how to take money ?

[Lisbon]

We always just take cash for food and petrol ,credit cards for anything big
Just put the cash in the safe and take out what we think we'll need
Rob

[mick]

Originally Posted by Lisbon

We always just take cash for food and petrol ,credit cards for anything big
Just put the cash in the safe and take out what we think we'll need
Rob

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Rob - uses cash for food and gas. Credit card for larger purchases. Favourite restaurants include Texas and Carrabba's


Us - use cash for food and gas. Credit card for larger purchases. Favourite restaurants include Texas and Carrabba's.




I bet you prefer Alamo on side B at MCO as well

Mick

[JohnD]

Originally Posted by scoobydooby

I just have nightmares about global ATM failures and not having a bean on me!.

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Scooby, it's not just a global ATM failure that worries me. We were in Rotonda when Hurricane Irma struck in 2017. The local businesses stopped accepting cards from about two days before hand. This only lasted until a couple of days after Irma was past but had it struck, I suspect cash would have been king.
The following link is lessons learnt from someone who was in Katrina. You might find it interesting.

bayourenaissanceman.blogspot...s-katrina.html

I suspect that with todays ever-greater reliance on electronic banking, things would be a lot more difficult

[Bolto6]

Originally Posted by MSB

Revolut is my card of choice (I work in the foreign exchange area of financial services).
It's easy to set up and you can get more than one card (helps if you're worried you might lose one).
You use the app to top up in sterling direct from your bank acct then convert into USD as much you want to, and as and when you want to. As long as you convert Mon-Fri you will get pretty much a straight market rate, if you convert at weekends then there is about half a cent margin. There is no commision or fee when you use it because you are spending USD, not GBP.
Another advantage is that you control the card via the app so if you lose one you can freeze it instantly to stop anyone using it - or if you are really worried you can convert the USD back to sterling and then transfer back to your bank acct.
Hope this helps :-)

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You also don’t have to convert it to USD but you can if you want. I just loaded my Revolut with GBP and let it convert when the card was scanned for payment. The exchange rate is so poor anyway that personally I don’t think it made much difference.

I also found transactions appear immediately in the app, so always good if you want to track your purchases. The only issue was if you’ve paid for dinner and added a tip it could take upto 2-3 days for the tip to appear.

[Fraser789]

We took $400 cash last time but didn't spend it all because we paid for almost everything on the Halifax Clarity card. It's brilliant we use it every time we go abroad now. You don't get charged if you want to withdraw money on it either and the rates are always good.

[TartanTink]

Like PP I take some cash but use my Halifax Clarity card, also take another CC incase of an emergency

[silus]

We take a few hundred in cash for tips and small purchases and everything else goes on nationwide credit card. 0% fees on foreign purchases and all the rest of the extra protections you get on credit cards over debit cards.

[scottsman]

Originally Posted by Bolto6

You also don’t have to convert it to USD but you can if you want. I just loaded my Revolut with GBP and let it convert when the card was scanned for payment. The exchange rate is so poor anyway that personally I don’t think it made much difference.

I also found transactions appear immediately in the app, so always good if you want to track your purchases. The only issue was if you’ve paid for dinner and added a tip it could take upto 2-3 days for the tip to appear.

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You don't have to but if you don't your at the mercy of the exchange rates if they drop for some reason then your money won't go as far
I converted all my spending money into USD at 1.34 a few months back and that rate is locked in of course it can go the other way if the rate climbs!

Personally I love Revolut simply because my card was cloned in Sydney a couple of years ago and they really took care of me.

[Guest]

Originally Posted by 2017dream

Hi There

After a bit of advice if possible ...
Every time we have been on holiday we have always taken all our money in cash and are thinking this time of doing it differently
Hubby thinks we should split the money between travel money cards so if we lose one we still have cash on other cards ...
Having never used them is this what people do
are there any that are better than others to use and how do you go about getting them, at travel agents/online ?
Really unsure what to do

Thanks for any help

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We don't do anything special, all of our regular cards operate in the US so we carry them as normal. We will have a few hundred in cash, which we will probably get out of the ATM when we arrive.

[writersblock]

We were thinking of doing much like Claudette above - just using our normal cards. We are on property for the entire Disney leg then moving to Universal. Since we can just charge to our rooms at Disney with our magic bands (is it the same at Universal with room cards?) Why would we need loads of cash?