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Money Matters

Eurozone membership

Eight countries that applied to join the Eurozone and use the euro as their currency will have to wait. The European Central Bank reported in May that Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Sweden have not yet met the criteria required to change their currencies. Each country will officially continue to use its national currency.

Charging tour costs

In the last three years, my husband and I booked tours with Adventures Abroad, smarTours, Vantage Deluxe World Travel, Overseas Adventure Travel, Odysseys Unlimited and Road Scholar. The tours were each in the range of roughly $3,000-$5,000 per person.

In each case, we paid the initial deposit by credit card, but some companies preferred that the balance of the tour cost be paid by means other than a credit card. In fact, some of these companies “penalized” you by adding a fee if you paid the balance with a credit card.

Rejected Currency

In Accra, Ghana, in August ’11, Quincy Crider of Bland, Missouri, wanted to exchange US currency for Ghanaian cedis, but his hotel’s bank would accept only the bills printed as of 2003/2004. It rejected older bills that had the smaller portraits on the front and fewer anticounterfeiting features (Nov. ’11, pg. 67). Quincy asked other ITN subscribers to tell us where they had older US bills rejected, and following are responses received.

Blindsided by AmEx’s demand

My wife, Charlotte, and I took a wonderful trip to the Middle East and Europe, Nov. 8-30, 2011, that included a 16-day cruise from Safaga, Egypt, to Barcelona, Spain, on Regent Seven Seas Cruises’ Seven Seas Voyager. Although we were in Cairo when the demonstrations in Tahrir Square ramped up again and we were in Israel when two Qassam rockets were launched into the western Negev from the Gaza Strip, the event that caused us the most concern on our trip happened the day we left our home.

Your preferred ATM card?

My companion and I are looking around to find an ATM card that we can use abroad without incurring exorbitant foreign-transaction fees. We welcome our fellow ITN readers’ advice and expertise on this matter. Help! — JOELLYN ROSS, Philadelphia, PA

Readers with suggestions for fee-less or low-fee debit cards may send them to Preferred ATM Cards, c/o ITN, 2116 28th St., Sacramento, CA 95818, or e-mail editor@intltravelnews.com. Please specify the type of card (cash-withdrawal-only card or debit card or debit/credit card).

ATM fees ‘shocker’

My companion, Abram, and I traveled to Paris the last week in October ’11 and used our Capital One Visa card and our Wells Fargo Visa debit card. We made about 15 purchases with the Capital One card and used the Wells Fargo card four times to withdraw euros from ATMs. When we got home and got our statements, our Capital One bill, as expected, included no foreign-transaction fees. Our Wells Fargo statement, on the other hand, was a shocker. On top of what we had withdrawn, we had been charged nearly 20% of that amount in foreign-transaction and usage fees!

Driver in Bali

During three wonderful weeks that my wife and I spent in Bali in September-October ’11, our vacation was made easy and enjoyable thanks, in large part, to our driver, Billy Dewa (e-mail billybaliman0908@yahoo.com), whose services we used on six occasions. For $40 per day, Billy — in his clean, air-conditioned SUV — would meet us promptly at our hotel in whatever part of the island we were staying.

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