Travel Expert Shares a Super-Expensive Mistake Many Tourists Make Traveling Abroad
If you're preparing for your first trip abroad, you're probably neck-deep in paperwork and documents right now. There's a lot that goes into planning a foreign excursion- especially when it comes to how you spend your money.
Even if you've meticulously prepared for your trip, there's one big- and potentially costly- oversight you might be making. On August 4th, travel expert @pointsbyj took to Instagram to highlight one major trap many first-time world travelers fall into!
Bingo- those foreign transaction fees. If you've never gone abroad before, you probably haven't really had to think much about them- but they can be absolutely brutal, especially if you're not expecting them.
In her friend's case, it started with another small mistake- not researching what card companies are most widely accepted at the travel destination. This friend was expecting to get by with his American Express card while in France, knowing that it didn't have foreign transaction fees. But just as many other tourists have learned the hard way, he discovered that Amex wasn't widely accepted there (which is pretty common: while Amex is technically accepted in over 160 countries, many individual merchants prefer Visa and Mastercard due to Amex's higher interchange fees).
His backup Visa was accepted when his Amex was not- but unfortunately, he forgot that the Visa came with hefty foreign transaction fees. Each transaction he made using that Visa came with a large extra fee on top. I don't envy that poor guy the moment his credit card bill came in!
So how can you avoid making the same mistake? First off, make sure that whatever card you're planning on making your "primary" trip card is actually widely accepted at your destination. Visa and Mastercard are the most widely accepted credit cards worldwide, while other cards are a bit more iffy, depending on your destination.
Secondly, as our narrator says, make sure all of your cards that you might potentially use come with no foreign transaction fees, if at all possible. That way, even if one card doesn't get accepted somewhere, you can use a different backup without fear that you'll be slammed with an unexpectedly massive bill once you get home!
Foreign transaction fees can trip you up, especially if you've never really had to consider them before. But as long as you're fully-prepared- and you've checked your backup cards, too- you can stay chill knowing you're staying on your travel budget with no surprise fees!
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