5 TIPS FOR SAVING MONEY WHEN YOU TRAVEL
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Try to use ATMs affiliated with your Australian bank; Westpac and St George customers, for instance, can avoid a $5 ATM fee by using Global Alliance ATMs at Bank of America in the US, Scotia Bank in Canada and Barclays Bank in the UK and east Africa. When using a credit/debit card at an ATM, withdraw as much cash as you feel safe carrying around; the fewer transactions, the fewer the fees. Or use a prepaid travel money card, most of which have no transaction fees. Don’t change money at airports or, if you can help it, anywhere. If you must change cash into another currency, know what the ideal exchange rate is (see www.xe.com or its app) and shop around. Help your hard-earned travel savings grow by keeping the bulk of it in a high-interest savings account and reloading your travel card or transferring funds into your card-accessible account periodically. Travel for longer on less, using the Trail Wallet app which allows you to set a daily, weekly or monthly budget; whenever you pay for anything, add the amount to the daily/weekly page and the app adds it up.
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WHICH CURRENCY IS BEST? That depends on your destination. Euros are accepted in 17 European countries including Ireland (all members of the “Eurozone”) as well as Vatican City and Monaco. European countries that aren’t in the Eurozone, and so have their own currency, include: Denmark, Norway, Sweden. The UK is a member of the European Union but not the Eurozone and uses British pounds. US dollars remain the most widely accepted of all currencies and are the official currency in some Latin American (such as Ecuador and Panama) and South East Asian countries (such as Cambodia, where the local currency, the riel, is used only for small transactions). Australian dollars are accepted in many South Pacific nations.