Using ATMs Abroad & Avoiding Fees

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Meggan: Hey, everyone. Welcome back to this week's travel tip Tuesday. We missed you guys in between our regular episodes, so like we love checking in and we hope that we're helping you in some way with these quick tips as your travel planning.

So. This week, I want to talk about using ATM's abroad. So Jen, do you, you talk to us about how you, do you take money with you? Do you plan to use your credit card? Do you want to get it out in the place? Like what are you, what are you doing?

Jenn: Yeah, so I usually plan to use my credit card and I usually bring cash with me that I've gotten at the bank ahead of time.

I can't, I, I think I've used an ATM only in the state. In like Vegas. I think I'm a terrible decision. Cause it was the ATM in the casino, which is gonna be. Absolutely terrible idea,

but right. Anyway,

Meggan: terrible decisions are made in Vegas

Jenn: just losing money anyway. So like what's the difference of you lose a gambling ATM machine.

Meggan: It's very true. Very true.

Jenn: But yeah, when we went on our honeymoon to Europe, we got cash from the bank in advance.

Meggan: Okay. Yeah. So that's what we normally do too, but we've kind of done a few different things. So lots of folks who've used credit cards. We are the same. But you can get some pretty big surprises when you get home in terms of like, you know, the conversion rate or whatever different nuances your credit card might have that you didn't expect.

So. Another option of course, is to withdraw money from ATM's in the local country that you're in. There's a lot to keep in mind. And I honestly really found a great blog post that gives you a lot of very useful information about looking for ATM's what network of ATM's you should use X, et cetera. So we'll put that in the show notes, but I was super happy to also see tip in the blog post. So it was reinforced. And my tip is when you are given the option at a foreign ATM to convert the cash to your own home currency or the country's currency that you're in, always choose the currency conversion of the country that you are. It is the better deal. So if you don't and you choose your home, occurrancy the machine actually makes the rate up for you. And that will likely not be the best deal, but if you choose the rate that the country, that you're in your bank, Who you're a customer of, and they want you to be happy. They use the convert currency conversion to make that rate for you. And it's usually the better deal. So it's one of those things that you feel like, oh, I should take it in my own currency.

That's how it makes you feel better. But it's not, it's not the best deal for you. So always choose the currency of the country you're in. Now of course it is important before you put your card in to make sure that the machine is part of a trustworthy system and the blog post covers that. And also it's a great idea to you before you put your card into check the exchange rate of the day,

Jenn: right

Meggan: you really want to make sure that you're getting a fair deal and you can at least compare maybe your phone. Versus what they're showing you on the screen as well.

You just want to at least try to be on par as much as possible. There's going to be fees no matter what. But it's good to be aware of that. Now we first learned about this from Gabriel traveler. Who's a blogger that I mentioned on our couple episodes of go. He uses ATM's all over the world and it's a tip that he actually talks about a lot and uses in real life.

And I really just thought it was a worthwhile tip to pass on as well. So. We actually got money out in Ireland when we were there, we were in a bar and we're both like, we're spending a lot of money here, maybe get out some cash. And we had an opportunity to make this choice and we kind of like, felt all proud of ourselves because we're like, we're doing it traveler tip here.

So anyway, that is my tip to you always choose the country you're in, regardless of how homey. It might feel to choose your own

Jenn: fair.

Meggan: It is indeed. Well that is our tip for the week. So happy. Money, withdrawals, wherever you're going. And we'll talk to you again soon.