Money, money, money...

I have contemplated for many weeks now over the best way to take money whilst going away for something which is effectively longer than a holiday, but shorter than a move out the country. There are so many different options these days with the world becoming more and more connected and things like travellers cheques are now last century! The cheapest way of taking money abroad is obviously to just take cash as the exchange rate is that of UK companies, but this is not realistic in terms of me carrying around large sums of money every day.

I am therefore taking something called the "STA Cashcard" which enables me to make overseas purchase transactions and ATM withdrawals at an exchange rate fairly similar to the UK. The only downside to this is the fact I am unable see my balance at ATMs, but this is where the online banking section comes into play as with this card I am able to control how much money is available to me on card at one time. For example if I were to have £1000 in my account, I could decide to have £500 available to me on card, and £500 put aside online. This allows me to budget my money more easily.

In addition to taking an "STA Cashcard", I am taking some Cash Passports which basically have money (Thank You Mum) already changed over into the desired currency . I have got one of these for Australia and one of these for New Zealand. With these I am able to makes overseas purchase transactions and ATM withdrawals as above, I just can't control my money online. The advantage with these is that compared to the STA card I probably have a more favourable exchange rate.

In Thailand I am just taking some Thai Baht in cash with me as I only need to buy some meals here, as everything else is included bar some optional additional activities. I have done a similar thing in Australia so I have a little bit of money upon arrival just to get me started.

I know I have probably made things really complicated in terms of money, but having a variety of different sources of money not only secures me in case one fails, but also allows me to budget more easily in my opinion. I am even taking my Santander Visa as a last resort if anything happens, although I hope not to as I lose 20% of everything I withdraw through commission!