While roaming around foreign countries, it is quite likely that you will have to pay for things in foreign currency. Depending on your bank, this can generate unplanned costs and taxes, that can hurt your budget. Let’s talk a bit about what we can do to avoid the downsides of using money while traveling.

Withdrawing Money

Most of the banks will make you play a flat price for each time you withdraw cash. So you want to get as much cash out as possible. But at the same time, you don’t want to have too much cash on your person to avoid being robbed. What a bummer. My solution to this? Well, there are not many options, but here are the ones I found:

• In Switzerland, when you have an account at Postfinance, with a total amount of money exceeding 25’000CHF, withdrawal in the whole world is free. But it’s hard to keep a balance that high when traveling. 
• Use as few cash as possible. Always pay by card when you have the possibility (credit card). If you meet people and go to the restaurant, offer to pay by card ad let them give you cash.

Pay by Card

Paying in a foreign currency with a classic credit card (via/MasterCard) will make you lose money. Each bank, when receiving a transaction in a currency different from the account it concerns, will augment the conversion rate, and make some profit out of it, taking advantage of you. But if you are paying online and that you can choose that the transaction is made with the currency your card account is in, then you can freely use it. Most websites allow you to choose currency.

But then, how to truly avoid losing money when changing currency? Revolut.

Revolut

Revolut (https://www.revolut.com) is an online bank account, in the form of an app that allows you multiple things, and solves a lot of problems. You can call it the future of banking. And here is what is offered for free:

• Get any prepaid credit card you want (visa/MasterCard)
• Choose to send money on the card either with a bank sending (can take a week) or an existing credit card (instant)
• Buy money in any currency you want, using the actual inter-bank conversion rate, with no added fee
• If you make a transaction in a currency where you don’t have enough amount (let’s say I buy a 100$ item, while my Revolut account has 200 CHF and 0$), it will convert your other currencies, using real-time rate, into the currency you need, and execute the transaction in that currency.

Honestly, Revolut is like magic to me. Since I travel, I had few times when it hasn’t been accepted, I have a really detailed resume of my costs on the app, the reloading is instantaneous, the interface is flawless. It allows me to withdraw very few cash, so I can change countries often, while withdrawing only once (I like to have a bit of cash on myself). The dream!