If you are like me, every time you head out the door you do a quick self-check - keys, phone, cash, credit card. This is normal behavior but there is always a catch depending on where you are in the world. I spent some time researching the best options for world travelling and thought it might be helpful to share some of what I have found and what I am using.
This one is actually the easiest. There are several no foreign transaction fee credit cards available for all income and credit levels. I have difficulty with the idea of paying an annual fee for to enable the credit card company to make money off of me and looked for no fee options that also did not add a foreign transaction fee. I found that my local credit union offered such a card and I applied for it a while back. In November 2021 Capital one released their Venture X card. While there is a $395 annual fee, I did the math and realized with the cash bonuses they were offering it would pay for itself in less than a month. I am guessing it was helpful in the approval process that I was still employed when I applied. Venture X has no foreign transaction fees and I use it pretty much everywhere I can now. As of this writing I am about $300 in the green, accounting for the annual fee. One slight annoyance I recently discovered, the proximity scan rarely works in Brazil but if I insert the card it seems to work more consistently. This may just be a Brazil artifact but I am glad I have two no foreign transaction fee cards available. They are both Visa but I have always been able to get at least one of them to work.
No matter where you are in the world it is always good to have some local currency in your pocket. For a while my credit union refunded all ATM fees worldwide and worked well. A few years back they decided to stop that so I went in search of options for worldwide ATM access with minimal fees. There are a few I discovered including the Schwab account and Fidelity. I am sure there are others that I cannot recall right now. Since I already had a relationship with Fidelity I opened a cash management account there to get ATM card features. I have been happy with the ATM availability and timely fee refunds. I will update this if I find any challenges down the road.
As the day of departure approached I began looking for cell phone options. I asked T-Mobile and they offered good county coverage and data services but it started at $80/month. Preferring to pay less and knowing local sim cards are generally a more affordable option, I kept looking. I came across Google Fi and began digging deeper. For roughly $30/month I get unlimited US number talk and text and 1GB of data, anywhere in the world. To be fair there are a few countries they don't offer service, but only a handful and none of them are on my imminent travel list. It is very convenient to land in a foreign country and be able to use your phone just like you are in the US. So far I have been very happy with the service and coverage, especially for the price.
April 16, 2022 update: Google Fi has informed me that they will shut off my data connection until I return to the U.S. They state their contract makes it clear it is a US service and they are not obligated to provide data access overseas. I read some recent travel blogs and I am not the only one having this issue. The contract I read basically says they can do whatever they want with your data connection whenever they want so I don't think I have any recourse. It has been a good run, but here is one more person who will be cancelling their service.
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