The big on-board account annoyance

[mr jamms]

A couple of grand in cash is easily concealed. I only ever take cash in USD when holidaying in Asia, a few tips...

 

Split up your money. a moneybelt worn under your pants, a money wallet around your neck under your shirt and if you must, there's ones to wear under your sock. Some in your luggage and some in your carryon.

 

Any decent hotel will let you put cash or valuables in the managers safe. they give you a receipt and take liability for it. Even if you get travellers cheques you can put them there.

 

Travellers cheques are no more secure then cash unless you take some precautions. Always take a photocopy of them with your ID on each page of the photocopy. Carry one set, leave one set at home and have one set as jpegs in your webmail acct. There's nothing you can do to have them replaced while on holiday without the serial numbers.

 

The Visa travel money card is a much easier then travellers cheques anyway.

[Csnorrco]

I used to be a teller in a bank. ANYONE can purchase Traveler's Cheques...you don't have to be an account holder at that bank. Some Bank's checking accounts offer 'FREE' Traveler's Cheques...but anyone can come in and purchase them...you will just have to pay a fee....

[RollTideRollRich]

I used to be a teller in a bank. ANYONE can purchase Traveler's Cheques...you don't have to be an account holder at that bank. Some Bank's checking accounts offer 'FREE' Traveler's Cheques...but anyone can come in and purchase them...you will just have to pay a fee....

 

Tell that to the banks central offices that I talked to. :p

 

If we were in a better economy, I'd maybe get one card and use it here and there to gain a higher limit for an emergency card. However. the fact is that we are still reorganizing as a company, so at any time I could be on my you know what and I'd rather not have any sort of debt like that right now. Not going to change my mind about it. :)

[weltek]

Nevermind...I see the problem is solved!

[patty0227]

Yeah, I've just not seen the point of taking on debt for the sake of taking it on. Already have enough student loans to manage for a while and since I'm former Army, I'll probably be taking on a mortgage somewhat soon (seems like it's a buyer's market, especially for those of us who have solid backing from a VA home loan), but credit cards? Not so much. Perhaps one day, but that day isn't today or pre-cruise.

 

Oh, and I had gotten 250 checks when I opened my account about 2-3 years ago, and 2 months ago I had used the last one. Still haven't ordered more.

 

Tuscaloosa is recovering, but I'm a lucky one. The EF-4 track was one mile north of me. We had an EF-3 come through 12 days before that, which was about 1 mile south of me. Sort of eerie.

 

I am a loan officer and I can tell you without a credit card your credit score will go nowhere, you don't have to get into crazy debt, I have seen someone's credit score jump up 40 to 60 points just opening a 200.00 credit card and charging ten bucks on it.

 

most people try to improve their credit by going to some rip off credit repair place and paying off collections (which hurts their score even more) when all they had to do was open a credit card charge a small balance and make their payments on time. Used wisely credit cards are an awesome way to get a high credit score.

 

And never ever close them once they are opened, the older they get the better your credit gets.

[hladygirl]

oh for goodness sake!!! i have always only used a debit card for my onboard account and port exspences. never had a problem. just make sure there is plenty in your checking account to cover all exspences. if not then you are screwed.

[griffy116]

Sorry but I want to have a credit card for emergencies. Even with Travel Insurance, you pay first and get reimbursed in almost all cases. If an emergency occurs your $700 won't get you out of a major medical emergency..or back to a facility in the U.S.

[kitty9]

No, no, that wasn't the issue. The issue (which is solved) was that I had a debit card and my bank doesn't do TCs anymore and I don't see the point in credit card debt. Either I have the money or I don't!:cool:

 

Roll, just because you have a credit card doesn't mean you have to use it. And you most certainly don't have to go into debt just because you have a credit card. It's just wise to have one, especially when traveling internationally, in case of emergency. BTW, have you ever even applied for a CC????