Photo from the archive of Zagranitsa
One of the most reliable ways to transport money is plastic cards. We have already told about them more than once, but there is something to add. For a trip abroad, you should take a card from one of the international systems – VISA, MasterCard, Diners Club or American Express (AmEx); cards of domestic payment systems are not accepted abroad. It is worth remembering: with a “plastic” card you can pay for any purchase or service, provided that the cash register is supplemented by equipment for accepting plastic cards of exactly that system. Therefore, you should take care in advance about choosing the right “plastic” – for example, VISA cards are more common in America, MasterCard – in Europe. When traveling to countries with less developed banking services, it is better to take cards of both systems – VISA and MasterCard. In the Asian region, MasterCard is the most common, and in Eastern Europe there are more outlets accepting VISA cards.
Think about the card type as well. As the bankers themselves say, the cheapest option is not the most convenient. VISA Electron and Cirrus Maestro cards are cheap, but they are rarely used in Europe and America to pay for goods. You can usually withdraw money from an ATM with them, but paying for a purchase is more difficult. It is better to immediately get a VISA Classic or MasterCard Mass card, which are accepted by tens of millions of retail outlets around the world.
Diners Club and AmEx cards are accepted in many countries, but the number of outlets accepting them is limited. Such “plastic” cards rather provide service opportunities – additional discounts and bonuses when receiving a “tourist” service such as booking hotel rooms or renting a car.
When paying by card, you will not be overcharged in a store – no fees are charged for cashless payments in civilized countries. But, we repeat, the rule applies in developed countries – in third world countries you can come across both a commission and outright fraud. Cunning merchants can easily charge you more than they should. For example, by “swiping” the card through the machine twice. Therefore, it is better to always keep card debits under control, for which you need to subscribe in advance to a service called SMS notification. In this case, you will receive a message to your mobile phone about a debit of one or another amount from your card, which will allow you to catch a fraudulent merchant red-handed, as they say, without leaving the cash register.
If you urgently need cash, you can withdraw money from an ATM of a foreign bank, but you will have to give up part of the withdrawn amount as a commission (1-1.5%). In addition, far from all hotels have an ATM, and if your holiday destination is located far from the city, you will have to struggle to find a cash machine. But the undoubted advantage of cards is that when withdrawing cash and when paying, an automatic conversion into the local currency will occur. You will not have to exchange the dollars or euros you brought with you in order to make your next purchase. “Plastic” will save not only time but also money – the losses from card conversion will not be as significant as when exchanging cash. After all, the commission in the latter case depends solely on the appetites of the local bank. The optimal option, as experts say, is to have a plastic card and a certain amount of cash for current expenses. This recommendation does not apply to “extreme” places where there are no ATMs or POS terminals. Those who go to such corners usually receive special consultations on what and how to bring there.
With a check on the road
Another way to protect yourself from cash theft is to buy traveler's checks. You can take them out in any quantity, but if the total amount of the checks exceeds $10,000, you will have to declare them. But traveler's checks are not added to other exported valuables, i.e., to the same cash. Thus, it is completely legal to transport outside the country an amount needed, for example, for buying a yacht or a house by the sea.
Today you can easily buy AmEx checks. These “American papers” are quite common – they can be purchased at many domestic banks. The checks are issued on special paper with watermarks and, like banknotes, have a denomination and a number. The denomination can be different – from $10 to 10 thousand, and the currency can also be different: you can buy checks in pounds sterling and Japanese yen, but for obvious reasons checks in dollars and euros are the most popular. You can buy the instruments at face value – in banks that have concluded commission-free sales agreements with AmEx. Otherwise, you will have to pay a commission of 0.5-2% of the amount of the checks, and approximately the same amount will have to be paid when selling them to banks.
When purchasing, you sign the check; you will have to sign a second time when cashing the check – in the presence of a bank cashier who will determine the identity of both signatures. If the signatures are sufficiently similar, payment is guaranteed. If the cashier has doubts, the check may be seized for verification. Such a safeguard will not allow a robber to cash your money. All you have to do is call the AmEx hotline in time – the check will be immediately placed on a “blacklist”, and you will receive a new one at the nearest branch of the system within 24 hours. This advantageously distinguishes checks from a plastic card, which can only be reissued in your home country.
Checks are good for transporting money, but paying for purchases with them is more difficult, since not all shops and service points are willing to accept these pretty “pieces of paper”. The exception is the USA and Latin America, where checks are accepted for payment in hotels and large supermarkets on a par with cash.
Mutual Aid Fund
If you wish to take money abroad, you can use methods not intended for this purpose at all. For example, send the required amount through Western Union (or any similar system), addressing the transfer to yourself. However, this is costly. The transfer fee can range from 3% to 15% of the transfer amount depending on the country and the size of the "package".
You can also use money transfer services if you need to provide someone with urgent financial assistance. If a friend on a trip is left without a penny in his pocket and tearfully asks you to send him money, the best option is to find the nearest point of international express money transfer systems Western Union or Money Gram, fortunately, their agency network in the world is the most extensive – many domestic credit organizations cooperate with them.
Free exit
On a trip, it is also useful to think about saving money. This is not about refusing purchases and excursions, but about using the Tax Free system. It is based on the principles of "tax-free shopping": foreigners have the right to a refund of the VAT included in the price of purchases they do not use in the country and take outside its borders. In Western Europe, on the doors of many shops, you can see the Tax Free for Tourists sign (meaning "for tourists without tax"). This means that when purchasing, you are given a receipt with which you can later reclaim the paid value-added tax – which is about 10-20% of the price of the purchased goods. "Some details: you need to make sure that the seller correctly entered your surname, first name, and address as in your passport," warns expert Ekaterina Demygina. "If the full name is indicated incorrectly, problems may arise with the payment."
In a number of countries, in order to qualify for a VAT refund, you need to purchase goods for a certain amount: for example, in Austria it is €75, in France – €175, in Italy – €154, and in Switzerland – €400. It is worth remembering: only the tax on the purchase of manufactured goods is refunded. Some countries have additional lists of goods for which the tax cannot be refunded – these are alcohol, tobacco products, and in the Netherlands any printed matter does not fall under Tax Free.
Currently, Tax Free receipts are issued in 29 countries on three continents. The total number of retail outlets where such receipts are issued exceeds 170 thousand. In Europe, there are three large VAT refund companies: Premiere Tax Free, Global Refund, and CashBack. The tax refund conditions of these companies are similar, but each of them cooperates with certain stores. To get your money back, upon departure, at customs inspection at the airport or railway station, you will need to present your passport, purchases in store packaging (this is a mandatory condition, so do not rush to unpack the items!), and the Tax Free receipt. A customs stamp will be put on the receipt, after which the "document" will have to be presented to the check exchange point, where you will get cash – usually in the currency of the country you are leaving.
"I have had to use Tax Free receipts during a trip to Germany," says Elena Kuznetsova, an employee of one of the large banks. "Since prices for clothes there are significantly lower than in our capital, I bought several new items at once. When purchasing, I presented my passport and the seller filled out a special form in which he indicated the price of the goods and gave their description. The purchase amount at which a receipt was issued varied in different stores, on average above 60-70. I decided to exchange the receipts for money at Frankfurt Airport and therefore arrived there a little earlier. One of the sellers warned me in advance not to cut off the price tags from the purchased items and not to put them at the bottom of my suitcase, so that I could present them at the first request."
By the way, "tax-free" items cannot be checked into luggage before visiting customs: even if you have all the necessary documents in hand, but the purchases themselves go down the conveyor belt into the baggage compartment, the customs officer has every right to refuse to process Tax Free.
If, when crossing the border, the exchange point for "tax" receipts turns out to be closed, you can leave a completed form in a special box, indicating the payment card number or an address for receiving a bank check. In large airports, such as Frankfurt, London, or Paris, Travelex offices for issuing cash under the Tax Free service operate around the clock. You can also cash receipts at home by contacting bank branches that provide this service. True, for this you need to find out from the foreign representatives of the system the list of domestic banks with which it cooperates, which is not always easy.
If the bank refuses for some reason, you will have to send the receipt by mail to one of the company's representative offices (their addresses can be found on the websites). Along with the receipt, you need to send the store receipt, a copy of your passport, and a copy of your visa, as well as the details of your bank account (if it is opened in one of the European banks) or bank card. If you do not have a foreign currency account or a European bank card, you can ask the company to send you a bank check, and then cash it at one of the domestic banks that provide such a service. Of course, you will have to fuss, but if you spent heavily abroad, the game is worth the candle. Few would find it humiliating to get back from $100 to $200 from every thousand left in the store.
However, as experts note, sellers prefer not to get involved with the Tax Free system, even if their stores are part of it. In this case, instead of a receipt, they may offer an additional discount of about the same amount. It is better to agree – you get the money as a discount immediately and save time. After all, the money refund procedure takes a lot of time and sometimes nerves – firstly, when departing you will have to look for the branch of the company that accepts receipts, and secondly, you need to be prepared for queues.