Going to be in S. America for 11 months. What the smeg
should I do about taking money? Surely there is a better
way than taking 11 months worth of travellers cheques?????
Going to be going through Brazil, Venezula, Columbia,
Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, to Argentina, so i guess setting up
any sort of bank account is a crap idea also?????
Any ideas would go down a treat.
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Take a credit card and a debit card - you can withdraw
money straight from your account back home. But do
also take some TCs and cash. Lots of ATMs in the
bigger cities.
I have found that putting money onto your credit card so
that you have credit is convenient. It's generally
easier to find a machine that accepts Visa or MC than
your bank card. Also you're not paying interest because
it's not borrowed money, and you're getting the best rates.
I think the transaction fees are less too, if not free.
Take a Visa and a Mastercard. Some towns take one or the
other. Always better rates going into the bank then using
ATM. You get credit card wholesale exchange rates.
I've always found that visa is the best option - the main
bank in Peru (Banco de Credito) now has hole in the wall
machines which you can use in virtually every main town. If
you take T.Cheques you will spend half your holiday
queueing in their amazingly busy banks and may also be
charged commission. If you don't have a visa card then
Midland bank (and maybe others ?) have CIRRUS on their
switch card which means that you can use it in the machines
but your money comes directly out of your bank account. You
do have to may some interest but I'm not sure how much.
With visa it's 1.5%.
I've always found that visa is the best option - the main
bank in Peru (Banco de Credito) now has hole in the wall
machines which you can use in virtually every main town. If
you take T.Cheques you will spend half your holiday
queueing in their amazingly busy banks and may also be
charged commission. If you don't have a visa card then
Midland bank (and maybe others ?) have CIRRUS on their
switch card which means that you can use it in the machines
but your money comes directly out of your bank account. You
do have to may some interest but I'm not sure how much.
With visa it's 1.5%.
I'm in Chile and I've found that my trusty old 'cashline'
card from home works just fine and it's not too
expensive.As long it's got the Cirrus logo on it, it works
pretty much everywhere in my experience but you could check
it out with your own bank before you leave.
Mastercard/Cirrus ATM's worldwide:
http://www.mastercard.com/atm/