Currency exchange while traveling: why do some still carry wads of cash? (page 27 of 28)

Your approach is a bit of a gamble. You can exchange a lot when you arrive in a country if the exchange rate is better the next day (which happens often in many countries), and then you really regret having exchanged all your cash. In most cases, it's best to avoid exchanging cash at the arrival airport—the rate is often unfavorable, but everyone knows that. Those who use ATM withdrawals with online bank cards like Fortuneo or Revolut are right, but the downside (whether you have one or multiple cards) is the risk of having your card "eaten" by the machine. If that happens on a Friday night, unless you wait for the bank to open Monday morning, you’re without one of your cards for a while... So having one or more online bank cards is good, but having some cash with you is even better.😄

I have two cards (low risk of both failing) and usually a euro bill just in case...

And if I’m not traveling alone, the other person has a card too!

Personally, I don’t feel pride or shame about any of this. I didn’t even know it could turn into such a long discussion or even a squabble with other forum members.

Totally, Rotsaka—but I’ll admit I’m laughing reading all this and seeing the energy some people spend trying to save a few euros, which amounts to 0.0…% of the total trip cost (especially now that most of us have fee-free foreign transaction cards).

But you’ve got to admit, Manondugard really gets VoyageForum going, and that’s not a bad thing! 👍😄.

the energy some people spend to save a few euros, which represents 0.0...% of the total trip cost (now that we almost all have fee-free foreign transaction cards here).

True enough! !😄

As for the rest, the number of closed discussions keeps multiplying, and I’m not sure the language used—plus the insults—helps attract people to this forum.

Not really the vibe we were hoping for.

no-fee cards still have fees 🤪 Maybe you can tell us which one you use, instead of doing what everyone else does—singing the praises of these cards for 6 years without ever naming theirs 🤪 If paying a few euros to access your money isn’t an issue for you, either you’re loaded or you just don’t care—but I do.

"not the expected vibe" The kind where you don’t help others by refusing to share info that doesn’t compromise confidentiality—it’s clear this kind of behavior is accepted here by everyone 😬

Well, my mom says that with her cards she probably has high fees, so she prefers to exchange cash.

Except that exchanging cash isn’t free either, so then it’s just a bunch of annoying calculations...

actually, you never know what you're paying because it's a pain to try and figure it out or even find out 😂

Yeah, you're right, I don't care 😂.

I don’t have any secrets—I just use a Boursobank visa card—but in 2025, there’ll be plenty of options 😍. https://www.tourdumondiste.com/argent-carte-visa-master-card-tour-du-monde.

For the rest, the number of closed discussions keeps multiplying, and I'm not sure that the language used plus the insults are helping to attract people to this forum

Oh! Looks like I missed a few episodes !

Honestly, you never really know what you're paying because it's a pain to figure it out or even find out 😅

I know I pay more for withdrawals than for payments, though.

Last-minute visa?

It just says "Visa" on it, and since I've had it for several years, I don't know if it's still valid 😅

Well, there’ll be three links to that site in this thread—two of them on the very last pages. 😏

What an ad! !😄

Still, you’d actually have to click on it...

My bad, I didn't read the full thread history—I'll delete this.

Well, maybe this time the link’s page will actually get read. 😛

Some people would do better to spend their energy encouraging those who post travel journals, if you know what I mean.

Personally, I never stay long in one city. I just pass through when necessary. I’ve had my card blocked in an ATM before... the worst part was that the ATM gave me the receipt for the amount I requested but kept both the cash and my card! It was a Friday night, and I really didn’t feel like waiting until Monday to get my card back. So I left it in the bank’s ATM and left without any cash. It took months of procedures to get reimbursed! Since then, I avoid ATMs and stick to cash, which is still often necessary in remote areas of Africa, Madagascar, and even Latin America, for example... In some countries, when you stray from tourist routes, cash—contrary to what’s often said here—is still very useful, even today.

Personally, I never stay long in a city. I just pass through when necessary. I once had my card blocked in an ATM... the worst part was that the ATM gave me the receipt for the requested amount but kept the cash AND my card! It was a Friday night, and I really didn’t feel like waiting until Monday to get my card back. So I left it in the bank’s ATM and left without any cash. It took months of procedures to get reimbursed! Since then, I avoid ATMs and stick to cash, which is still often necessary in remote corners of Africa, Madagascar, and even Latin America, for example... In some countries, when you stray from tourist routes, cash—contrary to what’s often said here—is still very useful, even today.

Hello everyone! 😏 My Visa Premier, which I only use for online purchases—basically everything since stores only sell clothes for tiny people with big... 😏 Tall girls like me find everything we need online, which has figured out that the new generation of young women are already 1.80m tall at 15. I always notify my postal bank (which will soon be selling kebabs and pizzas to diversify, I’m sure 😏) when I head back to Colombia. And bingo—arriving among the *costeños* of the Caribbean coast, my Visa Premier is always blocked (an automatic security system they can’t remove, I was told) that must be based on info about Pablo Escobar, who’s been dead for over 30 years. 😂 So my 10 million pesos, well hidden in my... let’s say, a safe place, cover my stays of 40 to 45 days. 🤩 Try buying with a card in the stands of rural stadiums, Medellín rum, *aguardiente*, or the local creepy herb that helps you forget the tropical heat. 🥳 Down there, bank cards are only good for opening doors. 😂

Masterpo is the guy who was recently claiming that nowhere in Europe do you have to show ID to board a plane?

Uh, no, not at all. First off, while I might declaim sometimes, I never *clamor*. And yes, I’ve always said that in France, you need to show an ID to take a flight.

On the other hand, there’s this one guy who kept insisting you could fly anywhere in Europe without ID—until he got banned from another forum and, to everyone’s satisfaction, had all his posts deleted.

But anyway, the connection to currency exchange while traveling is pretty thin…

But we must admit that Manondugard really shakes up VF, and that’s not bad

Have we really sunk this low, lost in the darkness, for the only sparks that wake up the forum to be mythomania, vulgarity, aggression, insults, arrogance, and (sheer) stupidity? Or just smoke and mirrors.

That the trailblazers (or the same ones in disguise) who plow such parallel furrows in discussions are more concerned with polishing their personas—on display, we’ve got... ...—than with putting their heart into the shared effort.