International Travel

[Agvg]

Here in Scandinavia even the smallest shops uses cards, even I have a cardreader so i can take cards when I sell fishing cards out by the river, stopped the "I have no cash" excuses.

 

[TheMan419]

The transaction fees will add up on the card. This is an extra 都crew you fee from the bank. Some cards do not have it. Find one of those. Visa or master card.

Make sure you call your cc company and tell them the dates of your travel soctjeu don稚 cut your card off.

 

[jeff9366]

In Central America, most places accept U.S. Currency, but like smaller newer bills.

Because North Korea is a notorious counterfeit currency producer, with US $100 bills its primary output.

 

[ultrarunner]

Not to cast too much of a negative...

Smash and Grabs are very real in tourist areas... maybe not as frequent as the 80 a day that happen in San Francisco but several of my friends had Smash and Grabs in Europe... especially Italy.

Pick Pockets and Baggage theft is a problem and tourists are targeted...

I was an accessory to car theft in Italy...

Staying in Florence and walking with friends we saw two guys struggling to push a car so we helped them push and they waived as they bump started it and drove away down the crest of the hill... not a minute later a guy comes running out of the little hotel yelling his car with luggage was gone!!!

 

[dmccarty]

In mainland China and Hong Kong we had no problems with credit cards or ATMs. Kinda amazing/freaky to use your bank ATM card in mainland China without a problem. We got cash out of several ATMs, one was at a major world wide bank so one would expect that too work but other times it was at ATMs on the street.

In Scotland and Ireland we used credit cards and our ATM card without any real problem. Used several different ATMs machines in Scotland and Ireland with no problems. Some where fairly remote. I can't remember if we had a chip/pin card back then. Maybe one. Pretty sure we had problems using the AmEx card once or twice but then we would just use a Visa or Mastercard. I do remember one restaurant we went to a few times that they wanted a chip/pin card but the machine would still work with the magnetic stripe.

I did check our debit card and credit cards and they had the best exchange rates. We did get a bit of cash in airports in Hong Kong and London just to have on us. In hind sight not sure I would do that again.

We did let our credit card companies know we would be traveling and we never had a problem. We did try to carry cash and we would carry the cash in multiple places on our body. We have these pouches that we wear around the neck to carry our passports, drivers license and some cash. I would carry more cash in my wallets, I have two, which is a long story. :laughing::laughing::laughing: The wifey would divide up money as well.

Hong Kong is "famous" for pick pockets and you will see people walking around with a back pack on their front. :shocked: If you carry a back pack on your back, thieves will cut open the back pack...

A friend of ours was in mainland China and made the mistake of getting cash from an ATM and then walking outside to put the cash in his back pack. The ATM's were in this block house like structure, I think to provide security and protect against typhoons. Anyway, he went outside for some reason which allowed a group of women to see the cash. We went to the same ATMs a few weeks after his visit and I put the money away while we were in the block house. I don't know why he did this outside. :confused3: Well, the women followed him and made several attempts to steal the money. He could feel something weird going on but could not figure it out at first but he eventually physically caught one of the women. Then his problem was what to do? :confused3::shocked: Here is the big, tall white man holding a little, young Chinese woman who is screaming in some language he can't understand. :shocked::shocked::shocked::laughing::laughing::laughing:

This gathered a crowd. I know that is surprising. :laughing::laughing::laughing: Eventually, someone who could speak English came forward to help, the police got called and that was that. Sad thing is that I don't think these women were professionals but some young people who saw the rich white guy with a wad of cash and decided to see if they could get the money. I suspect if the women had been by themselves and not in a group it would not have occurred to them to try to steal the money. I don't think the outcome for them was very good. Certainly worse than a similar situation in the US.

I know he, and we, took out quite a bit of money in RMBs. I think we took out around 1,000 RMBs which is a bit over $150 US. Not much to us but quite a small fortune for many people in the area we were visiting.

In Hong Kong they are having problems with people getting ripped off while flying into/out of Hong Kong. The thefts are happening from carry on luggage and people are loosing CASH. Lots of CASH. The thieves are working in teams of at least two people, and they seem to know who has large amounts of cash. They drug, distract, or simply hide what they are doing to quickly search specific carry on bags to take the cash. They are leaving phones, laptops, and tablets. Sounds like a sophisticated inside job and for the life of me I can't figure out why people are carrying large sums of money in carry on but there ya go.

Do be careful with the coins in Europe. Pounds and Euros have coins that are worth around $1+ or $2+ US. We took a cab in Dublin and while I was handling the luggage I asked the wife to pay the cabby and handed her a handful of coins. She had NO idea on how much the coins where worth. :shocked: The ride was only 5 Euros or so but my wife gave the guy at least double the ride amount.:laughing::laughing::laughing: As we were walking into the hotel I asked for the coins back and she only had a few. I asked where were all of the coins? She said she had given a handful to the cabby and asked if that was enough. He said yes and drove off. :shocked::laughing::laughing:

Course, I guess it is only fair, since when we were in Scotland, she tried to pay the cabby in Chinese RMB! :laughing::laughing::laughing: All of this money is like Monopoly money and we had some RMBs left in our passport pouches from when we were in China. The wifey asked the Scottish cabby if the money was ok, he barely glanced at the paper and said yes. However, he knew there was a problem when he saw Chairman Mao staring back at him. :laughing::laughing::laughing:

Later,
Dan

 

[bunyip]

Another trap in Europe, my first time in Switzerland and we went to a swimming pool to cool off, there were about 6 of us and we felt like an ice cream so I went to the kiosk and ordred them, they cost about lets say $1 each and I tendered cash but the server said he would bring them over to us, I said I would take them but he was quite friendly and assured me it was not a problem so I went and sat back with the group.
The ice creams duly arrived with a bill for $16, I asked why and was told it was the service charge.
This is common around Europe (or was as this was quite a few years ago)

 

[bunyip]

Depending upon where you go, cash is still king. Credit cards can be a problem, and ATM cards may not work at all. In Central America, most places accept U.S. Currency, but like smaller newer bills.

Bear in mind that not everyone knows what a US$ looks like and how do I know it is not counterfeit as we don't deal with them every day, I even remember being refused a sale when I tendered a Scottish one pound note in England, I don't know if they still exist.

 

[ultrarunner]

Another trap in Europe, my first time in Switzerland and we went to a swimming pool to cool off, there were about 6 of us and we felt like an ice cream so I went to the kiosk and ordred them, they cost about lets say $1 each and I tendered cash but the server said he would bring them over to us, I said I would take them but he was quite friendly and assured me it was not a problem so I went and sat back with the group.
The ice creams duly arrived with a bill for $16, I asked why and was told it was the service charge.
This is common around Europe (or was as this was quite a few years ago)

It's similar with dinner rolls on the table... Americans think it is part of the dinner and surprised when they are billed for them...

We were in Vienna and the wife of my friend wanted just water... not mineral water but plain water... the waiter brought out a liter bottle because he did ask large or small... she said large.

She was in shock the cost was $10 for the water... said if she would have known that she would have had wine or even a beer... as they were cheaper.

If sightseeing... sometimes you can buy a city pass for the day or weekend... for little more than the cost of one museum or gallery you get them all plus city buses too.

If you drive... be very careful when it comes to parking... towed cars and tickets are easy in cities... several times friends have had cars towed... they didn't know the parking area ceases to be parking at 4 pm to open a lane for rush hour traffic.

I would always park 10 blocks from city center... no cost parking and walk the 10 blocks... my friends said the GPS shows plenty of parking city center... $35 for 4 hours in the underground garage.

 

[sseelhoff]

Bear in mind that not everyone knows what a US$ looks like and how do I know it is not counterfeit as we don't deal with them every day, I even remember being refused a sale when I tendered a Scottish one pound note in England, I don't know if they still exist.

That's why I said depending upon where you go and referenced C.A. Specifically.

 

[bunyip]

Yes, guilty as charged, look at the words instead of read them but I have seen foreign currency offered in any number of places.