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by roel_v 3954 days ago
It's sad that I have to say this in 2015, but the cheapest way to deal with money oversees is to... use cash as much as possible. It's not as convenient (although, everybody takes cash, credit cards - depends on where you go...), but taking a wad of cash for trips <= 1 week or making weekly withdrawals for travels longer than that is usually by far the cheapest option.
4 comments
aianus 3954 days ago
As somebody who travels a lot credit cards are much, much cheaper than cash. It's not even close. Banks / exchange shops have commissions (baked into the exchange rate) from 2.5% to 5%.

My credit card charges $5 flat fee to take out cash, gives spot forex rates, and gives me 1% cashback on purchases. So if I take out $500 cash and spend $500 directly on the card I pay zero fees versus the $25-$50 in fees I'd spend dealing with $1000 cash.

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roel_v 3954 days ago
What card is that, and with which bank, if any? I don't have any cards with a flat fee (both Mastercard and Visa).
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aianus 3954 days ago
Amazon.ca rewards Visa card from Chase: https://www.chase.com/online/canada/amazon-ca-home.htm

I was wrong, it's 1% per cash advance with a minimum of $5. I've never taken more than $500 in cash out at a time so that's how I remembered it. Also, the above calculations assume you overpay the card beforehand so you don't incur interest charges.

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steventhedev 3954 days ago
I've found that cards get better exchange rates than converting cash. Sometimes several dozen percentage points better. However, if you pull the local currency out of an ATM, you get the card network's exchange rate, and at worst an ATM fee (if any).
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icebraining 3954 days ago
Not in my experience (travelling to Budapest). Withdrawing EUR and converting to HUF in a local shop gave us a better rate than withdrawing HUF directly. Never buy stuff with EUR, though!
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petercooper 3954 days ago
Agreed. That's what I've done for the past few years. If you get a good rate ahead of time, you're set. The main reason I do it, though, is I had numerous bad experiences with banks and credit cards blocking me over and over when I went to buy things overseas and I was sick of that - cash is king (if you can cope with the safety aspects).
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ollie87 3954 days ago
Or this: https://revolut.com/
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