Besides the convenience that plastic money accords, it also helps the user to keep an easy track of their expenses.
Travellers today prefer cards over travellers’ cheques as it offers convenience, security and tracking mechanism through transaction alerts sent by the bank.
Also the acceptance network for a debit, credit or travel card is much larger than traveler cheques.
Here are six tips to help you while travelling abroad:
Prefer cashless for convenience and safety
Today, most customers prefer planned travel, with most of their bookings done online using a debit/credit card.
The debit/credit card or the travel card has also successfully replaced cash for everyday expenses when abroad.
A widespread card acceptance network across the world has also helped to reduce the amount of cash transactions.
Besides the convenience that plastic money accords, it also helps the user to keep an easy track of their expenses.
Banks offer differential rewards for international currency transactions on credit and debit cards.
Debit and credit cards charge a fee
It is wise to travel with multiple debit/credit cards as it can work as a fall back option in case a card doesn’t work for some particular reason.
Typically, banks charge a mark-up fee of 3.5 per cent to customers carrying out transactions overseas either for cash withdrawal or for paying at POS terminals.
However, many merchants abroad allow customers the convenience of transacting directly in a currency of their choice at POS terminals i.e., INR or USD where no mark-up fee is charged.
Prepaid Travel Cards better than Debit/Credit cards
Prepaid travel cards offer a fixed exchange rate, thus allowing the user to transact in the local currency without any hassles.
There are also no charges for merchant transactions using travel cards.
For example, if a customer buys a travel card at Rs 65/USD before his travel, he will continue to make purchases at the same rate, thus protecting him from a rate fluctuation during his travel.
Multi-currency travel card a good option for multiple destinations
A multi-currency travel card enables a customer to carry up to 15 different currencies on one plastic.
The chip & PIN-enabled card comes with a free replacement card that can be activated instantly in case of loss/ theft/ damage of the Primary card.
It also allows online reload from anywhere in the world through mobile app or web, comprehensive travel Insurance, free emergency travel assistance, zero lost card liability, and much more.
No hidden costs
The Prepaid Travel Card is an evolved product which combines the benefits of Traveller Cheques in a card. There are no hidden costs involved for usage of a travel card.
Things to look out for when using another bank's ATM abroad
Two points, first, the mark-up fee of 3.5 per cent and cash withdrawal fees that is levied for withdrawing foreign currency abroad.
Second, in case the traveler is using a credit card, he should be aware that the money withdrawn from an ATM attracts interest charges from the day of withdrawal till repayment.
Kusal Roy is Sr. General Manager, ICICI Bank.
