So I'll be traveling to a few countries these coming Christmas holidays. First Korea, then to Hong Kong, then through to China, and eventually back to Aus.
My question is: What's the best way to manage cash throughout this kind of trip?
Many people say to just withdraw as much cash as you need before going on the trip, but that's a little hard in this kind of situation.
At first I was looking at one of those multi-currency cash cards, but couldn't find one covering all necessary currencies, and even those were not without fees.
The obvious choice was then the citibank plus debit card, but I still have a few questions about it.
-I understand people use it for withdrawing cash because of the no-fees appeal, but what about using it to pay in shops or hotels? Does that incur an exchange fee or any other fees?
-When withdrawing cash from an ATM, what exchange rate is used?
-There are many places without citibank ATMs in China, so what would a normal fee be for withdrawing cash at a non-citibank ATM?
Sorry for my ignorance, I just want to know if there'll be any hidden fees that are easy to overlook. I've already been screwed over by fees and exchange rates when traveling in the past, and don't really want it to happen again.
No Fees - simply use Cirrus or Maestro Atms. I used my 28 degrees throughout china, HKG, Egypt, Greece, Italy without being charged a service fee. Even if a fee comes up, as long as you withdraw infrequently it is still cheaper than any alternative. Checkout my travel money page http://checkthis.com/travelmoney