10 More Tips For Traveling On The Cheap And Saving Money PDF Print E-mail

1) Can you rely on the ATM?

Don’t make the mistake of just expecting your money to be accessible and easy to get at through an ATM at your destination. Before you leave on your trip, check out this site: http://www.google.com/search?q=atm+locator and it will give you most of the skinny on each country’s ATM machines. Even then though, it’s good to look at a guide book or chat to someone in the know about how easy it is to get money at your destination. If you get there and then realize you’re in trouble it can cost you a fortune in fee’s and commissions to finally get access to your cash stash.

Here’s a small hint: try out an ATM at the airport when you arrive in a new country. That’s an easy way to see how it works (and gives you a heads up in case you need to make other arrangements). Here’s an example. In Japan (at least as this is being written), most machines won’t accept the Cirrus Maestro card. Without a little diligence, you might not have found that out until you were standing in the middle of the Ginza trying to buy some sushi.
 
Also be aware of the charges that you’ll get for getting cash out overseas. Its best to get a lot out at once because you’ll get hit with this fee every time you use the ATM (usually your credit card will charge a variable fee (an extra 1% seems to be pretty standard) which can still be ok when you factor in the convenience factor, the safety factor (of not carrying around huge wads of cash) and the extra frequent flyer miles you earn)
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9 Tips for traveling on the cheap and having a great adventure PDF Print E-mail

1) Read the fine print.

Because you will be using some unusual strategies to get cheaper travel you must pay attention to what’s going on. That means reading the fine print. It is something that will pay off in the end. You must be aware that you’re responsible for making sure things turn out the way you want them too.

Whether you dealing with consolidators or if you’ve just booked a great airfare online it’s always worth a look to make sure there are no hidden ‘surprises’ lurking in that fine print. It could be that it says the flight doesn’t include taxes (that you haven’t been told about) that you must pay at the airport. It may also say that you must ring to confirm your flight 3 days before departure or they’ll resell your seat (it’s happened!) Make sure you read it!

 
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