside Thailand. This new policy has been in affect since April 2009, and is in addition to any transaction fee your home bank charges for foreign transactions. If you need to withdraw funds from your home bank, withdraw enough money so you don’t use the ATM multiple times (take out a little more cash) and go inside the branch for over the counter service to avoid the ATM fee. You will probably need to bring your passport to do this.
Avoid bank Fees when Travelling
Wizard Clear Advantage Mastercard
Thankfully, for us Australian, we have access to the Wizard Clear Advantage Mastercard that has no fees attached to it, and with some clever planning you can even get cash advances while overseas free of charges.
Here are a few key benefits of the card....
The trick is to load enough money onto your Wizard Clear Advantage Mastercard with BPAY before your journey. By doing this you will have a positive balance on your card and you will be actually using your own money to make purchases or ATM withdrawals and therefore you won’t get charged any interest by Wizard.
Note:
The daily limit for cash withdrawals is about $1000AUD, or the foreign exchange equivalent.
