How to Manage your Finances while Traveling

1. Install your credit card, banking and investing app on your smartphone
2. Know your cards features
3. Keep an emergency fund in local currency and USD
4. Scan your credit cards and put on email/dropbox/google drive
5. Have someone at home understand how to use wire transfer services
6. Call your card companies when you are traveling
7. Get an credit card with no international fees
8. Prepay major bills (mortgage/rent, utilities, taxes, student loans)
9. Have a 3rd party mailbox
10. Get a budget

Install The APPZ!

If you have a smartphone (and I know you do) then you should install the apps for your bank, your credit card companies and your brokerage house.  

For example you would install:

• BoA (Bank of America) app
• Chase App for Credit Cards
• E*trade.  

These apps will help you monitor your accounts while you travel.   Did the electric bill get paid?  How much do I have in my main checking account?   What is that weird charge on my credit card?  These should be easily answered if you just check down and browse your account on your phone.  

Make sure you have a strong password protect both on the phone and on the app.   I prefer not to have the app logged into my account at all times because if someone gets my phone unlocked they could do something malicious.

Get to know your cards features

When you travel you should have multiple cards on you.   The thing is you need to know which are your “Go To” cards and which are the backups.  Your “Go To” card is the one that either has:

•  a minimum spend on it so you get your point bonus.
• the best point per spend or one with least interest rate (if you are going to carry a balance…which you shouldn’t).

Cash, Rules, Everything, Around, Me
C.R.E.A.M.
Get the money
Dollar, dollar bill y’all

This is one piece of advice I cannot stress.  Always have backup money in USD and  in the local currency.  I usually would suggest $100 of each but would increase that number if you are in an expensive city (Paris, NY, Rome).  

You want to have cash on you or in your Airbnb just in case stuff happens.   If you lose your cards you have a backup.   Always have some petty cash available.

Scan your credit cards and put on email/dropbox/google drive

Scan your cards just in case they are lost.   Scan both the back and front then email them to you.   This will add a layer of protection vs just keeping the image on your phone

Have someone at home understand how to use wire transfer services

So you lost your credit cards?  The easiest way it to have monies wired to you from family or friends.   The top places are:

• Western Union (www.westernunion.com)
• Travelers Express/MoneyGram (www.moneygram.com)
• Xoom.com (www.xoom.com)

All you need to do is provide your contact name and location and the monies will be wired.  Nothing too complex.

Call your card companies when you are traveling

Antonio and I spent two summers island hoping off the Dalmatian coast, enjoying everything that was Croatia.   Lots of sun and lots of grilled fish (yum!).   I was on the island of Pag when I got the text message from Chase.   “Irregular Charge on Card ending in XXXX”.   Ugh, nothing messes up a beach day more than a weird message about money.

I logged in on my phone and saw the odd charge.  It was for 105 Euros from yesterday from a strangely named Multibank.    The night before was a bit of a haze to me.  We had went to dinner, listened to some music on some farm then went back to a bar in Novalja.   Ahh, it hit me. “That is it!”.  We had to take out ATM monies because we ran out of cash and the ATM only had 100 Euros.   They charged us a $5 fee (sucks).

So I called Chase via Skype ($20 for a US Skype number).   15 minutes later everything was smoothed out.  My card was reactivated and potential stress was averted.  

Get an credit card with no international fees

Most cards charge you a 5% fee if you are aboard.   This also goes toward ATM cards and bank issued Credit Cards.   That 5% can add up over time.   Easiest way is to get a card without international fees.    This is a list of cards that offers no international fees:

• American Express Gold
• Amex Platinum
• Chase Sapphire Reserve
• Delta Skymiles Amex
• Bank of America Visa

Prepay major bills (mortgage/rent, utilities, taxes, student loans)

If you are forgetful, either set up autopay for important bills, or make arrangements to have them paid beforehand.

Have a 3rd party mailbox

Traveling Mailbox is a gift from the gods. Why?

• Mail receiving and forwarding. 
• Check depositing.
• Send a fax.
• Mail a letter from anywhere.
• Use their VPN.

Get a budget

As I mentioned in the intro, a budget is your key to enjoying your holiday.   You need to know how much you can spend, what tomorrow is going to look like and how much you saved planning this trip.  

Budgets also help you when you are going from a cheaper country (Colombia)  to a more expensive country (UK).   You might mentally may think the Pound = Euro = Dollar but that’s not the case.  Coming from the US you’re losing 20%, coming from mainland Europe you are losing 12%.  This adds up when dealing with lodging, car rental and other big ticket items.   $1000 USD vs $1200 is a big difference when you are renting an apartment for a month.

Another thing your budget will help you with is your shopping adventures.   It’s great being in a new country and seeing wares that you would not see back at home.  But you have to budget before you commit to that €200 Euro duck press that you really do not need (I learnt the hard way).    It wasn’t in my budget but I wanted it.   End up not planning properly.  I didn’t think about the shipping it back to USA cost.  Suddenly I had extra €85 I had to pay for shipping.  It was out of the budget and I suffered because of it.   5 days of ramen to offset the splurge.   I would advise you to just follow the budget.  Nothing is worse than being in Paris and not afford to go out to great restaurants because you wasted your money on a uni-tasker tool that won’t fit in your NYC kitchen.

If you would like a copy of my budget, just message me in the comments and I will send you my Google Doc.

Have other budgeting tips? Leave them in the comments.