[lca2018-chat] Just a couple of weeks to go!

[Andrew Donnellan]

On 9 January 2018 at 18:41, Ewen McNeill <lca2018 at ewen.mcneill.gen.nz>
wrote:

> On 9/01/18 18:38, Alison Chaiken wrote:
>
>> 0. Where should foreign visitors change money upon arrival?   Perhaps at
>> the airpoort?
>>
>
> While you definitely can change money at any international airport,
> usually the rates will be even less favourable there than at downtown banks
> or downtown bureau de change.
>
> Typically what I do when going to a country with different currency is get
> a small amount ($100-$200) of cash in that country's currency at my local
> bank before leaving home, and then get the rest by taking money out of an
> ATM when I'm in the country (usually again a few hundred dollars, to spread
> out the transaction fees).  These days you might even be fine just planning
> on getting money out in an ATM at the first airport in the country you
> reach.
>
> You'll also find that you can use a Visa/Mastercard (and often
> Amex/Diners, perhaps with an extra fee) most places, so you may not need
> that much cash (eg, unlike the USA there's much less need to have cash on
> hand to give "random" cash tips to people in NZ/Australia).


That's my standard practice - international withdrawals at an ATM tend to
result in fees around $5-10 with most banks (Australian, at least - YMMV
for people who are coming *to* AU) and as such are comparable with getting
cash exchanged at many banks/Travelex outlets/etc.

I agree with Ewen that you absolutely can get away without much cash at all
- you might want some for smaller food outlets that prefer cash to card,
and for splitting bills at restaurants that don't like to split for you,
but otherwise if you're happy to cop the foreign transaction fee on your
card you'll be able to use at least Visa/Mastercard in most places.


-- 
Andrew Donnellan
http://andrew.donnellan.id.au         andrew at donnellan.id.au
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