海角大神

One of the most painful parts of my international travels has been the currency conversion process. Many banks, particularly those with international branches, will happily convert currency for you, but at a price.

It鈥檚 understandable why they charge a fee. They鈥檙e providing a service, and then they have to deal with converting the funds themselves.

Still, it鈥檚 an unnecessary expense, and it鈥檚 one that you can avoid with some clever preparation for your travel.

The first suggestion I have is that,聽if you鈥檙e traveling internationally, plan to put many of your expenses on plastic.聽Use a credit card for as many things as you can so that you don鈥檛 have to deal with the currency swaps.聽

To do this, contact your card issuer before you leave and make sure they know you鈥檙e traveling overseas. Talk to them and make sure that there aren鈥檛 any restrictions on overseas use 鈥� most large banks have few, if any, restrictions on using their Visas or MasterCards.

You may also want to write down your card number and the phone number of your issuing bank and store it in a private place far away from your card, so that if your card is stolen in an international setting, you can get things fixed as quickly as possible.

Still, it is very worthwhile to have some foreign currency on hand, and聽I recommend doing the currency exchange before you leave.

Doing the exchange before you leave gives you more opportunities to shop around for the best rates and allows you to avoid the pain of having to deal with the exchange fees once you arrive and have more limited options.

So, how do you shop for currency exchanges? Your best bet is to聽contact the branches of large banks in the city you鈥檙e flying out of. Cities with a large international airport often have bank branches that will do the exchange for you, often at a pretty low rate.

The rate is even lower if you happen to be a customer, so if you鈥檙e a customer of a large bank with a lot of branches, contact your own bank first and find out what exchange fees they offer you.

My experience has been that these bank branches will give you the best rates you can find.聽If that doesn鈥檛 work for you, the next best rates have come from actually using an ATM card overseas 鈥� but if you鈥檙e going to do this, contact your bank before you leave so your card isn鈥檛 shut down due to theft protection. Usually, the currency exchange fees (if any) on the ATMs is actually lower than dealing with the banks directly, but the ATM usage fees end up tipping the balance toward doing the exchange before you leave.

罢丑别听worst聽option is the currency exchange desks that you鈥檒l often find in airports when you land. They鈥檒l exchange currency for you, but the fees are painful and should be avoided.

So, here鈥檚 the plan. Try to put most expenses on the credit card, and also take some currency with you by exchanging some dollars for your foreign currency of choice at a large bank before you leave. If you鈥檙e overseas and need cash, use an ATM 鈥� resort to a currency exchange desk only as a last resort.

I鈥檝e used this strategy with most of my more recent international travel and I鈥檝e found the cost of converting my dollars to be much more reasonable than just playing it by ear. The savings can really add up.

This post is part of a yearlong series called 鈥�365 Ways to Live Cheap (Revisited),鈥� in which I鈥檓 revisiting the entries from my book 鈥�365 Ways to Live Cheap,鈥� which is available聽at Amazon聽and at bookstores everywhere.