10 Travel Money Mistakes to Avoid

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When budgeting for a trip, we often list the big-ticket items—airfare, hotel, lodging, car rental, attraction tickets—add them together, and call it the final price. But the trickle of funds to other costs starts almost as soon as we start moving: Gas to and from the airport, tolls, airport parking, overpriced bottles of water in the airport, and more.

That trickle doesn’t stop when you arrive at your destination; think of cell phone charges, bank fees, and housekeeping tips, to name a few. To avoid spending more than you have to, check out these 10 travel money mistakes to avoid.

1. Forgetting to Let Your Bank Know You’ll Be Traveling

Forgetting to call your bank before traveling abroad is a common error that even frequent international travelers make; it slips your mind until the plane touches down, and by then, it’s often too late. These days banks have almost zero lag time in noticing a debit or credit card being used abroad, so you will get shut down on pretty much your first swipe in a foreign country.

As banks have gotten more sophisticated about tracking card use locations, this can even be important for domestic travel, and most banks recommend that you let them know about those closer-to-home trips as well. Fraud detectors can be tripped if you’re suddenly using your card across the country, making more or different purchases than you usually do, or charging unexpectedly large amounts (such as a weeklong hotel stay).

Note that this applies to debit cards as well as credit cards. Most banks have a way for you to easily set a travel notification online. If your card has EMV chip technology, you may not need to notify your bank about travel—check with your credit card company if you’re unsure. 

2. Overlooking Bank and ATM Fees

While traveling internationally, each time you get cash, you will likely incur a fee of some kind. These can vary greatly depending on whether a large bank runs the ATM, if the bank is on your card’s network, and more. Remember that fees can change from year to year, so it’s worth checking before every trip. Try to plan ahead and pull out as much cash as you’ll need at once (if you can store it somewhere safe) so that you’re not hit with multiple fees. 

3. Failing to Make a Plan for Getting to Your Hotel From the Airport

That first taxi ride from the airport may be your most financially vulnerable moment of any trip—the time when you have no idea how far it is, what a fair price is for the ride, whether you have lower-cost alternatives such as a train or bus, or even whether your hotel has a free shuttle. It’s best to figure all of this out before your trip; when you arrive, you are tired, often without much cash, and carrying a ton of luggage. You don’t want to be fumbling around trying to figure all this out on the airport curb.

4. Forgetting to Add an International Roaming Plan for Your Phone

How much could a few texts, a bit of mapping, a few email checks, and a batch of social media updates cost per day? Plenty, it turns out—so be sure to purchase an international roaming plan that will cover you while you’re away. 

5. Forgetting to Research the Local Exchange Rate

Especially in the first several hours at your destination, having done a little research on the local exchange rate against your home currency can make a huge difference. Often, it takes a couple of days really to get a handle on how much things cost, but this can take even longer if you are traveling in an area where prices may not be so fixed as they are at home. Memorizing the exchange rate so you can do the math quickly in your head will help considerably. 

It can be helpful to make a note on your phone of common dollar amounts to quickly reference. For example, USD 1 = CAD 1.43, USD 5 = CAD 1.43. 

6. Bringing Traveler’s Checks

Barely anyone accepts them anymore, they’re not cheap, you have to invest a fair amount of time in obtaining and purchasing them, and credit cards give you a far better rate of exchange in most parts of the world. Skip ’em.

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7. Assuming You Know How Much to Tip

Tipping customs vary immensely from place to place, and not knowing what’s appropriate can be both awkward and expensive.

Tipping practices can also vary from industry to industry as well; in Brazil, for example, a 10 percent tip is customary in a restaurant, but it might already be included, so you will want to check the bill. On a taxi ride, you just round up to the nearest one (or five if you are feeling generous) for most rides (so for a 13 reais taxi ride, you give 14 or 15 reais).

8. Tipping Your Housekeeper Only at the End of Your Stay

Many travelers will leave it until the end of a trip to tip the housekeepers (usually by leaving some cash on top of the bed); this can backfire. On any given stay, you might have a different housekeeper from one day to the next, and to be the fairest and to get the best treatment, it’s best to leave something each day. 

9. Leaving Your Valuables Unsecured

Shoving your wallet in your back pocket or your purse over your shoulder is such a natural and almost automatic action that almost all of us will do this at some point in our travels. It’s also the easiest way to get pickpocketed or ripped off, as these spots are both obvious to thieves and difficult to protect.

This doesn’t apply only to your wallet; you will want to secure anything that someone could grab quickly. On a recent trip to Rio, we got on a train to the legendary Maracana stadium for a game featuring the local futbol favorite Flamengo. It was rush hour, and the train was insanely packed; despite living for more than a decade in New York City and having taken countless trips around the world, I had never experienced anything like it. If there was ever an environment ripe for pickpocketing and unseen thefts, this was it. I had a backpack with sweatshirts and a camera inside,  so I looked around at how the locals were dealing with it and noticed that everyone had their backpacks and bags in front of them.

A button on your back pocket or an across-the-body bag instead of an over-the-shoulder purse can also help here; adding just a little bit of difficulty is often enough to inspire thieves to look for other victims.

10. Using Public Wi-Fi for Financial Transactions

You’ll want to avoid checking bank balances, making online payments, or entering financially sensitive passwords of any kind while using public internet or Wi-Fi networks. Occasionally, it’s unavoidable, and the number of hotel Wi-Fi systems with keystroke loggers installed by sophisticated hackers is extremely low—but it’s always a risk.

Note also that a hack doesn’t have to be an inside job—that is, a hotel employee or system installer—but can also be a fellow lodger who has hacked into the minimally protected (if at all) hotel Wi-Fi network.

Hopefully, by keeping your money on your mind just a little, these tips will help you keep your money in your bank account as well.

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