Money!

[sammibabe]

We are off in 7 weeks and I am thinking we should get some currency now. We usually get a little cash and dollar travellers cheques. I know out of favour now but worked for us. We found it easy to budget; we went off with our 'allowance' in TC's for that day and got cash for the change to keep our cash topped up without taking a lot with us.

My worry now is that as the currency cards are more common will TC's not accepted in as many places as they used to be? Also as we have not used the cards before can you advise on how we keep cash topped up (or do we have to take more) and how do we know the balance that is left on the card? I worry that the budgeting side of the holiday will go out the window as we will not be able to check so easily what we are using.

I would love to know how you organise your money to make sure you don't overspend. I have tried searching for past threads on cards but nothing came up (and I don't think it helped with these questions)

Thanks

[Andrena]

Many stores will not accept Travellers Cheques now. We use a Post Office Credit Card as they do not have any extra charges. We used to use Nationwide, but they now make a charge for using in the US although it is less than normal credit cards.

Andrena

[sammibabe]

We have the clarity Halifax card which is a good one to have (according to Martin Lewis!) but we don't like to put everything on the cc. We like to have our dollars and know what we are spending rather than guesstimate (rates on the day etc). Also, although not always accurate, forecast is for rates to drop over the summer. To hedge our bets we thought we would buy some now

[shona]

we are just back and took traveller cheques. they were accepted everywhere ( believe me we shopped everywhere! resturaunts ,supermarkets, shopping malls, jet ski's, segway hire, firearms adventure, gas) except 'golden coral' resturaunt. however most shops took so long to process them, they either didnt know how to use them or they have a phone number they phone to check, to say we were losing the will to live at some places!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! so never again, will try the TC or a no charge CC. not sure but i think with the TC you can check free on line your balance or get a txt sent to your phone, might be a charge for that.
enjoy!

[Jill]

The Halifax Clarity and Santander Zero credit cards are two very good cards for foreign use as they do not charge any commission. If you have a Santader Zero current account then there are no charges for using your debit card abroad either.

[Val]

We have a Post Office card which we keep just for holidays, we find they give a good exchange rate and if payed off in full never pay interest and also take cash. Never a problem and Martin Lewis also recommends the Post Office Card
Val

[kitch50]

I would love to know how you organise your money to make sure you don't overspend.
Thanks

Sam,

We always take dollars with us and we budget for £100 per day for the family (there are 5 of us), old fashioned, I know, to take cash but it works for us. We do take the CC for emergencies and "just in case" but we very rarely have to use it other than for the card swipe at the car rental.

[sammibabe]

That's basically what we do with combo of cash and cheques and also 5 of us. We haven't been for 3 years so was wondering if $100 would still be ok. We usually have good brekkie, ice cream in the afternoon and meal out in the evening, not expensive (apart from a couple of more upmarket ones for treats)

[lafifille]

We never had any problem with traveller cheques anywhere in the US. It's true Golden Corral don't accept them, but apart from there it never really was a problem, in Florida or anywhere else in the US. Sometimes the waiter or attendant, usually the younger ones[msnwink] would wonder what to do with them, but we'd just ask for a manager and never waited more than a couple of minutes. Okay, once in Lawrence, Kansas, we waited a lot more, but that was in one of KU campus store and even the manager was barely 18, or so it seemed [:D] (ended up taking the cheque anyway).

I agree it probably sounds old-fashioned and all, but it's the best way I've found to buy $ when the rate is best anyt ime of the year, and I've yet to find a bank here which won't charge me when I use my CC abroad. Plus we also find it's a good way to keep to your budget, and they're insured. We also bring the CC "just in case" of course.

We also usually plan for $100 per day when we go to the US but there's only 4 of us (two teens though, they do eat their share at restaurants [:D]). We have always been quite comfortable with that amount everywhere, specially in Florida where it seemed you could eat out for cheaper but that was 2 years ago. We reason we can't spend money we don't have and work around this budget.

[reemur]

I also use Post office credit card
Carol

[andy_d]

Travel cards are the way to go, they beat travellers cheques hands down. Just preload before you go with dollars and use as a normal credit card for purchases everywhere or if you like cash use at the ATM machine anywhere for a small fee. You can check your balance either online, by text or you can phone and If you run out you can always top up! The trouble with travellers cheques now is that everyone is scared of handling a stolen one and they always ask for id and usually have to make a phone call.

[lynnroy]

We took $130 for each day this year and then had our Post Office credit card for any extras we wanted to buy. Worked well for us.

[steph_goodrum]

Had no trouble using my Fairfx card. If you want to use cash then you can take out $300 a day for $2 which isnt too bad, as they give you a better exchange rate than the high street still work out as cheap as straight cash really. You can top up with a UK debit card online and check balance and transaction online (may be by text but not sure)

[sammibabe]

The only problem with the card for us is that we like, as others have said, to take a set amount each day. We don't take phones on holiday or use the computer - rule of our family holidays so that would make the card more tricky for us. Will give the cheques a last go and go to cash only if needs be

[Tony G]

We take prepaid cards from MyTravelCash, enough cash to tide us over and our debit cards in case we need to withdraw more from the ATMs there. When using ATMs, it worked out cheaper for us to withdraw large amounts, rather than $20 a time... Not free though.

[Lyn]

Using a credit card is not much help when trying to keep to a budget, I have never had any real problems using travellers cheques. I still like them because you know what you are spending and always have some cash on hand. I think most banks would cash them as well, free of charge, if you did have any problems.

[TheKayFamily]

We went in May & Spent roughly £100 a day for a family of 5, (kids 7 6 & 3) gas groceries and we ate out @ Jonny Rockets, Chilli's (twice) Applebees, IHOP & Denny's & the Dominoes at the I-27 Junction with the road to Champions gate
We all had a bit of money for spending on clothes etc etc & went banana's at the premium outlets
We came back with about £600 still left in the budget this is now saved for trip #2 in 2013

[DisneyPrincess]

Last time we went we used one of the Thomas Cook Currency Cards - it was great and i would definitely use it again.

[davidandsarah]

we have just come back from Orlando and used the travelex prepaid dollar card for the first time - you load it in $ either on line, internet banking or telephone and it is accepted everywhere. We used the mastercard version ordered in advance through the travelex website and it arrived in 3 days. No charges for reloading, and we added more to it as we could and when the exchange rate was favourable. You can get a balance whilst there on a free phone number if you answer a couple of security questions. Only restriction we came across was you can't reload online more than £1500 in a sixty day period, but you can use internet/telephone instead.

[davidandsarah]

sorry - forgot to metion that you can access the money you have loaded through the ATMs too although this did attract a $2 fee at the ATM. Publix machines let us withdraw $400 a time so you could minimise the fees that way. If anything happens to the card Travelex have an emergency telephone line to call for a replacement much like travellers cheques.