What kind of plastic/paper currency do you take on vacation?

[ame]

We will be going to a shopping destination on a quick vacation in a few weeks, and I wanted to bring just giftcards and a couple credit cards and cash, not my debit card. What do you normally bring to pay for items/excursions/etc? I generally choose to not use my debit very often at all, so it's not something I always carry anyway.

 

[Asscherhalo_lover]

Re: What kind of plastic/paper currency do you take on vacat

I only use cards with travel protection and guaranteed fraud protection, for me that means AMEX and platinum VISA only. I usually bring up to $200 in small cash for tips and little items, that's it.

 

[Haven]

Re: What kind of plastic/paper currency do you take on vacat

I only use cards with travel protection and guaranteed fraud protection, for me that means AMEX and platinum VISA only. I usually bring up to $200 in small cash for tips and little items, that's it.

This is what we do, as well. We have an AMEX card and a Capital One card with great travel protection, so we use those. We bring our debit cards just in case, but we don't carry them when we're out and about. I also bring scans of the front and back of all of our cards and our two passports, just in case something gets stolen or lost. (This is when we travel overseas, not in the states.)

ETA: Can I just add that our American Airlines AMEX card seriously pulled through for us this summer? We bought two AA tickets to Spain ($2,000) and canceled because I was too sick to travel. We went through an ENORMOUS hassle to get the correct information from AA to the travel insurance company, but in the end we ended up losing not one dime. NOT ONE! AA gave us travel vouchers for $1,450 ($2,000 minus two $275 voucher fees) and our AA card insurance sent us a check for the $550 that AA did not credit us.)

We totally thought we were going to lose all $2,000, so it was awesome. I'm really impressed. Not that AA is my favorite airline, but I can't believe we didn't lose a dime when we canceled these non-refundable tickets.

 

[kenny]

Re: What kind of plastic/paper currency do you take on vacat

I'd carry perhaps $500 cash and my AmEx card.

... but I never go on vacation.
I buy an FCD in instead.

 

[Enerchi]

Re: What kind of plastic/paper currency do you take on vacat

I bring about $20 CDN just for Tim Horton's coffee/muffins in the airport or connecting Canadian airport, then usually my gold MC (DH brings his Platinum AMEX) and depending on where we are headed - *some* of that country's currency. This last trip - LV and Arizona - we brought a lot more than *some*!!! But we knew that it was for slot play and we ended up being up and down with the games, so paid for more things in cash than we'd planned on. I don't bring my debit card with me because not everyone accepts them as readily.

 

[zoebartlett]

Re: What kind of plastic/paper currency do you take on vacat

You may do this already, but one thing we do if we're going on vacation and we're planning on using our credit card is call the credit card company and give them a heads-up. We don't use them on a regular basis, so it might seem fishy if we suddenly put a lot on the cards in a short amount of time. We tell the company the dates we're traveling and where we're going.

 

[sillyberry]

Re: What kind of plastic/paper currency do you take on vacat

I'm super lazy so I just bring my wallet as-is -- cash, credit, debit. Definitely for domestic travel, and I've done the same going to Mexico the last few times. I'm trying to remember what I did for Japan (my last big international trip) and I totally don't remember, which leads me to believe I didn't do anything special.

For a big international trip, I do the same as Haven and scan the important documents onto one sheet of paper. I take one copy with me and also have a copy in my email.

 

[Sparklelu]

Re: What kind of plastic/paper currency do you take on vacat

Amex and that's it! I'm all about the points!!!! Last b'day I got my iPad for points and the year before that we got a new really fancy grill and one for my DD . We too contact Amex when we travel.

 

[GreenBling]

Re: What kind of plastic/paper currency do you take on vacat

Cash and 2 to 3 credit cards from diff banks. I never had problems with Visa and Master cards, but AMEX aren't always welcomed at smaller merchants in Asia and Europe.