OldShooter
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Would you like to buy some French francs?
How much cash to get?
- Thread starter Lsbcal
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audreyh1
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I’d like some Dutch guilders.
When we went to Australian for two months, we did not get any cash initially. They are pretty much a cashless society. It wasn’t until we were more than halfway into our trip and DH wanted to get his hair cut in a small town in Tasmania that we had to go to the ATM. We only withdrew $50 or so, and used very little cash the rest of the trip. We’ve also never been charged an ATM fee using the Fido debit card.
Retired Expat
Full time employment: Posting here.
Do you have a credit card that doesn’t charge a foreign transaction fee? Do you know to always decline if they offer to charge you in dollars. If so you need minimal cash. Pay for a coffee, buy stuff from street vendors, tip bellman, porters etc.
Of course if in a place like Argentina you can get a nice discount for “Effectivo” which is Panish for cash…. so can be useful! Especially if the is an alternate market for dollars….
Of course if in a place like Argentina you can get a nice discount for “Effectivo” which is Panish for cash…. so can be useful! Especially if the is an alternate market for dollars….
I have multiple cards that don’t charge a foreign transaction fee. There’s no reason not to have at least one.
I’m at the tail end of a UK trip and haven’t needed cash once. Even the smaller merchants have accepted contactless payments. The only issue I’ve had is that Amex isn’t accepted everywhere, so sometimes I need to use Visa. Normally Visa is my go to card, but I need to rack up 5k of spend on the Amex for bonus points.
Another downside to holding cash for future trips is that sometimes countries deprecate older versions of their currency. I found this to be most common with smaller denominations, where paper notes are converted to coins.
I’m at the tail end of a UK trip and haven’t needed cash once. Even the smaller merchants have accepted contactless payments. The only issue I’ve had is that Amex isn’t accepted everywhere, so sometimes I need to use Visa. Normally Visa is my go to card, but I need to rack up 5k of spend on the Amex for bonus points.
Another downside to holding cash for future trips is that sometimes countries deprecate older versions of their currency. I found this to be most common with smaller denominations, where paper notes are converted to coins.
Z3Dreamer
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Can you explain more about "Do you know to always decline if they offer to charge you in dollars." Would it be something like this? I go into a restaurant and use my credit card to pay for dinner. The waiter says something like "I see you are from the US. I can charge you in US dollars if you like." At that point I ask them to charge us in the local currency. Correct?
Oh and what happens to me if I agree to USD?
audreyh1
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
It’s generally the credit card machine display that will ask you to accept in dollars. But sometimes a person behind the register will ask/offer.
At a restaurant in Europe the waiter will bring a credit card device to your table and you use your credit card in it.
If you agree to USD you get charged a healthy conversion fee for the “convenience”.
Z3Dreamer
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Thanks. I see. The restaurant could charge whatever they want for converting. Whereas, if the dinner is charged using the local currency, then the exchange between my credit card issuer and their merchant services is done using the prevailing exchange rate.
Z3Dreamer
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Going on a 2 week trip to Canada. It is a cruise from Montreal to Boston. Staying in Montreal for a few days beforehand. Most of the expenses will be prepaid. Will need some walking around money, but I don't suspect it will be more than a few hundred CAD. We are not the kind that will buy lots of items to carry home.
I have looked at purchasing CAD from Wells Fargo (rate is not good). I have looked at setting up TD Bank and FIDO accounts (I already have relationships with them) so as to minimize fees, but do I really want to set up a separate account just to save a few percentage points on $100 to $300?
I have looked at purchasing CAD from Wells Fargo (rate is not good). I have looked at setting up TD Bank and FIDO accounts (I already have relationships with them) so as to minimize fees, but do I really want to set up a separate account just to save a few percentage points on $100 to $300?
audreyh1
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Visa, Amex, or MasterCard determine their exchange rates daily. They have websites where you can look it up. Here is the one for VISA https://usa.visa.com/support/consumer/travel-support/exchange-rate-calculator.html
Who knows who sets the rate when you select USD, could be merchant services giving a cutback to the restaurant thus encouraging them to offer it.
Z3Dreamer
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Thanks. Got it.
jollystomper
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
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When we were in France last month, the only place where we were asked by a person of what currency to charge was the hotel. Every other place we used a CC machine, and some of them would pose the question of which currency to use. If there was no question, the charge was done in Euros.
To give you an idea of the difference, if we paid in USD at the hotel, the charge would have been about $4,400. Charging in Euros, the conversion was about $4,000.
OldShooter
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Waay overthinking a simple problem IMO. Take a couple of debit cards, different banks, and hit ATMs when you need CAD. In your case, maybe $25 or $50 at a time (assuming no FTF and ATM fees reimbursed like my Schwab card.). In our case, the sweet spot tends to be $200 but we are pretty much paying expenses as we go.
Spend leftover CAD on your last day if you can, especially coins. Any leftover bills can be exchanged at your bank or just held for the next trip. I have about $200 in Euros sitting in my travel wallet. We will use them eventually.
YVRRocketSurgery
Full time employment: Posting here.
It's situation dependent for us.
Banking fees in Canada are higher than the US. Our primary bank charges us fees for international ATM withdrawals so we try to limit ATM withdrawals. However, we generally don't dwell on our bank fees if we need to use an international ATM.
If we need international currency, we have a couple of currency exchange places in Vancouver that have excellent rates on major currencies.
For some countries, we'll use a local currency exchange place to swap Canadian dollars.
We'll save excess currency for a future trip since we tend to repeat visit places. Sometimes that doesn't work out for the greatest though. Eg The value of a few Turkish Lira we had from a 2019 trip dropped like a rock for our recent trip!
Banking fees in Canada are higher than the US. Our primary bank charges us fees for international ATM withdrawals so we try to limit ATM withdrawals. However, we generally don't dwell on our bank fees if we need to use an international ATM.
If we need international currency, we have a couple of currency exchange places in Vancouver that have excellent rates on major currencies.
For some countries, we'll use a local currency exchange place to swap Canadian dollars.
We'll save excess currency for a future trip since we tend to repeat visit places. Sometimes that doesn't work out for the greatest though. Eg The value of a few Turkish Lira we had from a 2019 trip dropped like a rock for our recent trip!
