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Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 20
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Have now booked my flight and accomodation (thanks for the help on here with that).
Am now wondering if there will be any problems with me using travelers cheques (either USD to BZD). Do places require a minimum spend or charge a fee or % for using TC's ? Which currency would be best to bring ?
Was also thinking of opening a basic bank account while there to save the hastle of carrying too much in cash/cheques. Would this be easy enough to do for British Citizen ?
Thanks again in advance for your help.
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Joined: Aug 2007
Posts: 592
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American dollars are best. Travelers checks in USDs are best. And opening a bank account can be difficult because you need two letters of reference from your bank and a letter of reference from a local known person. Credit cards work well at resorts and bigger restaurants if you want to preserve your cash. The usual Visa, MasterCard, and some American Express. Discover isn't widely used. Also, be careful of Bank Debit Cards because they take money out of your account immediately. This has gotten people in trouble.
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Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 20
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Thanks, looks like USD cheques are best then. Will bring credit cards as backup but would rather not use them due to the charges applied by the bank and poor exchange rates.
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Joined: Apr 2007
Posts: 70
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Capitol One credit cards are the only I have found that do not charge an international transaction fee. I use them all the time and found no problem with exchange rates. Also, you can do a "point of sale" withdrawal from a local banks to get cash. No fee involved if amount is under a specified amount, $300.00, I think. This is not a cash advance on your card but shows as a purchase. Island Super Market and Village Super Market will gladly cash U.S. Travelers Checks
Dennis
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Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 20
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Thanks, I like the idea of "point of sale" at the bank, but will probably bring traveleer cheques to be on the safe side. Do the supermarkets charge any sort of fee to use them or are the accepted at face value ?
Also, should I avoid large cheques, i.e. $100 ones ?
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Joined: Aug 2007
Posts: 592
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It would be good to avoid the large check, as many places won't have a lot of cash on hand to cash them....unless you want to be running to a bank all the time. Savvy travellers usually have back up means to pay for things. Consider losing your travellers checks or cash, what would you do? It takes time and paperwork to replace travellers checks if they are lost. It could ruin a vacation.
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Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 20
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Thanks, I'll have cash, travellers cheques and credit cards and decent travel insurance so should not be a problem if anything goes wrong.
As I'm coming for a month, I don't want to bring it all in cash, so travelers cheques are the safer option for the bulk of it, but a will have a few hundred dollars in cash. My insurance coveres upto £400 cash (around USD $600) so don't want to bring any more than that as cash to ensure I stay covered at all times.
Will see if I can get mainly $50 & $20 traveler cheques as not to be any trouble to the shops/businesses out there.
Can't wait to get there !!
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Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 820
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I bring some cash, one credit card and large denomination travelers checks. Once a week or so cash the checks at Milo's. Much easier than trying to cash checks everywhere...
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Joined: Sep 2002
Posts: 1,054
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Thanks for the reminder about no transaction fee for Capital One transactions. I have one but had forgotten because I mainly use AMEX. Homer, where do you get decent travel insurance from. I need to look into that in case I have to cut my trip short due to a family emergency. I have a 99 y/o grandmother who is not in great health. Thanks!
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Joined: Nov 2004
Posts: 1,748
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Kathy, check out www.travelguard.com This is the site we refer our guests to.
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