Spending Money

[MaleDisneyBeliever]

This is the first year I have had to worry about spending money and funding everything for myself. Cash? Travellers Cheques? Both?

Do the majority of places cash the travellers cheques for you in the US? I've never personally owned any.

 

[wilma-bride]

Travellers Cheques can be used just like cash in the majority of places. I believe that some resort hotels will cash them but there really is no need. Just hand over a travellers cheque to pay for a meal or purchases the same as you would a note. Just bear in mind that you will need some form of photo ID in most cases, when you use them

We always used to take a mixture of travellers cheques and some cash for smaller purchases. Now we tend to use a prepaid currency card, which works similarly to TCs but with less hassle in that you just hand over the card as you would a debit card, then sign the receipt.

 

[orangetiggs]

we use the fairfx card now as the rate is alot better

 

[JohnnySharp2]

We just take cash, I suppose that's a bit daft but just can't be bothered with the signing of cheques.
Ideally a mixture of both is a sound bet, though I wouldn't personally want to pay for a bottle of water with a cheque in theory they are a substitute for cash yes.
It is common to see people (not necessarily from the UK) use travellers cheques or credit cards for everything, even buying a loaf of bread from Publix.

 

[Julia Ann]

The only issue we had with travellers cheques was that we bought them from our bank once and they were posted to us and we didn't get a choice on denominations therefore we had a few $100 cheques which was ok but not when we tried to pay for petrol for about $7!!!! the lady behind the counter was disgusted at having to give so much change. We have also used the card type which was great but had to keep a track of what we had spent so got receipts for everything! next time we will prob take cheques but from somewhere that we can have the lower denominations.

 

[Pegasus928]

We have never bothered with travellers cheques or the pre paid cards, and only ever take cash with us or withdrawer more from our account if we need it.
It's each to their own - as this thread will no doubt demonstrate.

 

[jharrowell]

It really is differrent strokes for different folks on this one.

I personally have an american bank account, I transfer the money in when I've got some to transfer and then once I'm out there I use my american Debit card.

I would have thought that the pre-pay cards are the easiest to use though. No Photo ID and no worrying about carrying loads of cash.

Do take a small amount of cash though, it's a lot easier to tip that way.

 

[wickesy]

We take a mix of Fairfx card and a bit of cash to start off with and then just withdraw cash $500 at a time as and when we need it.

 

[Lizzybear]

Last year me and my bf changed £500 each and divided this up for each day which was enough for all our meals and fuel (18 nights in California) The exchange rate was around 1.80 and it may be a bit less when we change up this year but we have free breakfast for 10 nights and DDP for 9 nights so much less food to buy. We plan to change the same amount of cash for our daily budget (food and fuel mainly, any extra is fun money!) and I will also be using my credit card... (I take a few with me but only spend on one/maybe two of them plus another for authorisations/emergencies) My bf prefers to take extra cash so he's doing that but also taking a credit card just in case. To be honest we do spend quite a lot on holiday despite having good intentions beforehand but I do keep all my receipts and note down the amount spent every day so I know where I am