Tips to Get the Best Forex Deal before any Travel

Posted by Ema Smith on March 10th, 2018

Your bag is fully packed, you have booked your hotel rooms and the trip looks it’s going to be the best ever. But wait, you haven’t converted your cash! “Mmmh it’s no big deal, I can easily do that at the airport.” Wrong idea! 

By deciding to sort out your foreign exchange issues at the last minute, you are simply adding between 10 to 20 percent to your initially planned travel budget. Why? Exorbitant exchange rates. To help you avoid this, here are some ideas to get the best FX deal before you travel. 

Credit and Debit Cards 

Although banks will tell you that their debit and credit cards work flawlessly in other countries, don’t believe this a hundred percent. Some banks in charge exchange fees of up to 3% every time you use the card outside the country. There are some banks that charge a certain levy every time you use the card to purchase and item and when withdrawing money from overseas ATMs. So be very careful when applying for a credit or debit card. Make sure you go for those that don’t charge anything. 

Don’t believe the attractive advertisements 

Though most travel money traders offer incentives like 0 commission or attractive terms like ‘guaranteed satisfaction’ or ‘best rates in the world,’ most of these claims are not entirely true and are only used to lure unsuspecting customers. For instance ‘best rates in the world,’ sounds very enticing, but the rates can be very high as the commission is often hidden in their exchange rates. The only ideal way to get the best rates is to do some homework. Shop around, checkout converters and know your rates. Don’t fall a victim of marketing hypes! 

Prepaid Cards 

Prepaid cards offer one of the safest ways for travelling overseas. Most reliable travel portals offer them at reduced application fees and they give users a lot of lee way as they can load them with as much cash as they deem fit. What’s more you can use it like any other credit card or debit card and if you lose all you have to do is report the case and it will blocked immediately. 

Also some travel portals offer discounts on restaurant bills, airfares and hotel bills. So if you travel regularly make sure you checkout your bank’s prepaid card. 

Traveller’s cheques 

Although many travellers don’t use them today, they are still a great alternative for holiday spending. One outstanding benefit of traveller’s cheques is that they are safe and secure which means if your money is lost or stolen, you can easily get it back. 

Nonetheless just like everything else in this world, they have downside too. One major one is that they are a bit high priced when compared to other related holiday money options. This is mainly because you will be charged a certain levy when buy them in Canada and then when you reach your destination a slightly high exchange will be applied if you want to convert the money into the domestic currency. There is also a flat rate fee for cashing your cheques which is the same whether you are converting hundred thousand dollars or 10 dollars. So if you are looking for currency exchangs, it makes sense to take traveller’s cheques in large amounts if possible. Click here for more details.