Keep your money safe abroad

Money trouble abroad is not an uncommon thing. Things happen! A bad exchange rate here, a sketchy ATM there, losing the only card you brought with you. All of it is preventable with a setup you can do before you leave.

The setup

• Two cards, two places. One on you, one at the accommodation. If you only carry one card and lose it, you're stuck with no way to pay for hotels, transit or anything else.
• A day of cash in small bills. Markets, tips, and the taxi whose card machine is somehow "broken".
• Get an RFID-blocking wallet, and prefer Apple or Google Pay for daily spending. Skimmers can't intercept payments made with your phone.
• Know how to freeze or lock your cards through the bank's app. If one goes missing, you don't want to be waiting on hold with your bank.

Be ATM smart

• Prefer machines inside banks during opening hours. You're much less likely to hit a skimmer in a monitored branch.
• Check the card machine for skimmers. They often sit over top of the card slot, or act as a fake keypad.
• Shield the PIN with your other hand. Never expose your card details.
• Decline the ATM's own currency conversion too. Same trap, different look.
• Get cash for the country you're visiting before you leave. Your own bank will often have the best rate you can find, and it's the safest exchange there is.

Keep this in mind

Somewhere, a terminal will ask: pay in your home currency or the local one? Local. Every time. The "convenient" home-currency conversion carries a hidden margin, usually 5 to 10 percent, and it's dressed up to look like it's for your benefit.

If a card goes missing

1. 1 Freeze it in the app first. Freezing is reversible; cancelling is not.
2. 2 Skim the recent charges while you look for it.
3. 3 Found it? Unfreeze. Gone? Cancel, and use your other cards.
4. 4 Prefer a credit card over a debit card while you travel. Banks handle lost credit cards and credit card fraud faster, and you're much more likely to get your money back if someone spends on it.