I remember the days when going on a trip meant you went down the AAA (American Automobile Association) and getting your free American Express Traveler’s Cheques.  Then just a few years ago, ATM machines became ubiquitous worldwide and you could get local currency from your home account.  Plus you could use your credit card, with a preferential exchange rate, with very tiny fees.

And I think the ATM era of the 1990s may have been the heyday of money and traveling.  When I was getting ready for my trip to Asia, getting money abroad became more complicated.  Just weeks before I was planning to go, I got a letter from my credit card company, MBNA.  Their new policy?  To charge a three percent transaction fee on all foreign transactions.  There were probably a dozen other fees, but I got really tired of reading the size four font.  So, I decided that I wouldn’t be using that card on vacation.  So, I went on-line to check whether my bank accounts were charging fees for ATM transactions abroad.

In the world of banks making money while offering virtually no services, I was not disappointed.  At least two of my bank cards, now charged a $3.00 foreign transaction fee in addition to the $1.50 - $2.00 out of network fee.  It seemed that I’d lose money just trying to get money from a foreign ATM.

Since research revealed that traveler’s checques are really accepted worldwide like they used to be (to use them you’d need to exchange at a foreign bank, pay a transaction fee, the exchange fee, not to mention the fee for buying the cheques), I reverted to the best method I could think of . . . cash.

Yes, I’m back to using cash with all of it’s potential problems.  I went to the bank, took out $500 cash and changed the currency at local banks in Seoul and Tokyo. 

Despite the great innovations in cash handling here and abroad, the only cheap option remains cash.

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