Suggestions concerning money

Newbie Joined: 28 Dec 2005 Posts: 2

Ok, let's try this again. What do you suggest, credit card, cash, debit card, travelers checks, cash card, etc?

Thanks

Banned Joined: 15 Feb 2005 Posts: 183

we use credit cards & bring along enough cash for tips and odd 'n ends. US $$$ accepted everywhere, but usually you'll get change in Cayman money. Never a problem...if you still have Cayman $$$ when departing, use that in Duty Free at the Grand Cayman air terminal (best Duty free prices anywhere!) or just hang onto it for your next trip!

Posted: Sat Feb 25, 2006 1:05 pm Post subject:

We take credit cards and then get cash out of the atms. What you don't spend you can change back at the airport.

Posted: Sat Feb 25, 2006 2:33 pm Post subject:

When the deposit for my room showed up on my MBNA Visa bill, I discovered a little surprise - a 3% foreign transaction fee. Bash

How annoying. And I was planning to use it for most purchases.

So now I'm going to check with my bank to see if my Visa debit card will incur any fees. Do most places take debit cards?

I know that overall it is not a lot of money - it just irks me.

Becka - who was born conservative with money

Posted: Sat Feb 25, 2006 2:50 pm Post subject:

Hi Becka,

We used an MBNA Visa card in July of 2004 and I don't remember having any foreign transaction fees!!! I think would have remembered that (and pitched a fit over it)!!!

.... I will go back to my statements and check...... I'm with you, I like the luxury of just using the card, if it costs me more money, I'll take cash...

as for you debit card question, I'm not sure, maybe Cindy or Joe will know that one...

Jack

Posted: Sat Feb 25, 2006 3:05 pm Post subject:

Becka,

I checked my statements and although we didn't have a hotel charge (it was a timeshare exchange) we did have the electricity charge, rental car and some restaurant charges and none of them have a foreign transaction fee listed on the statement..... and it's an MBNA Visa...

I would call them and ask them to explain, maybe it's something new....

Good Luck,

Jack

Newbie Joined: 28 Dec 2005 Posts: 2

Thanks for all of the responses. I thought I saw an ad for American Express debit card. Has anyone used this?

Temporary Resident Joined: 28 Feb 2005 Posts: 164

We use cash or credit cards. Most of our purchases are with credit cards. Credit cards are accepted virtually everywhere. AmEx did not charge a foreign exchange premium. We usually wind up using far less cash then we take given the ease of the credit card. US$ are accepted everywhere. change given in CI$.

gjm

Newbie Joined: 25 Sep 2005 Posts: 14

Hi,

First time I've posted. So hope this comes out ok. We are leaving March 14th for Grand Cayman.

I called all of my credit card company's a few weeks ago because I saw this 3% charge from Mexico, this is what I found out.

On Citi they seperate the charge out all other company's add it to the charge so you don't know its in the purchase price.

Citi charges 3% forien fee conversion charge

American Express 2%

NBMA 3%

Chase 2%

Capital One 1%

Discover 0%

Master Card GM 3%

Thanks for all the info on the site it has been great. Trish

Native Joined: 15 Feb 2005 Posts: 1230 Location: Ohio

I just wanted to add an idea that was helpful to us when paying with cash.

It's not that hard to figure out what something cost since the exchange rate isn't so far apart like pesos and dollars, for instance.

We just thought in multiples of 8

$10 US = $8 CI, $20 US = $16 CI,

$30 US = $24 CI, $40 US = $32 CI etc....

This made cents Wink

to us since we were handing over mainly US 10s and 20s.

Posted: Sat Feb 25, 2006 9:41 pm Post subject:

BlueDuck - it sounds like we did not answer your question the first time around and if we missed I sure do apologize, sometimes, not very often, a question will get past us so thank you so much for being persistent as you ask a very good question.

BlueDuck - also in response to your question regarding AMEX, I have purchased the "travel cards" for my kids in the past which is a pre-loaded card that looks pretty much like an AMEX card and is treated like one by the merchant, but again every account and bank that has to process foreign currency is going to charge an exchange transaction, this is one way that banks make money, that fee will vary so check with your AMEX rep as to what the fee might be

Trish S - thank you for your post on this subject as you've given some good information. I recommend any one using a US credit card in any other country find out before you leave from your credit card company what they are going to charge if there is an F/X charge (foreign exchange).

Finally let me just say that although there may be an F/X fee there are conveniences to be had from using your card as opposed to carrying cash around, one is that you might get extra discounts using your cards, you might also be getting rewards (I love my AMEX rewards people) and you have a safety factor in there.

I recommend using a mixture of credit card/debit card and cash but it really does depend on your bank and credit card company.......course then I cheat I have credit cards from the UK from the US and from Cayman and debit cards from all of those locations and I use which ever one has a better currency value and F/X rate at the time I'm traveling compared to the account I'm going to use to pay the charges with........

CindyLou

theonewhohasnoclueaboutfinancesnormally

Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2006 10:27 pm Post subject:

gardengirl wrote:

We just thought in multiples of 8

$10 US = $8 CI, $20 US = $16 CI,

$30 US = $24 CI, $40 US = $32 CI etc....

This made cents Wink

to us since we were handing over mainly US 10s and 20s.

Gardengirl: That really does help this "mathematically challenged" old girl!! Confused

Thanks for the tip!

Karen2

Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2006 5:55 am Post subject:

Jack - MBNA made a change in July 2005 - I found that info on their website. It says that it went up from 1% to 3%. I had also used this card in St. Kitts some years ago with no obvious charges but as Trish pointed out some cards do not separate it out. That may have ben their previous policy.

Anyway, this thread has been very informative - thanks everyone!

Becka

Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2006 7:43 am Post subject:

Thanks Becka, I'm glad you brought this up.... I will have to re-evaluate how to spend my money now.... I might go with travelers checks for the room and cash everywhere else...

Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2006 1:14 pm Post subject:

Concerning MBNA credit cards changing from 1% to 3% in July, I'm confused. We used our MBNA cards last year (April 2005) and did not incur any fees at all. I checked my credit card statements against the signed receipts and they matched up, so the fee wasn't added in or I would have noticed.

I don't travel out of the US very often, so I have little experience in this area. But I'm wondering if it matters how the merchant sends the charges through - in US$ or in CI$.

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