Money abroad, sorted before you fly

The most stressed I have ever been on a trip was a small thing. My card got declined at a shop in a country where I did not speak the language, and for a full minute I did not know if the problem was the shop, the card, or my whole plan to eat that day. It was none of those. My bank had simply flagged a foreign transaction it did not expect. One phone call I could have made from home would have saved the whole scene.

So money is worth sorting before you fly, when it is boring, rather than abroad, when it is frightening. Here is what actually works.

Carry it three ways

Do not put all your money behind one card or in one pocket. Spread it, so no single failure ruins a day.

• A card that works overseas. Check with your bank that it is enabled for international use, and tell them you are travelling and where. This one call prevents the declined-card panic above. Ask about the foreign transaction fee too, so there are no surprises on the statement.
• A little cash in the local currency. Enough for the first day: a taxi, a meal, a SIM card. Landing with zero local cash and a card that needs a signal is a bad way to start.
• Room to withdraw more after you land, from an ATM rather than an exchange counter.

That third one is the habit that saves the most money, so it deserves its own section.

The airport counter is rarely your friend

The bright exchange counter in the arrivals hall is convenient, and you pay for that convenience with a worse rate. If you can, take out what you need from a bank ATM instead, which usually gives you something much closer to the real rate. Draw a sensible amount in one go rather than many small withdrawals, since each one can carry a fee.

Keep a rough sense of the exchange rate in your head, or a converter on your phone, so a price never quite shocks you at the till. After a day you stop converting everything and start just knowing what things cost. That is when a place starts to feel less foreign.

Cash and card do different jobs

Card for hotels, bigger meals, tickets, anything indoors with a machine. Cash for the good stuff: the street stall, the market, the small family place, the tuk-tuk, the temple entry, the tip. A surprising amount of the best travel does not take a card at all, and you do not want to miss it because you only brought plastic.

Split your cash and cards across your bags the way you split the rest of your important things. If one bag goes missing, you still have money to get through the day.

A few quiet safeguards

Keep the emergency number for your card somewhere you can reach without your phone, in case your phone is the thing that is lost. Note down, separately, the last few digits of your cards so you can identify them on a call. And do not flash a thick wad of cash at a counter. Keep the day's spending money somewhere easy and the rest tucked away.

None of this is exciting. All of it means that when something small goes wrong, and on a long trip something small usually does, it stays small.

New to all of this? The wider walk-through is in your first trip abroad, without the panic, and it is worth reading first.