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THE last
thing any traveler wants is to lose a wallet, whether
it’s misplaced or taken by a pickpocket, in the middle
of a vacation. v As the summer travel season approaches,
it’s a good time to review the financial rules of the
road. Consumers who take a few precautions before they
leave home can help ensure that their cash and credit
cards are safe and secure, whether their trips take them
to a nearby state or overseas.
“We
don’t want to be alarmist, because people can run into
problems in their own neighborhoods, too,” said Nancy
Dunnan, publisher of travelsmartnewsletter.com in New
York. “But losses can be much harder to deal with if you’re away from home
and you don’t know the local procedures or, sometimes,
the local language.”
Dunnan
said the first thing people need to do is limit what
they carry with them. In most cases, she recommends no
more than two credit cards—one for regular use and the
other for backup—or one credit card and one debit card
for cash withdrawals.
“It
helps to notify the card issuers you’ll be traveling, so
they don’t put a hold on the card when they start seeing
charges from an unfamiliar place,” Dunnan said. “And you
should double check your limits so you don’t go over the
top.”
Dunnan
also recommends families carry traveler’s checks.
Although the availability of automated teller machines,
or ATMs, has made traveler’s checks less essential, they
remain a good source of cash if credit or debit cards
are lost or stolen.
“The
amount [of traveler’s checks] you need depends on the
length of the trip,” she said. “But it doesn’t hurt to
have anywhere from $250 to $500 to get you through a
difficult time.”
For
those traveling abroad, it can be a good idea to buy in
advance the equivalent of $100 in the currency of the
country you’re visiting. That way, you can cover taxi
fares, porters’ tips and other expenses you may incur
before you have time to change money.
How you
carry money and credit cards around affects your
security, said Sarah Schlichter, editor of the
independenttraveler.com web site, based in Pennington,
New Jersey.
Schlichter, an ardent traveler abroad, keeps her credit
cards and dollars “in a money belt under my clothes.”
Then, she said, she puts the equivalent of $100 in local
currency in a cheap, plastic wallet that she keeps in
her pocket.
“That
way, when I’m pulling out my wallet, I’m only exposing a
limited amount of local currency,” which presumably is
less attractive to a thief than a large amount of
dollars, she said.
Schlichter also said people need to stay aware of their
surroundings, both at home and abroad.
“You
have to use common sense,” she said. “There are thieves
and pickpockets in New York City—just the way there are
in Rome.”
That
means choosing ATMs inside banks or in hotel lobbies and
“not in a dark, creepy alley,” she said.
Schlichter suggests couples or friends traveling
together split their cards and cash so that if one is
robbed or loses something, the other has backup
resources.
For
those who don’t have access to a hotel safe, it’s a good
idea to keep your money, main credit card, passport and
airline tickets on your person at all times. Your backup
card should be kept somewhere else that’s safe. This is
especially true for those sleeping in hostels or
traveling on crowded trains or ferries, she said.
“The
last place you want to carry everything is in a purse or
backpack,” she cautioned, saying they were the target of
many thieves. “If you find yourself in a crowded place,
keep your bag in front of you with your arms over it.”
The US
State Department, which has travel safety tips on its
site at http://travel.state.gov, suggests travelers
leave behind “anything you would hate to lose,”
including valuable jewelry, irreplaceable family
objects, your Social Security card, library card and
other membership cards you’re unlikely to need.
If
you’re headed overseas and are carrying a passport for
identification, you might consider leaving your driver’s
license behind if you’re not going to be driving
yourself, and you likely won’t need credit cards from
hometown retail stores either.
Both
Schlichter and Dunnan urge travelers to make a list of
everything in their wallet and photocopies of other
important travel documents, such as plane tickets and
passport and traveler’s checks. Don’t list full credit-
and debit-card numbers, but the phone numbers to contact
if the cards are lost or stolen.
Carry
one copy in a safe place, away from the cards and
documents themselves, and leave another back home with a
friend, relative or colleague in case of emergencies,
they said. |
