And I carry four cards, minimum: two debit cards and two credit cards. When I anticipate complexity (or on a long trip), three of each. There is nothing like having a debit card get eaten by an ATM at the beginning of a long holiday weekend to put the fear of god into you....unless it's having a credit card cancelled by a distant corporate office due to activity they view as suspicious.

Most of my cards have favorable terms for world travel. Some are better than others, so always read the fine print. One of each kind of card is always a MasterCard, since every so often Visa cards are not accepted, even in Africa.

I've never messed with pre-paid cards. Maybe I'm old and inflexible, but the advantages never seemed worth juggling and tracking another account. I do take steps to limit my exposure to theft or fraud while traveling, and I never, ever log into an account while on a trip--I once had the experience of logging in, then receiving a suspicious activity notification from my bank which resulted in the card being shut down. I view any text, phone, or internet activity as subject to security breaches--and yes, there are obvious steps I might take to render this less likely, but see the above re "old and inflexible."

I do always carry some cash in US dollars, for all the obvious reasons.

Hope that's helpful.

Mark