Some of our clients are using them, and for now only have positive reviews.

Thanks for your comment, these are useful for the community.

cheers
dooby

I sue a Santander mastercard for just about everything. It even works at fuel pumps in Malaysia. It has an app on my phone that tells me the cost in sterling so I can see what I am really paying in real time. The exchange rate is good too.

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Tim & Sue Angus

Before I retired, one of my job responsibilities was delivering new aircraft to lesser developed countries. In my last year of work, I visited 60 countries (some only for a quick fuel stop, but even then, that involved buying several thousand dollars of jet fuel & food, landing fees, etc.)

Now that I am retired, I ride my two motorcycles (one in Europe, one in North America) in many different countries.

I carry a MasterCard (Maestro), an American Express card (plain green one, as simple as you can get), and a bank debit card. I've never, ever been stuck with that combination.

I use the MasterCard as my primary payment method and have found that it works at 99.9% of the places that accept credit cards of any form.

I use the bank debit card to withdraw money from ATMs, and have never ever had it rejected. The only exception has been in countries where there are sanctions applied that affect international banking transactions, such as North Korea, South Sudan, and Iran. It is essential that the debit card have an Interac or Maestro logo (or Visa equivilent) on it. I don't use the debit card to pay for transactions - I use the credit card for that.

I usually withdraw cash in increments equal to about $200 US, this to keep the fees reasonable (ATM fees are typically 'per transaction', not a percent, although I have noticed a growing switch to percentage fees, such as 2%, in the past couple of years).

The American Express card is a "emergency backup", not so much for credit card use but because if I really get stuck, I can find an American Express office or corresponding bank and get cash from them. Troublesome, I suppose, but that's a level of service that the regular credit cards don't offer. I've never had to do that.

So, for me, it's basically one primary credit card (MasterCard), one primary debit card, and one 'emergency' credit card. I've never had any problems and never been stuck getting cash or making a payment - and I have been to a lot of REALLY out of the way third world countries.

Michael

Revolut are the one everyone is using at the moment.

I used it in South America just last winter. And it was great.

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Did some trips.
Rode some bikes.
Fix them for a living.
Can't say anymore.

Although I do not dispute that ATMs in lesser developed countries may have security problems such as malware in the ATM software, the primary responsibility for protecting bank card users from fraudulent use lies with the bank that has issued the card.

The banks do this using various strategies, such as:

1) Monitoring the customers' travel history and card use history. For example, is the location and amount of the withdrawal consistent with the past behaviour of the customer? If they made a withdrawal in Paris yesterday, and bought gasoline south of Paris today, does it make sense that they are making a withdrawal in Las Vegas 2 hours later?

2) Exchanging information between banks about ATMs at banks in member (e.g. Maestro) networks that are showing anomalous customer use patterns.

Like I said in my post above, I spent years travelling far more intensively than any overlander could - Canada one day, Alaska the next, Siberia the next day, Korea two days later, then through a whole bunch of Polynesian and Melanesian islands over the next 5 days - and I have never had a problem with unauthorized ATM withdrawals.

I have had problems with unauthorized (fraudulent) purchase transactions, but in every case, my issuing bank caught the fraudulent purchase and notified me immediately.

The principal risk to overlanders associated with fraudulent purchases is that when the issuing bank catches one, they will cancel the card immediately to stop further abuse. Getting a replacement card can be a headache if you are away from home and travelling every day. That's why I recommend carrying 3 cards - a debit card (for ATMs), a primary credit card (e.g. MasterCard), and a backup credit card (e.g. American Express).

Michael

I never travel--even in my own country--with less than two ATM cards. I've had the disheartening experience of having one swallowed by a machine in a closed bank. I've gotten the card back when the bank opened, but that might be the next day...or following a long holiday weekend. On a longer trip in faraway places I often bring three.

Same with credit cards--two or three, covering at least both Mastercard and Visa. I hedge in favor of more ATM or more credit cards based on whether I'm headed for credit economies--the Developed World and many tourist-oriented places, where credit cards are accepted almost everywhere--or places where cash is the usual medium of exchange.

I also carry some hard currency in cash. All of this is seldom any real use, but when everything has fallen completely apart I've been really glad to have cash and a variety of cards to choose from. YMMV.

Mark

Makes complete sense to me. Carrying extra cards and cash is easy, lightweight and takes up little space. For the small hassle of figuring out where to hide/store all these various things you get a huge safety net in case of unforeseen problems.

Cards are difficult to replace when on the road. I lost my wallet in Turkey ....



(Dumb! I knew that pocket was shallow and I thought : 'not a good idea to put my wallet there' - but put it in there anyway! ).

I was traveling with an extra card, so I was ok but I realized that now I had no backup and a long road ahead of me. I ordered a new card, but the bank refused to send it anywhere but the address on my account- Colorado. After a week my new card arrived home and my wife asked me where to send it.

We had a contact through my traveling partner's sister in Holland, whose husband had a cousin whose sibling lived in Trabzon (kind of tenuous, no?) and I directed my wife to send the card there.

We got to Trabzon, and hired a taxi to take us to the address and after a lot of stopping and asking along the way we finally found their place. I was getting nervous. Apparently there were no addresses, the buildings were known only by the name of the owners- family units usually, whose extended families lived in all the units.

We pulled up to the building to find a woman pushing her daughter up a ladder to the second story to 'break in' (forgot her keys, we later discovered.). After confirming this was the place, I asked- language barrier- the taxi driver did his best at interpreting for me...........





'Did you get a small package?'
'Oh, I'm not sure, maybe Uncle Joe on the 5th floor got it.'
' No. Well, let me ask Aunt Sara, then.'
'Sara says she thinks Grandpa signed for it but he's asleep right now. Maybe in a little while....?'

The relief I felt when I finally had the card in my hands: I was hugging everyone and dancing around grinning.

Great experience, but I carry extra cards now.

...................shu

Well now that you've mentioned it, has anyone else managed to do much with cryptocurrency on a trip (other than speculating on it to fund the trip in the first place)? I do keep a bit of an eye out for these things but I've yet to see anywhere advertising openly that they'll take payment in any form of 'bitcoin' (shorthand to cover all the various forms).

I'm sure there are places (not counting the darker side of life anyway) but compared to paying for goods / services in the usual way (cash, cards of all sorts, bank transfer, Paypal / Applepay etc, even some of the oddball local town currencies that had their few weeks in the sun a while back) crypto has not made much of an impact - that I've seen anyway. But maybe I lead too sheltered a life to recognise the future has arrived. Anyone using it?

I have a bitcoin wallet since some years which I used to receive overseas payments. I immediately would use crypto payments if there would be a bigger acceptance in Germany/Europe and a hazzle free payment application given. With crypto payments you will never run into known credit card fraud issues!

So far i use different types of credit cards, bank cards and paypal. Cards are linked to apple pay and I do mostly use apple watch for payments. Paypal works only with ios app.

BitPay is afaik the only Bitcoin and cryptocurrency payment service who offers a linking to apple pay. But it`s not pure crypto payment, it`s more combing a crypto currency account with a credit card and an app.

Cash is still a necessary to carry backup

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For security reasons, my set up is like this.

I have a MC debit card (No Credit !!). Could as well be Visa or ....
The card is connected to a separate bank account. "Transfer account". Where I keep a very low balance.
In normal cases, that is the only card I use to pay with, (including over internet).

=> If I need to do a larger payment. I need to transfer money from another account to the transfer account. That is done via internet bank with good security. (As long as you do not give your code to someone, they can't do anything) OK, Some hassle. But for security its is worth it.

=> If someone would get my card (number) with possibility to use it, they can use the money from the transfer account. That is it. No credit, no money on the account => no transaction allowed. That limits the possible damage.

I also like to have cash. And pay as much as possible in cash. If I get robbed. OK, The cash is gone. But it is much better than loosing card(s) that needs to be cancelled and replaced. ( I learned from the citizens in Ecuador: cash in the pocket. No wallet, with cards, driving licence, .....)

Then,of course. That card can not be the only solution. I need to have back up alternatives. If that card is stolen/eaten by an ATM or....

Shipping costs have gone up in the last year - as much as eight times higher!

Good point on repairs - we had to replace a radiator in Namibia and had to pay in cash.

Good summary - we too make sure we have multiple options: debit cards, credit cards, ATM cards (which we use in most places), some cash reserve, and application-based payment capability (e.g., MPESA in East Africa, Daviplata in Colombia).

I usually just use one card: DKB Visa (german) which allows "fee free" cash world wide from atm, and "fee free" payment in foreign currencys. Both can be up to 2.5% per transaction.

The account itself is free (too for foreigners), but you need a plus membership (at least 701 euro income per month) - what you can pay yourself too.

The rest is backup (1x mastercard, 1x debit card). Mastercard is stronger in africa but is usually geoblocked in countrys like nigeria (you had to call your bank).

Just go the DKB way if you have euro`s - otherwise you have the exchange risk.

Surfy

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About Overlanding, Travelogues, Equipment
Trans-Africa over the west coast

Shipping went up to 10 times the amount it was in 2019, crazy stuff all over the place.


BR
Dooby

I use DKB since years too but did you know that:

The "fee free" payment in foreign currencys won`t work if a dealer charges you with dues for a payment. This dues will be added to total amount and they are not refundable at DKB.

Some non EU providers of card terminals charge a transaction fee automatically - this amount isn`t shown on the payment receipt and it can inrease when they do the converting from local curreny first into US Dollar and then into Euro! Transaction fees aren`t refundable anymore by DKB.

But also EU Countries use this method e.g. still Poland. EU laws garantees you to pay a zloty invoice electronical in euro without paying fees. It`s still a common prodedure in business hotels like in warshaw. They do the convertion from sloty into us dollar and than into euro. You don`t pay fees but you loose money by doubled currency translation!

Sometimes the dealer has programmed the fee he has to pay to the terminal provider as fixed amount to every payment!
If you get offered to pay in "quotas"(common South America with special or price advantage offers) you will have to pay that kind of fees with every monthly payment!

ATMs in some countries are runned by seperated Service Companies who are only linked to banks. They charge you with a fee which costs DKB will not refund anymore. Normally the ATM will tell you in advance before getting chash but I have recognized sometimes that this info is suddenly shown only in local language instead of your prefered language. Often you don`t have to accept by pushing a button - you simply accept this fee with getting the cash and you cannot refund it at DKB.

These rules are hidden in a small footnote and valid since April 2020 when DKB set up the rule with the status "active customer" and his 700€ montly income.

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