Are you planning to take a vacation or a business trip abroad? If so, then you must already be engrossed with all the necessary preparations such as the things that you should bring, your hotel accommodation, scouting for tourist destinations, and a lot more. One aspect which is sometimes overlooked is how to maximize your finances. This is not about having a huge and flexible budget but rather how you can get the most out of your money. This is about taking advantage of the best tourist rate exchange.
The Leverage of Knowing Tourist Rate Exchange
With your finances at hand, it is essential to know how far it will go in your destination country. This is of utmost importance especially if you are on a tight budget. While comparisons among different foreign rate exchanges only shows minor differences, the overall difference adds up to a considerable amount of money since you're most likely going to convert a large amount of money. A bad tourist rate exchange means you could lose a big portion of your travel budget.
Remember that in business, high demand of any product provided by only a few suppliers result in an increase in price. This also holds true with rate exchange establishments. The worst tourist rate exchange is offered at the airport. Typically, only two or three exchange centers compete in an airport. The added charge may even reach up to 20% of the exchange value. This is obviously a bad deal but a person who did not prepare ahead and is already pressed for time may have to resort to this rate.
The best option to dodge terrible rate exchange is to opt for prepaid travel money cards. Companies that offer these cards are in close competition with leading foreign rate exchange centers. Not only do they provide the best exchange rates, but you will be able to know the value of your money in your destination ahead of time.
Worry-free Travel with Currency Cards
Your travel schedule may be packed with many activities. And carrying a huge amount of money in your bag or purse is definitely an added emotional burden. What if somebody manages to steal your bag? What if you are too engrossed with your activities and you end up misplacing your bag or wallet? Using a currency card will definitely address this issue.
The fact still remains that you may still lose your purse or bag, but with a currency card you can rest assured that your money will be safe. Not only do prepaid currency cards provide the best exchange rate, they also offer money protection. If you lose your card, you can email the customer service representative and get a new one with the old balance transferred into it.
Other Advantages of Currency Cards
Avoiding terrible tourist rate exchange is not only where you can get great savings. Withdrawal fees, loading fees, and other possible added charges are generally lower compared to the traditional credit and debit cards. Prepaid currency cards also come with the usual debit card features such as possible reimbursement of purchases.
Order a FairFX card now to save on your holiday money.
Tuesday 22 June 2010, 04:04pm
While travellers cheques were the most popular and secure way to purchase foreign money for a trip in the distant past, they are quickly becoming outdated. As the prepaid traveler's card picks up in popularity, more people understand that there are benefits to ditching the cheques once and for all.
Competitive Exchange Rates
When you buy traveller cheques for a trip, you often get the most unreasonable and unfair exchange rates imaginable. If you are exchanging through your bank then you may feel that there are no safe alternatives, and in years in the past that was pretty much the truth. There weren't any secure options for taking large sums of traveling money with you in the past, but today the prepaid cards are giving you a very affordable alternative.
With a prepaid card you can go online and essentially shop around for the lowest exchange rates! You don't have to go with whatever some banker decides to give you on any given day and if you put enough money on your card to last you through your entire trip you won't have to worry about getting even higher exchange rates when you need to purchase more money from foreign banks while on vacation.
When you place money on a prepaid card you are locking in the exchange rate at that time, so there is no questioning how much money you have on the card at any point on your trip.
Increased Security
Travellers cheques do make some people feel secure, but the fact is that they are being accepted by fewer and fewer establishments around the world. This makes it very difficult to get them cashed and you usually end up in some foreign bank trying to get local currency for your travellers cheques. Everyone used to do this in the name of security, but prepaid cards are far more secure than those travellers cheques every hoped to be!
Most prepaid travel money cards will allow you to have your card and money replaced if it is lost. Try going to any bank that has issued you travellers cheques in the past and ask them to refund your cheque because you lost the first one and see how far you will get! Most will not help you without substantial fees, if at all.
Holding all of your travel money on one discreet card is also much easier to keep up with than trying to manage a wallet packed full of local currency notes. You will need some local currency with you of course, but the bulk of your money should be secured on a prepaid card.
Try out a FairFX Currency Card today, and see how much less you could pay when going abroad.
Tuesday 13 April 2010, 09:10am
