Cash ? Travellers checks? Credit cards?

[Hlitner]

Since this is "Cruise"Critic we understand that most are thinking of being on a ship. But there are also many folks (like moi) that do a lot of cruising, but also spend a lot of time on land pre or post cruise. When you are simply going ashore at ports, and often sticking with ship excursions, there is little need for a lot of cash. But when we do land travel the situation can change dramatically. We recently spent a month driving in France and Germany after a Princess cruise. During that time, we rented an apartment for a week in Avignon. The owner of that apartment would only accept payment in cash (typical with apartment rentals) and we needed over 1000 Euros (cash) for that single transaction. In addition, there are still quite a few cafes/restaurants popular with locals (our kind of place) that do not take credit cards. The only efficient way to obtain a lot of cash is with ATMs. As to cruise passengers, there are quite a few private tour providers that only accept cash...and they usually want it in their own currency. However, we agree that credit cards are the way to go if they are acceptable and we have 2 different major credit cards (a MC and a Visa) that have zero foreign exchange fees and no annual fees. But many other credit cards charge from 2.5% to around 4% in exchange fees on every transaction. Even AMEX charges 2.7% on every foreign transaction (unless you have a Platinum card which has no foreign exchange fees).

 

Hank

Edited August 8, 2014 by Hlitner

[karena1]

Just curious as to why you wouldn't use a credit card outside the US? Security issues?

 

mostly b/c of the foreign transaction fees.

[karena1]

And you have my interest when you say you just use cash. We just returned from a couple of months in Europe where our expenditures were many thousands of Euros (not dollars). And we also had rental cars which are impossible to obtain without a credit card. So how does one do these things with cash? Oh, and most hotels now insist on a major credit card at check-in (they will say for "incidentals) for their own protection.

 

Hank

 

Again, like I said, we don't go to Europe. If we did, I would probably use my CC and just pay the foreign transaction fees. But it will be a long time, if ever, that we go to Europe. We love the Caribbean and for there, cash works great - I use my CC in the US Virgin Islands and PR and for the most part, the rest of the time I use Cash. If we rent a car, yes, we use the credit card, same with hotels. However, if we stay a week somewhere-for example Punta Cana, our hotel is paid with our Credit Card in the US before we ever leave so not transaction fees, so we don't have to worry about using our credit card to pay for it once we are there. We have never traveled to the Caribbean for a long vacation where our hotel was not paid for before we ever left the US

Edited August 8, 2014 by karena1

[Fouremco]

mostly b/c of the foreign transaction fees.

You might want to take a look at the cards on the market today that no longer charge transaction fees. I recently acquired one of only two available in Canada, having tracked the exchange rate for a period of time and finding that it was better than any rate available to me for a cash exchange.

[artmc]

As others have mentioned, guest services will cash travellers cheques without hassle. Other places can be a real pain. About four years ago we tried cashing TCs in New York City. The first bank refused; the second bank did cash them, but it took over 30 minutes. Never again on land!!!