Hi Kcowan, thanks for taking the time to read our piece and to reply. We appreciate that.
1) Your own laptop is mandatory. Internet cafes are not secure enough to perform financial transactions. Use them for bandwidth but do not use their computers. They are prone to having keyboard loggers installed.
We consider having our own laptop ‘mandatory’ from the point of view that we manage our website, keep in contact with various media personnel, publish articles and process book orders while on the road. That being said, we rarely, if ever, bring our laptop to any of the internet cafes we use.
To walk around with a laptop in these foreign countries (even in a daypack) alerts anyone who might be interested to the fact that we have digital equipment with us and exposes us to the threat of theft. While we have heard of keyboard loggers, we have never met anyone who has had an actual experience with this happening to them. Just curious, do you have any personal experience with this yourself?
When we leave an internet café, we delete all our history and delete all offline content. The computers are shut off in the evening, canceling out the day’s activities.
We have been traveling with our own PC since 1997 and have been on the road since 1991. We have had almost 17 years of continuous worldwide travel in various circumstances and have not heard of anyone who has had a personal experience with key logging software affecting them or someone they knew. Of course 'everyone' talks about it however.... 8)
I would think that if I wanted to lift some money from someone’s account, I would have that keyboard logging software installed in places like the Four Seasons, Marriott, the Oriental, the Mae Ping, the Empress, etc., as that is where the money is, not some small internet café jammed with backpackers…
2) Get the numbers from your bank and credit card companies that will accept collect calls from overseas. These exist but are not published. Or set up a Jajah account to reach US 800 numbers while calling you. You can schedule your call to an Internet Cafe (or elsewhere) if you do not have a phone number in the country. We often acquire a cheap pay-as-you-go cell phone for this.
I don’t know anything about a Jajah account (sounds interesting, do you have a link?)
It is our experience that while the bank and credit cards may
accept collect calls, we must pay someone on our end to in order to initiate them. In the past, while in Thailand when we have had to straighten out financial issues we have paid 25baht per minute (+/- 75 cents).
We have considered a cheap pay-as-you-go cell phone but we simply don’t own a cell phone, and have done without them so far… I know, I know, for as digitally inclined as we are, we are in the stone age when it comes to cell phones….
3) Use ATMs at bank locations because these are more secure than offsite machines. You cannot afford to have your debit card compromised.
What a nightmare to have one’s debit card compromised!
I wouldn’t wish that on anyone and I can appreciate your caution.
However, it brings to mind how many people utilize the shop and swipe method at grocery stores with their debit cards getting cash back, or any other number of places they use to pay for items purchased - getting gas for instance where you pay outside.
When we arrive by plane in a new country and need local currency, we do utilize the ATM’s there in the airport. Otherwise we would need to use USD (which of course, we have done before) for transport to the hotel/guesthouse and to then pay for the room also with USD. Using the ATM in an airport allows us to get cash in local currency without making a separate trip to a bank in a location where we have never been, don’t speak the language, and after traveling for hours. We may arrive at midnight or the middle of the morning so going to the bank during these hours even with a taxi escort can make us stand out as a target.
When an ATM is not available in an airport and it is a reasonable hour, we will ask the taxi driver to take us to a bank 1st, before our hotel room so that we may have that local currency available.
4) Maintain a cash buffer so that you do not have to sell an equity during a market dip. Have trailing stop loss orders in place to protect your equity from a sudden market reversal while you are in transit.
Having a cash buffer is an excellent idea. Some people keep 2+ years in cash just for this reason. We have been on the road almost continuously for the last 17 years as it is our lifestyle. There is really very little distinction for us between our time in the States and our time on the road. While this approach may not appeal to everyone, we have been selling shares as needed to cover our lifestyle expenses and we do keep a small amount of cash handy.
I did ask Billy about the
stop loss orders being in place and he gave me a wry smile. I asked him to explain and he said that in his opinion, using stop loss orders was a disaster waiting to happen. In his experience as a Vice President of Investments, Branch Manager, Stock Broker, he saw on a daily basis how the New York traders would take the market down to stop clients out, only to close higher. Since the traders got paid to move money - as did Billy, - the stop loss orders worked in his favor,
even though he advised clients not to use them.
Also, if a stop loss kicks in, you will have tax consequences. These may be unwanted and largely unnecessary.
In the end, I think people must come to terms with their own security/risk ratio.
Whole businesses have been made on internet selling (
Amazon, eBay, PayPal, purchasing through
Google Ads, etc.) and are very popular. However, I know lots of people who would ‘never’ buy a thing online because they are too afraid of the perceived risks involved.
Our philosophy is that it's better to live and make mistakes than to never take the adventure.
From
The Fear Factor, Chapter 26 of our book… (see
Table of Contents:
http://www.retireearlylifestyle.com/table_of_contents.htm
Hope these explanations help to clarify. Thanks again for writing!
Be well,
Akaisha
Author,
The Adventurer’s Guide to Early Retirement