Traveling can be an exciting and rewarding experience for you and your family. However, traveling to several countries in a short time makes it difficult for you to manage your money. Currencies change when you cross borders, and you may need to use money transfers when you get to certain locations. Use the steps below to ensure that you have cash-in-hand or money in your account as you travel.
How Do Money Transfers Work?
As you are traveling, you might want to send cash to tour operators or friends ahead of your flight. When you easily send money to Colombia for the US, that might help you pay for tours, accommodations, or activities before the trip starts.
Money transfers allow you to send cash from home instead of carrying that cash a long distance before spending it. Carrying cash is a safety issue, and you do not want to lose money when you exchange money multiple times every time you cross a border.
Why Do Exchange Rates Matter?
Exchange rates around the world are constantly shifting. Plus, some countries where you travel might have a poor exchange rate, and that will cause you to lose money when you exchange their currency for another country’s currency. You should check exchange rates before you leave for your trip. If some countries have bad exchange rates, you can send money there from home.
How Do You Manage Your Money Transfers?
You can easily send money to Colombia from the US to pay for tours, activities, or even your hotel. However, you may not want to carry a lot of extra cash to the country because you have security concerns. You can transfer money to an office where you will pick it up, or you can authorize someone like a tour operator to pick up their payment.
If you are traveling to a country with a strong currency after your stay in Colombia, you may not want to exchange Colombian pesos for a strong currency in a place like Africa. You can send money to the next country, or you can ask someone at home to transfer the money to you. The friend you have back home can use your credit card or bank account information to send money to each new location so that you do not lose money to exchange rates.
Traveler’s Cheques
When you are traveling, you could can easily send money to Colombia. However, that might not be advantageous given the current exchange rates. If this is the case, you can carry traveler’s cheques that are accepted almost everywhere, can be converted to cash if needed, and can be replaced without any trouble.
Carrying cash could be a problem for your group because you cannot replace your cash if it is stolen. Plus, traveler’s cheques can be stopped at any time if someone steals them.
You can use traveler’s cheques to transfer money to another location if you think you will get a better exchange rate. For example, you can write your traveler’s cheque for American dollars when you are in a place like Morocco. You can ask the transfer office to send the money to any country you want, and you do not need to worry about exchanging your money twice. The more times you échange your money from one country to another, you will inevitably lose money.
Schedule Your Transfers Ahead Of Time
You can set up an account with the transfer company that allows you to set up your transfers before you leave home. You can easily send money to Colombia from the US for pickup at a particular office. You can pick up your money whenever you want, and you do not need to carry extra cash.
If you are traveling from Colombia to Argentina, you can spend the last of your Colombian pesos before going to Argentina. You can spend the rest of your Argentine pesos before getting on a plane for Africa, and you can pick up more money in a transfer office in Africa. You can spend all your money in each country before moving to the next. You are not left carrying large amounts of cash, and you are not fumbling with bills from a country you visited a week ago.
Conclusion
Traveling to five countries in ten days requires cash. You may not want to carry cards on your trip, or you may not want to rely entirely on traveler’s cheques. You can have someone from home transfer money to your next destination. You can set up the transfers before you leave home, and you will pick up the money at a transfer office you selected in your new destination. You have money for the trip, but you do not need to worry about losing your cash during your travels.