Currency question

[Swelldame]

My past cruise experience has been easy regarding currency; the Med., and the Caribbean requiring only USD or Euros, and estimating needs before-hand isn't a big deal. Planning for our first foray into the Middle East, India and Asia has me wondering about how to handle cash requirements.

 

How do you experienced Regent travellers handle it? Do you estimate your needs based on time spent in port and put in a long order with the bank before you go? Does the front desk have sufficient currency on hand? (Seems impossible to expect that!) Do you hope for an ATM in the cruise port and take your chances on cards working?

[rallydave]

My past cruise experience has been easy regarding currency; the Med., and the Caribbean requiring only USD or Euros, and estimating needs before-hand isn't a big deal. Planning for our first foray into the Middle East, India and Asia has me wondering about how to handle cash requirements.

 

How do you experienced Regent travellers handle it? Do you estimate your needs based on time spent in port and put in a long order with the bank before you go? Does the front desk have sufficient currency on hand? (Seems impossible to expect that!) Do you hope for an ATM in the cruise port and take your chances on cards working?

 

Earlier this year we took a cruise for 4 months around the world and into probably 20 countries needing probably 15 different currencies and we left the US with only credit cards with zero foreign transaction fees, about $2K in US Cash/Travelers checks with the travelers checks to be cashed only on board and multiple ATM cards in case we came up against a card eating ATM

 

We had no problems finding ATM's as we went to the many ports or using our credit cards (Visa/Master Card are accepted most anywhere). Also had Amex but, not as easily used. Have done this on many foreign trips and always able to use US Dollars, credit cards or easily found ATM's and none of the foreign ATM's appear to ever charge a fee; just the best rate possible for exchange.

 

Our credit union does do foreign currency by mail and charges an ungodly fee to get the money to us as well as extremely unfavorable exchange rate as all banks do. We got foreign cash as needed in small amounts and if necessary found another ATM if we needed more. When we had foreign currency left toward the end of our stay in a given country, we used the cash, including coins for a final purchase using our credit cards for the balance thus we brought home less than $5 in foreign coins after 115 days.

 

Always get the best rate with credit cards (as long as your card doesn't have a foreign transaction fee and those are easy to find) and ATM's.

 

Banks and money changers are thieves when exchanging money. Another tip if you are making a purchase with your credit card and they offer to charge you in US dollars, DON'T UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES ACCEPT. HAVE IT CHARGED IN THE LOCAL CURRENCY. They will give you a really bad exchange rate when they convert the price to US dollars and even with a card having a foreign transaction fee, you will save 10 to 20% on this ripoff.

 

Have a great trip.

[RachelG]

The ship definitely won't have a supply of all the difference currencies. They have dollars and euros, sometimes pounds or Canadian dollars, but that is about it.

 

Once in Estonia a representative from a bank came on board to exchange money, but you can't count on at happening.

 

You can't rely solely on ATMs either as that would involve finding oneand it actually working. My son lived in Ghana for a while, and he had a difficult time getting money as the ATMs were either broken or out of cash most of the time.

 

 

I would figure out about how much I might need based on time in port and what I plan to do, then get some in advance from Bank of America as I have an account which does not charge an extra fee for currency conversion. The rates are ok, not great, but I have peace of mind.

 

I know a lot of people rely on ATMs, but I do not feel comfortable wih that given my son's experience above, and that of a friend of ours who was visiting Prague. He put his card in, and the machine ate it. Ok to deal with that if you are at home, though a hassle, but not good on a trip.

[wripro]

Make sure you have a credit card that does not charge foreign transaction fees and use it for most of your purchases. That way you only need a small amount of local currency for small purchases or taxis.

[Swelldame]

Thank you all! Looks like the easy solution I had hoped for isn't out there, so I'll plan accordingly and stock up on Rupees and Dirhams and Kyats (oh my!)

 

Rallydave and wripro, thanks too for reminding me of the foreign transaction fees. All banks here in Canada charge 2.5% without exception (yep - I was dinged for the price of the cruise because Regent doesn't offer Canadian$ pricing, but at least gained the Amex points), and didn't know there was an alternative in the US. Being snowbirds, we do have US credit cards so I called our bank and discovered their fee is 3%! Wowza. We'll definitely be getting a new one for the trip.