Best way to spend money abroad for holidays

[DeirdreG]

Just wondering what is the best way to bring money abroad, have used credit cards in the past but are the charges for withdrawing money too high? Does anyone use travellers cheques anymore? What about just using the ATMs and debit card? Worried about just bringing cash.

 

[Satanta]

..have used credit cards in the past but are the charges for withdrawing money too high? Does anyone use travellers cheques anymore? What about just using the ATMs and debit card?

By "charges for withdrawing money", do you mean cash advance fees? To get around this you can pre-load the CC with the cash, but do check the situation with your provider in relation to pre-loaded credit cards (some CCs aren't covered for theft/fraud if the card is pre-loaded).

If you simply mean the fx charges, it depends on the card. My own CC offers better (or at least did last time I checked) exchange rates than my ATM card. Check the rates/costs associated with your individual cards to be sure. In saying that, I have often used my ATM card abroad for a number of reasons.

The effort required to obtain and then cash travellers cheques would personally lead myself to stick with the CC option for convience, but if you're dealing with significant ammounts it might be an option worth considering (I've never looked into the costs/benefits as I wouldn't be dealing with large sums and the potential savings available wouldn't cover the increased effort of having to organise the cheques).