#travel #vacation #Australia #Fiji #money #credit #blog #dumbhashtag #seriouslystop

Raise your hand if you’ve traveled anywhere and either lost your credit card, had it declined, or gotten home and not realized there was an even bigger fee for using it where you did. Most credit cards or bank cards have hidden fees that you’d only know about if you’ve experienced the above or actually read the terms and agreements (which they know you haven’t).

OK, you can put your hand down now.

When we travel, one of the most important things we do is exchange money for the local currency before we leave. This can save the problems above and avoid the times where you’re antiquing on a back road in the Outback and the podunk merchant’s square reader doesn’t scan your card or only takes cash. Don’t judge.

You could take your American cash and exchange it at the airport, but like everything else there its up-charged about 30% more than it needs to be.

Travel tip: many banks have popular travel destination currency on hand, and if they don’t they can order it and have it within a reasonable amount of time, likely less than two weeks.  If you do it online, for instance at US Bank, they sometimes even do it for free. And remember, on a budget, free is good.

There are also some credit cards with perks that include no international up-charges or fees, but they likely have a yearly fee associated. These cards are great if you travel a lot or use other perks to offset the fees. If you’re looking for that, check out NerdWallet.Com.

Alright, enough talk, how about some photos?

Holy shit, is that Edith Cowan? The first Australian woman to serve as a member of Parliament? Why yes it is. Not only is she on the Australian fifty, but has a college named after her. What are you doing with your life?

What does a Fijian twenty have on it you ask? Well birds of course, but they also have another version with Queen Elizabeth on it as Fiji was once a Commonwealth of the British Empire. That ended in 1987 though with a military coup, and now they don’t talk about the past as some breakups are harder than others.

If you’ve made it this far, thanks for taking this history lesson with me. Until the next time, I leave you with the immortal words of Randy Moss, “Straight Cash, Homie”