OH NO! Not ANOTHER credit card question!

shanesheridan

Ok,

Firstly I appologise for asking a question that many have asked before. However I still can't find a clear answer to my questions, and would like some advice. Advice I believe is out there, but neither banks nor websites have been able to help me.

I will be travelling for the next year. In South America, New Zealand, Australia, India and Thailand. I have enough money saved to last me the entire trip. I own a visa debit card from PTSB. I believe its accepted in most ATM's worldwide and can be used similar to a credit card for buying things online, booking hostels and flights and for use in restaurants etc.

Q. Do I need a VISA credit card?
I don't intend on spending any more than I need to.

Q. What is the best card for my situation?

I've found this website very helpful but it refers to english banking

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheap-travel-money#hell

Thanks

Tieko

I would get your bank to send you a visa credit card. First of all it gives you two cards so if you lose one, or it gets stolen, you have a back up card to access money.

You should be able to use your Visa debit cardbut your bank may have restrictions on how much can be withdrawn with this on a daily basis. I have just returned from a year long trip and the credit card was the best and cheapest way for withdrawing money by far, as long as you have extra money on it so you don't incur interest. We were able to withdraw much more on our credit cards than our atm cards.

schemingbohemia

I'd be a bit wary of having all my money on a debit card - if you get robbed that could be a lot of money stolen with increased difficulties in getting refunded.

The credit card is safer.

You could/should transfer some money into the debit card but not very much that ways if something does go awry you can at least limit the damage.

Stinicker

There was a topic about Credit cards recently here although Thailand centred alot of what I wrote in this post would also apply to yourself especially when your Thai leg of the journey comes up.

If I was you I would get a Credit Card also, they are universally accepted and have saved manys a travellers bacon; you may never use it but it is good to have it. As you will be going for a long time it would be best to deposit your holiday money in a current account and setup a direct debit to pay off the credit card in full each month, then you won't accrue high interest charges.

Compare the fees for the credit and visa debit card also and use whatever works the cheapest I suppose. With Bank of Ireland their Laser debit card costs almost twice that of a credit card and when you are abroad for a long period of time making many multiple withdrawals all these withdrawals will add up and crossing borders means a new currency each time. Setup online banking too so you can keep an eye on your money while away only be very careful where you access it from as keyloggers can be found in some internet cafes. Maybe get a trsuty friend of family member to check it from home whilst you were skyping them or something.

hillbloom

Id be definately for the credit card. They are way cheaper to use when abroad. put money into your credit card account and draw from that account instead of Laser account. I travelled for one year and brought two of each card. A laser and cr card from AIB and same from Bank of Ireland. I kept one of each in my wallet and had the other 2 in my luggage bag but in America just 6 weeks into travelling my wallet got stolen or lost! The cards had to be cancelled and new cards were issued but as I had no proper address there was a problem getting them to me. My family sent them with a courier company who had a depot in Auckland and when I arrived there I was able to pick them up. It cost 75 euro. As well as that the cards had to be activated through the hole in the wall here and then the Credit card had to be DEactivated for safety purposes and had to be activated again when I got it. we got it sorted. I was travelling with a friend so I could have got a loan if I needed it. So its very easy loose a card. You would need a back up. What made it worse is no proper address to post the cards.