8 Ways to Stay Solvent as a Solo Traveler
Solo travel can sometimes seem daunting, so take some basic precautions
The cheapest way to travel solo around the world is to stay at home with the doors locked and surf the net.
On the assumption that you are more adventurous than that, here are a few ways to travel and stay solvent as a solo traveller.
1. Choose the right debit or credit card
This may seem obvious if you have a few cards in your wallet or purse, but the wrong cards can cost you dearly.
Many cards charge you through the nose when used abroad or with a different currency. For instance, one card I have charges me a 2.5% plus £1.50/$2.00 per transaction fee each time I use it overseas. That is going to mount up over time. Other cards will appear to be free, but the exchange rate between the local currency and your home one can be eye-watering.
Seek out a couple of cards where fees are minimal or non-existent. I am based in the United Kingdom and use the Monzo card, which I find excellent. There are no transaction fees and the exchange rate is very good. You can even draw a certain amount of cash abroad in local currencies without a charge. In the US, the Chase card is highly rated for global travel, although I have not tried that personally.
2. Take more than one card
There are going to be times when one card will fail to work. If you only have a single card, you could be stuck paying a bill. From personal experience, one card I carried abroad worked fine everywhere, except for a single campsite in France. Despite a couple of tries, the card said no.
At times like this, a second card is vital. And, yes, card number two was happily accepted by the French campsite, and all was well for my overnight stay.
3. Split up your cards
There is one universal truth about international travel - pickpockets work in every country across the globe.
What would happen if your pocket was picked and you lost every card and all your cash? Living on the remaining coins you happen to have isn’t going to provide you with much of a meal or a roof over your head.
The secret here is to simply put your cards into different places. One in your wallet or purse, with another in, say, a sock hidden in your backpack. Clearly, you would not put your wallet or purse in the same backpack pack, if that is where your security card is kept.
Although I have (as yet) not been a victim of a pickpocket, I have met travellers where the only cash they had to their names, amounted to less than three US dollars, having also lost their cards and all their cash in a single wallet.
4. Cash can still be king
Since the COVID pandemic, many retailers prefer to take cards rather than cash. While that may be true in the Western world, in other parts cash rules.
There will also be occasions when neither of your cards work, or are not accepted, so using cash is your only option.
Always carry sufficient cash, but not too much. Follow the same spit card routine, and divide your cash into more than one place to avoid everything disappearing down the street in the hands of a pickpocket.
5. Where to find cash
The world is full of ATMs. The western world. In parts of Africa and off the beaten track in other countries, or even your own, they may be few and far between.
Sometimes an ATM will surprise you. In the United Kingdom, there is no real welcome when you punch in your PIN number.
I was startled to be treated with “Hello Nigel” when I used a card on the island of Tutulia in American Samoa. That was 20 years ago. The wonders of technology.
If you expect to be in smaller villages or off the beaten track, use an ATM in a larger town before you set off.
In remote areas, cards may not be accepted, meaning you should plan your cash spend as you head into the wilderness.
6. Being fleeced at the airport
If you want to see your money disappear, there is no faster way than using an ATM at an airport, or, worse still, a Bureau de-change kiosk to exchange currency.
Airports are famed for having one of the worst exchange rates on the planet. With just one Bureau de-change company at an airport, they don’t have to be competitive. Try to avoid drawing or changing money at an airport, or a port for that matter, and plan ahead.
The only time they can be useful is if you have left on a trip with zero notice and have no other way to pick up the Gambian Dalasis you need so urgently for that last-minute trip to Banjul.
7. Using a top-up cash card
Not for actual cash as such, but a card that you can top-up as the total runs low.
The idea is, that these cards can generally be used anywhere a normal card is accepted, but they have a limit. That limit is the amount of cash you have transferred to the card.
The way I manage my ‘cash card’ is to transfer no more than about £100/$130 from my home bank account onto the card. This is done with the app from the card provider using my phone.
The upside is if the card is stolen, the maximum loss is going to be the balance at the time, less than £100/$130 in my case.
The downside is you may not have a phone signal to access the app to top up the card. There are occasions when these cards are not accepted, so they should be just one of the cards you carry.
8. Stopping a run on your stolen card
If you are unfortunate enough to have a card stolen, act quickly.
Make sure you have a copy of your card number somewhere safe, along with the number to call your card issuer to report the theft. The number is usually on the back of the card, but if it has been stolen and you haven’t taken note of it, you could be saying goodbye to a wad of money from your card.
That number on the card may be a free-call 0800/1-800 line. That is not going to work from the darkest corner of Peru. Seek out the correct international number to dial - before you leave home.
Safe travels!