Why you shouldn't use a travel cash card
Travel cash cards sound great, but there are a few key issues to watch out for. Photo: iStock Do not use a travel cash card. That’s the golden nugget of advice from Traveler “Tripologist” Michael Gebicki when it comes to managing your money abroad. Don’t approach one of them. “I hate them,” Gebicki told Flight of Fancy, the Traveler podcast, on this week’s money-themed episode. “I don’t understand why any intelligent person would ever use a travel cash card.” To clarify, a “travel cash card” is different from a standard credit or debit card. It is a product offered by many institutions today – from Australia Post to Qantas to CommBank – that allows travelers to buy amounts of foreign currency and put it in a card, which can then be used like a standard debit or credit card with local currency when they travel. abroad. Sounds great at face value, but there are a few issues, as Gebicki explains. “The exchange rate, to begin with, is pretty bad,” he said. “And then there