Believe it or not, there’s always some hapless individual who floats on cloud nine during his vacation, then comes home not only to dirty laundry but also to huge credit card bills and finance charges.
That mad rush to “get away from everything” can cost you quite a lot if you’re not careful – and make it easy to forget how dreamy that vacation was.
Here are some banking traveling tips from our personal finance feature today:
Credit card vs. debit card
If you pay off your entire balance each month, use your credit card because many cards pay rewards points for usage. Who knows, your next vacation could be courtesy of your rewards. Warning though, make sure you have the discipline to charge only what you can afford to pay or all hell will break loose.
Me, I’m really counting on my air miles to get some relief from transport fare this Christmas. It’s true that air miles are expensive. You’ll have to spend a fortune to, say, get a free seat to Singapore. And it’s not even totally free, because you have to pay taxes, which are nothing to sneeze at. But hey, I can’t get a free seat just by ranting.
Oh and here’s another tip: If you don’t mind the extra trip to Subic or Clark where budget airlines pick up passengers, you just might reduce that air ticket by half!
(Passengers wait in line on the tarmac to board an Air Asia Airbus A320 at the Low-Cost Carrier Terminal at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Sepang. The chairs are plastic, the facilities are few and some passengers are grumbling, but budget airlines are hailing new no-frills terminals in Singapore and Malaysia as a cost-saving success.)
ATM hunt
While you have the time now, search for your bank’s ATM locations in the place where you’re going. Make a list too, of affiliated ATMs in the area so you’ll be ready in any case.
You might be tempted to skim over this tip. Don’t! ATM charges when overseas can be really high. It’s fun, however, to see your peso ATM card cough out a Malaysian ringgit 
.
Travel cheques or cash?
By bringing travel cheques, you won’t have to carry bulky cash. Also, you can get the travel cheques replaced should you lose them or they get stolen.
I remember when a relative came home dejected. He lost $10,000 in cash while traveling to the US. Huwat? How could you bring that much cash? I shake my head. My mind cannot comprehend it. Can you?
Bills payment
Check your calendar and see if there’s a bill (for utility, insurance, or other service) that will be due when you’re away.
Online banking deserves some gratitude here, guys. They have quietly made our lives so much more convenient at an age when we are always scrambling to run errands, running to fix emergencies, fixing problems to make more problems – generally running on a gerbil wheel of commercialism ostensibly to make more out of life. Ahh…don’t make me start writing about the increasing shrillness of our lives. Sometimes I hate technology for doing that to humans, but being able to pay bills in advance through online banking, now there’s a reason to do a virtual kowtow to the gods of the microchips!
Ongoing promotions
Some credit cards and banks offer promos to their clients. These range from discounts at hotels, restaurants, and car rental companies.
Public confession: my wallet’s huge because I keep coupons in them just in case there’s an opportunity to get a freebie! It’s not that I’m a beancounter. I just love the feeling of outsmarting banks. Most of them swear that no one will actually use those coupons, you know.
Security tips
Just to be safe, photocopy the front and back of the following before you leave:
· ATM card
· Credit card
· ID
Leave a copy each at home, and bring another set with you. In case you lose your ATM card, credit card, and ID, you will be able to report pertinent info to authorities right away. And don’t forget to write down the hotline for your bank or credit card company.
Happy moneysmarts vacation, everyone!
October 8th, 2007 at 1:11 pm
Just to add on the mention of budget airlines and bills payment through online banking.
on going for budget airlines, while it might sound too alarmist i guess it wouldn’t hurt to post this advice from this article which takes a look at recent plane crashes in Asia:
on online banking always watch out for phishing or other fraudulent attempts aimed at compromising the security of your account. if i remember it right it was around the same time late last year to early this year when similar attempts were reported to have been made against clients of local banks.
one thing to keep in mind is to know the financial institution’s url for online banking and always check if the said url in the browser’s address bar is that of the financial institution’s.
October 4th, 2007 at 3:29 pm
Salve, the 1,000 yen ($8.70) airport train is safe and actually faster - 1.25 hr vs 3 hr for the 35,000 yen taxi! Yun nga lang some of the signs / directions are in Japanese, plus the once-in-a-while Jap-only instruction to “priis get off and switch to next train, we’re goin to another direction ne” Fail to follow and you’ll be sleeping in Mt Fuji mwahaha
. For absolute beginners there’s also a 3,000 yen bus taking you to a fixed location in Tokyo, that isn’t bad either.
You don’t have to scrimp or make meticulous plans naman for more affordable destinations, Philippines or Thailand won’t really hurt your pockets so you can relax a bit.
One final lesson to draw here is that travel and leisure is more fun fun fun after you’ve learned the art of growing your money. With my P 300k equity mutual fund investment last Nov 1998 now quintupled to P 1.5M life’s little pleasures now become more affordable, not to mention I’m smarter and shrewder this time around! I say (with some conviction) that growing your wealth and having fun come hand-in-hand. Thanks for everything, Salve, keep all the investing tips coming as well!
October 4th, 2007 at 8:33 am
hi, salve..have been busy..anyway, believe me, it takes a lot, lot, lot of self-control. sarap bumili ng ,kung anu-ano pag nagbiyahe…
i just keep on converting price to pesos na lang so that we don’t spend much…
October 4th, 2007 at 1:27 am
Travel insurance is a mandatory requirement when applying for Schengen visa or visa to other European countries. I’m not sure why but maybe because medical costs are expensive. It’s cheap, around $15 for 10 days of travel.
October 3rd, 2007 at 2:07 pm
mikoy, seems like a good mix, you two :-). Will check out that book.