Round the World travel - ways to manage my money

chris_2312

Hi,
I've recently saved enough :j and booked a 5-month round the road trip to Asia, Oceania, and onto North America before returning to London.

During my travels I will mainly be staying in hostels, and I have purchased a number of hostel discount cards such as VIP and YHA (using my Tesco clubcard points for a years subscription).

But when travelling to different countries what would be the best way to change my currency, and to pay for things such as excursions and food. Options I have looked at include traveller’s cheques, credit card, and I think that a Natwest account offers free withdrawals from cash points abroad ?

What would people recommend? Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Kind Regards

Chris

squish_2

Nationwide Flex account, fee free withrawals anywhere in the world. And they have Internet banking like most banks so you can check your statements online/transfers etc

shockingmoment

I'll go with Squish. We did a round the world trip during August this year - worked a treat. Good exchange rates, no fee. Load up you account with cash, get an overdraft facility jic.

Get a credit card too though.

dzug

chris_2312 wrote: »

and I think that a Natwest account offers free withdrawals from cash points abroad ?

What would people recommend? Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Kind Regards

Chris

Nationwide, NOT Natwest who are among the most expensive

squish_2

Barclaycard is a good CC as they can get emergency money to you if you have your cards stolen.

I have Sentinol card protection which covers all your cards and getting a replacement passport (although not the cost of the actual passport) this is around £20 a year. Just call a freephone number from anywhere in the world.

Most of all have a wicked time !!!!

luci

THIS SITE will give you a comparison of the Nationwide FlexAccount against other bank accounts for spending overseas.

ManAtHome

As above - Nationwide Flex and credit cards likely to be the best, but don't take just one of each - even an expensive one will be good backup.

Donnie

squish wrote: »

Barclaycard is a good CC as they can get emergency money to you if you have your cards stolen.

I have Sentinol card protection which covers all your cards and getting a replacement passport (although not the cost of the actual passport) this is around £20 a year. Just call a freephone number from anywhere in the world.

Most of all have a wicked time !!!!

NO, NO, NO!

This isn't a service exclusive to Barclaycard and I certainly wouldn't go one in order to get that service.

Nationwide organised Visa to send me out a Gold Card replacement. Ok, it was their fault I couldn't use my card.

RedBern

my daughter is coming to the end of her travels - she too has been to Asia, Australia, NZ & the States. She has a Nationwide current account and Nationwide credit card that she;s used for big purchases - like the bungy jump and sky-dive:eek:!! She left the bulk of her cash in building society ISA and then drip-fed it across - firstly so that if she lost her card and someone accessed her a/c there wouldn't be everything in there - but also to get more interest. She also left me a few signed cheques to pay her credit card bill - and set up a minimum payment each month so she wouldn't be charged if I forgot! There are a couple of queries for her to deal with on her cc when she returns - and so when she goes again (in Feb) she's going to set me up with third party access so I can phone on her behalf and sort out any problems. If there is someone at home that can do that then it may be an idea. Similarly her O2 account was fine, but she needed to contact them as she'd not realised her contract ran out this month - and was put on hold for ages when calling from the States - so she's going to change that to allow me access on her behalf.

There's also a Post Office card - not sure if anyone has used them - but you top it up and can use it as a visa - there's a charge from cash points but otherwise is free to use. If there was a problem abroad and you had one of these cards secreted away then it could be topped up from home in an emergency?

enjoy your trip!

Donnie

A better idea would have been to put her cash in the Nationwide e-savings account. That way she can make instantaneous transfers to the Flexaccount, whilst maintaining a good interest rate.
I have my CC on Direct Debit, so no thought of paying interest or forgetting payments.

The Post Office CC is a Mastercard, similar in function to the Nationwide CC.
Maybe you a referring to something else.

RedBern

The Post Office CC is a Mastercard, similar in function to the Nationwide CC.
Maybe you a referring to something else.

yep - I'm referring to the post office visa card that you top up with money - like a smart card - that you can use in shops for free. You can top it up in either euros or dollars and then it saves carrying cash around.

It isn't a credit card - don't know what you'd call it!