Some travel expenses are harder to hack than others. In more remote places, many merchants will only take cash or charge an exorbitant fee to use credit. Food stalls and tips might also be cash only and getting cash overseas can be a struggle. US banks charge fees or give horrible conversion rates to get foreign cash in advance, and you never know exactly how much you’ll need. Airport exchanges can be even worse, sometimes taking more than 10% just for the convenience. Using an ATM with your bank card could cause you to get hit with fees from both the ATM and from your bank.
For the past several years we’ve been using debit cards to withdraw cash from ATM’s, but we don’t use our normal bank cards. We’ve opened checking accounts from banks that specifically don’t charge fees for foreign withdrawals, but also reimburse for ALL fees that the ATM charges. We have accounts with both Charles Schwab and SoFi and these accounts take all of the hassle out of getting cash on arrival. We find the nearest ATM, don’t worry about the fee, and pull out some money. We don’t even pull out all that much, because we know if we get low, we can hit up another ATM for a little more. We don’t use these accounts for our day-to-day banking, we just deposit some cash before any trip, so we know it will be available, and then pull out anything leftover afterward to return to our everyday accounts.
SoFi checking bonus
Right now SoFi has an amazing sign-up offer. The amount itself isn’t extraordinary, only $50, but the effort is minimal (five minutes time and one $100 deposit). It is also amazing easy to refer a friend (or spouse) to get an extra $100 per referral. If you sign-up using my link (thank you) and then refer your partner, you’ll be up $200 ($50 for your first account, $50 for your partner’s account, $100 for referring your partner). Your total time investment will be about 15 minutes. You will also have a new account from which you can pull money at any time, for no fee. Even better is that SoFi is currently offering 1.8% on your checking account balance, so it’s not a terrible place to park some money.
step-by-step
- Sign-up for a new SoFi account through our link to get your $50 bonus (Thank you!)
- Follow the instructions and deposit $100.
- Download the SoFi app to your smartphone and generate your own referral link.
- Refer your spouse, your neighbor, parents, friends, coworkers, anyone/everyone.
- Profit!
*Hat tip to Frequent Miler (and many more)