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.
