How to keep your travel money safe on a gap year?
March 18th 2010, The Currency Exchange Site Analyst
Every year thousands of students decide to take a gap year from their education or employment in order to travel around the world visiting as many countries as they can before settling into long term careers.
Travel plans for those venturing abroad will often include multiple countries over many months so the amount of money required is often in the thousands. Carrying this amount of money as cash is never a great idea, made worse when you consider the amount of moving around that takes place on a multi-stop holiday. This is made worse for gap year or round the world travellers as accommodation and transport often involves sleeping in shared dorms, carriages or buses with complete strangers, with no access to a safe.
Travellers can choose to use credit and debit cards to carry their money but the extra costs that arise from foreign exchange loading and commission fees can start to eat away at tight travel money budgets. As well as this, some holiday destinations, such as Dubai, don’t take Maestro which can be a big and unadvertised problem if that’s the only card you have.
Another option is a prepaid currency card; an increasingly popular choice with travellers who want to retain the ease of use and security associated with cards, but avoid the extra cost! Powered by MasterCard or Visa and with no transaction fee on purchases, and some cards not charging for ATM withdrawals these cards are the obvious alternative to expensive UK credit and debit cards and outdated travellers cheques. Unlike carrying foreign currency, if your prepaid card is lost or stolen then you have some protection, some card providers will even allow you access to the money which could be a life saver if the worst should happen.
Prepaid cards have many benefits but the student favourite has to be the ability to top the card up from the UK, this means it’s no more than a quick call home to mum and the journey goes on. Also, with the ability to top up via text, phone or online you can keep track of your money wherever you are.
However like currency, prepaid cards still need to be compared as each will offer different charge rates and each have their own unique selling points.
