Finances matter. A lot. At home and abroad. Not only do we need funds to pay for our trip, all of our bills need to be paid while we're away. That's what today was all about.
While Lou worked on out at-home finances, I researched (albeit a bit late in the game) which of our credit cards should be using. The foreign transaction fees that some banks charge is amazing. $5 plus 3%. Let's not even bring Euros into this. But if a hotel costs $100 for one night, if paying by credit card, which we plan to do, we'd be paying $108 for that one night. Add up all the times we plan to use a credit card and we'd be spending hundreds of dollars more for our trip if we used our Bank of America Visa which is our primary card at home. Luckily we already have a Chase United MileagePlus Explorer card which has no foreign transaction fees.
What about cash? We'll have some cash in our pockets as we take off. One of our hotels requires cash payment at the end of our stay. How will we handle that? I'd email the hotel asking how other guests handle this cash payment. I got a prompt informative response. Some folks purchase euros at home and carry them in their wallets to Italy. Others take piles of Euros out of the ATM each day. The next shock was the fee that both our debit cards charged. Today we opened an account at Charles Schwab because their ATM card carries no fees. In fact, if the bank that owns the ATM charges a fee, Chuck will refund the fees.
Are we set? Not quite yet. But we're on our way.
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