Akiela Hope

When on va­ca­tion, it's a time to be care­free. How­ev­er, there are cer­tain things you must take in­to con­sid­er­a­tion when trav­el­ling, and mon­ey is one of them. Most time ques­tions arise re­gard­ing which mon­e­tary ser­vice is best. No need to wor­ry... here are a few guide­lines to help you weigh your op­tions.

CASH

Pros

�2 Cash is con­ve­nient. If you are trav­el­ing in your na­tive coun­try, you don't need to find banks or ATMs.

�2 If you're vis­it­ing an­oth­er coun­try, you'll prob­a­bly pay less to ex­change cash for the lo­cal cur­ren­cy than you would pay us­ing an­oth­er form of pay­ment.

Cons

�2 Cash is a se­cu­ri­ty risk; it can be stolen eas­i­ly and can­not be re­placed.

�2 If you're trav­el­ing abroad, you'll need to lo­cate and vis­it banks to ex­change your cash for the lo­cal cur­ren­cy.

DEB­IT CARDS

Pros

�2 A deb­it card, prop­er­ly pro­tect­ed, can't be stolen as eas­i­ly as cash.

�2 You can vis­it an ATM and use your deb­it card to au­to­mat­i­cal­ly draw lo­cal cur­ren­cy; the con­ver­sion and as­so­ci­at­ed fees will ap­pear on your bank state­ment.

�2 Us­ing a deb­it card can help you stay with­in your bud­get be­cause the car takes mon­ey from your check­ing ac­count.

Cons

�2 Your deb­it card may not work in all ATM ma­chines at your des­ti­na­tion, so you'll need to bring a back­up deb­it or cred­it card.

�2 Us­ing an ATM isn't free un­less you use your bank's ma­chines. If you go out­side of your bank's net­work, you'll be charged a fee to use a non-sys­tem ATM. When you use your deb­it card in a for­eign bank's ATM, you will prob­a­bly be charged sep­a­rate fees for us­ing the ma­chine and for con­vert­ing your funds in­to lo­cal cur­ren­cy.

�2 You may need to change your PIN. In some coun­tries, ATMs will not process PINs with more than four dig­its. In oth­ers, PINs with ze­roes will not work.

�2 If your funds run out, you can't get a cash ad­vance with your deb­it card. You may wish to bring an al­ter­nate form of trav­el mon­ey for emer­gen­cies.

TRAV­ELLERS CHEQUES

Pros

�2 Trav­ellers cheques are se­cure; they can be re­placed if stolen and re­quire a coun­tersig­na­ture for use.

�2 You can buy Trav­ellers cheques in some for­eign cur­ren­cies, in­clud­ing the Eu­ro, British pound, Japan­ese yen and Cana­di­an dol­lar.

Cons

�2 Trav­ellers cheques can be ex­pen­sive to buy. You're nor­mal­ly as­sessed a ser­vice charge, and you'll al­so pay a ship­ping charge if you or­der them on­line.

�2 Not all mer­chants or banks will ac­cept Trav­ellers cheques, even those in their lo­cal cur­ren­cy, or they may charge you a fee to ac­cept them.

CRED­IT CARDS

Pros

�2 Cred­it cards are easy to car­ry.

�2 You can re­place your cred­it card if it is lost or stolen.

�2 You can re­serve your ho­tel and rental car on your cred­it card and your reser­va­tion will be guar­an­teed, even if you ar­rive late.

Cons

�2 Un­scrupu­lous mer­chants can steal your cred­it card in­for­ma­tion and use your ac­count. This can be dis­put­ed and re­moved from your ac­count, but it's a long, an­noy­ing process, and you may need to can­cel your card al­to­geth­er.

�2 Cred­it cards may not be ac­cept­ed at your ho­tels and restau­rants, so you will still need to car­ry cash for some pur­chas­es and for emer­gen­cies.

�2 As with any cred­it card trans­ac­tion, you'll pay in­ter­est on your trav­el pur­chas­es un­less you pay your bal­ance in full each month.

With in­for­ma­tion from:http://se­nior­trav­el.about.com