Do you bring cash?

[Best_Vacation_EVER!]

I'm a cash person. Every pay check I transfer money into my USD account so that when we travel the cash is ready to go and it sort of feels like found money. I really hate coming home from a vacation and having a large CC bill to pay. I also find that when I charge everything the spending goes way overboard. I always have my CC with me but use my cash first.....I do put aside approx $150 to make sure I have cash for the trip home. There really aren't that many places/situations where you can't use plastic to pay but it's just a bad idea to have no cash in your pocket when youare far from home.

This is us too. We also dollar cost average our USD purchases over time -- when the rate is good we buy more -- if it's not so good we might skip purchasing until it goes up. The local currency exchanges offer really low rates and it's on the way to work so it's easy to get to. Since we plan our next years trip as soon as we're back from the current one --- who knows what the exchange rate will be like when the trip actually comes -- doing the cash purchases we have more control over that.

For paying for the resort reservations/car rental we do use a credit card that offsets the FOREX rates though.

On my Dec 2019 trip there were at least 6 locations (mostly carts, but 1 store as well) where their payment systems (cc/gc/mb) were not working and they could accept cash only.

 

[CanucksRock]

I'm a use CC for everything person (I pay off balance every month) Last trip due to being AP there was a deal for the $100 GC that had $10 to use at select restaurants in Epcot (during Food & Wine) so I bought $200 in GC with my CC and used that throughout the trip. (I have Scotiabank Infinite Passport Visa - no exchange fees). I was travelling with an American friend and owed her for my half of timeshare & car rental, and paid her in Disney GC’s instead of bringing cash with me I do tend to carry $20-$40 just in case, but find I rarely ever need cash. At home I never carry cash either, all you need in life is a DL & CC. (I have a wallet case on my phone, it has DL, CC, and my WDW AP)

 

[isabellea]

I usually bring 200$usd cash. Sometimes we spend it all and sometimes we bring back most of it.

 

[Boardwalk_bride]

Thanks all, this is so helpful. I talked to my hubbie and we decided to go with mostly cash and gc. We are worried we might overspend as we are there for our daughter's bday/our anniversary (we were the first couple to get married in Epcot-Canada in 2010!) so I want to make sure we stay on a budget as we have big Euro plans in 2021!

 

[dancin Disney style]

Thanks all, this is so helpful. I talked to my hubbie and we decided to go with mostly cash and gc. We are worried we might overspend as we are there for our daughter's bday/our anniversary (we were the first couple to get married in Epcot-Canada in 2010!) so I want to make sure we stay on a budget as we have big Euro plans in 2021!

I was just there last month and bought a $700 gift card to use towards my resort. I only did it because of a deal I had with points on my credit card. I knew I needed approx $600CAD to pay the balance on my room but needed to spend $700 for the deal on my CC. It worked out great. In future I will do it again for those fixed expenses like paying for the room. I usually know how much I’ll be spending on food so I would do it for that too.