Where do you keep your money?
 

Where do you keep your cash and credit cards on the road? What the things that work best on a long trip? Please send me your ideas and experiences.

One idea I've seen suggested is to keep cards and valuables hidden in a travel pouch under your belt or shirt, and have a "throw away" wallet with just a day's worth of cash and a few outdated cards (library, etc).

If you get robbed or pickpocketed you just lose the throw away wallet and hopefully keep the more valuable items.

try air box, and under the stitching of your seat, A note or two under the soles of shoes.

Fern, Airbox? Excuse my ignorance, do you mean tupperware?

The air filter, I have a panel that comes off quickly, the air filter is in here, and you can reach your hand round the back of the airfilter/sponge. Here I can stash a few little things.

We travel by car rather than bike. However, the trick is to leave money / spare cards salted away all over the vehicle and in a couple of different places around your clothing (under the seat lining / behind fuse box on a bike, behind ashtray / behind headliner / under carpet on a car).
The best advice I've heard though is always to have a 'distraction' stash that, if you're forced to hand something over quickly, has a few notes and maybe even an old credit card in it. Some people have even used the 'A N Other' blanks your get in your junk meail. The objective is to hand it over and get out of any compromising situation as soon as possbible.

Tried that distraction stash trick in Vietnam when I got mugged. Had to resort to good old fashioned violence to get out of that one. Looking back on it, the best advice I could give is don't be drunk as a skunk in the wrong part of town late at night, which is where I went wrong....

Hi

Shoes are not good money gets wet there and credit cards dont want to be bent i have them on my leg when its angerous and some throw away cards and little bit of money in my jacket....

Travel save, Tobi
Motorcycle trip through Venezuela and Brazil - part 5

i agree, shoes are not suitable, unless you can make some modifications

My shoes got stolen in Argentina while I napped in the shade just a few feet away. Only theft on a year-long trip. Twenty years before, my shoes got stolen in a train station in Tanzania. That was the only theft on that year-long trip.

Everyone works out their own methods. I've never lost anything from a moneybelt, so I carry cash in one. When I'm feeling extra vulnerable, I carry two strapped on in different places. I've always got some cash in a pocket for casual use, but I never carry a wallet--too easy to pickpocket. I'm always meaning to tuck some money somewhere else, but I never get around to it. Life is supposed to be simple, not complicated.

Hope that's helpful. Hang onto your shoes!

Mark

How about inside the helmet under the padding / interior?

How about where the fra is open through and then in with the money and a plastic plug in each side?

How about, on a F800GSpot, and other bikes with a dummy tank, to put money in freezing bags under the battery or other hidden places under the dummy tank cover?

How about inside some of the less valuable luggage?

How about in a lockable tool box down low at the front of the engine bash plate?

Or how about a Freezing bag with money inside glued to the top of a hugger?

Do NOT hide money inside the exhaust pipe.

While HU is a great resource for getting answers on overland motorcycling, Does anyone else think some questions are best not asked in a public forum?

The screenshot below is from a Google search I did a couple of hours ago that shows this forum page as the top web page answering this question. (I hope the web link works)

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-S.../Security1.jpg


All we are doing is advertising our security measures to the rest of the world and I can't any good coming out of that.

Call me paranoid but if anyone has a brilliant hiding place they would be better sending it to the the OP as a PM or send nothing at all.

I'm not trying to offend anyone, I just think there is a time for discretion and this is one of those times

I was robbed at knifepoint by three street punks in Bogota back in the 90's.
They checked for a money belt in my pants but did not find my calf belt which had my passport, credit cards and cash.
Personally I would only leave a couple of hundred U.S in cash on the bike in a stash somewhere.
I recently saw some underpants with a nice little pocket that you can stash cards and cash in. My No1 rule of travelling is that my passport, cards and cash are always somewhere on my body, distributed in a couple of spots.

What´s the point of carrying a stash of money anyways? Can someone name the countries which do not either have a MasterCard or VISA cash machine in every village? I carry a VISA card which allows free (i.e. no fee) withdrawal of up to € 200 / day from my checking account, and I tend not to spend that much money per day :-). If lost or stolen, the card is easily replaced everywhere in the world within days and a small fee; risk of loss is limited to minor amount like US$ 50 or so and only until reported stolen and being blocked. Thus carrying two cards in different places seems to be easy and safe enough to me. If worried about passports, carry two of them.

Cheers
Chris

^^^This!

Well....there are a great many places with few or no cash machines--much of South America, Central America, Asia and Africa for starters.

Mark

Carrying a stash on the bike for me has nothing to do with the availability of cash machines. While not being paranoid about all of the possible scenarios that could crop up to bite you in the a$$ I believe in planning for some worse case scenarios. So you get stopped on a main road in Guatemala by some hooded gunmen(exactly as reported by an overlander in a thread on the HUBB in the last 12 months or so) If they actually search you, empty your pockets, pat you down for money belts etc and get what is on you and maybe go through your luggage as well then your pretty much screwed if they get the lot.
Or it could be as simple as some bad dudes in a quiet street in broad daylight with some knives and evil intent, as happened to me.

The stash is for the worst case scenario where all of your cash,cards are stolen and you need that $200 or so to get to the next city big enough to sort out replacement, maybe money wiring etc. Its for gas, hotel,food till all that is sorted out.

Maybe for you thats overkill but hey its not a lot of money if your bike gets stolen, easy to find a spot on the bike to conceal it and provides peace of mind for that worse case scenario where you lose the lot.

Hi Chris!

Man, you are very optimistic person! :thumbup1: I guess you know Murphy's Law and if it comes to you, then all at the same time!

In example Iran. No foreign cards are accepted anywhere. No Western Union or moneygram or company has a branch there, as well.....:(

So if you get rubbed or even just run out of money in Iran, it gets interesting! You have to have good luck to find locals who might donate you some money...:helpsmilie:


Just in Eastern-Turkey the ATM ate my VISA-card. I had no more money in my pocket. I'd try to call my girl-friend, who was sitting at our host, but I couldn't because the charge of the phone was empty. That was the original reason why I took off and got out of the house. I had my laptop with me and tried to find a place with wifi to do skype for blocking my card very soon and call my gf. But without money no internet in that town. And my fuel tank, was empty, too. Wanted to fill it up on the way back... :(

It was just in Turkey, 40 km of distance and I had some Euro's left in my wallet, which I could pay wifi-cafe for blocking my credit-card. Everything else was more easy to handle, later. But by imagine such a situation further east, I guess my blood pressure increases tremendously...

And waiting for a new card, which has to be delievered by the local post staff in foreign countries...??? If you are lucky it might just take a few weeks.

Of course it's everybody else to decide. But storing some extra money somewhere at the bike is never a fault, in my opinion.

Hope we never need them!!:scooter:

Ciao Alex

Money
 

We all have our own ways the best is what you are comfortable with
Rode Southern Asia all the Stan’s carried cash card MasterCard but also US$ money belt before boarder crossing would take $100 and put in pocket and change at broader to what ever currency rates were always ok would check before hand so we’re in the know sometimes would pay in US dollars as a lot of people in these areas keep there savings in US if you do this have small notes as no change offered also find good policy when getting funds choose high profile ATM best at banks avoid railway stations and best if not in riding gear

Lots of places don't have ATM machines, and to claim that they're found in "every village" seems a bit silly. Go to Africa and see for yourself. Lots of ATMs--sometimes city-wide--run out of cash, especially on weekends or holidays. Last time that happened to me was on my most recent trip, in a heavily-touristed area of Vietnam. And lots of stuff happens which requires cash, sometimes in large amounts--cards get eaten by ATM machines, lost, stolen, or are locked out by security-conscious banks back home.

I usually leave my US dollar stash untouched, but every now and then it turns out essential. Seems to me this depends largely on where you go in your travels, together with how lucky you are...or believe yourself to be.

There are also whole countries which have fallen off the international banking map-Venezuela comes to mind, but there are others.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Mark

in a front wheel tube.

No Money, no cards.
 

A backup, cards and cash, is just plain commonsense.

Just been pickpocketed in Monastorix in Athens, cards and cash, no backup, but my wife is here, so no worries really. She is laughing herself to tears about the experienced traveller getting so easily robbed.

Front left pocket, how do they do it?

If I had been on my own, I would have significant problems

Safe travels everyone

Peter, from Oslo

If you have a Revolut card you can use it wherever MasterCard is accepted and you can lock the card down remotely from your phone.
And the card tells you when it has been used...

Good exchange rates, but limited cash withdrawals.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[QUOTE=chasbmw;593554]If you have a Revolut card you can use it wherever MasterCard is accepted and you can lock the card down remotely from your phone.
And the card tells you when it has been used...

Good exchange rates, but limited cash withdrawals.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk[/QUOT

Hi there Chas,
I have a new Starling Bank MasterCard card which I understand carries no fees for cash withdrawals abroad at all. I have yet to use it but will be using it in anger from Feb onwards on my Beijing ride.
I am considering the Revolut Visa card my only issue is the max £200 month free cash withdrawal , as I would like to operate on a cash paying basis only to minimise card fraud whilst shopping for anything really as advised by Chris Scott in the AMH.
Have you found anything else with no or minimal cash withdrawal fee that I may consider?
Best
Adrian

I think that FairFX operate on the basis of a minimal charge £1.50 I think for cash withdrawals.

Remember that with a Revolut card you use your App to lock down the card when you are not using it. So you can disable swipe payments, contactless,ATM withdrawals and online transactions. It also uses a location based security system. Also you get a message on your phone when the card is used.

So I use both FairFX and revolut.


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PS. As the revolut is a cash card, you just top it up as you go along so the amount of cash you are “carrying”in the card is limited.

So much easier know than carrying 6 months of money in travellers cheques stuffed up the main frame tube of my BMW.

I always put my money in the inner pocket of my trousers or shirts.
Its much more safer.
And keep my passport and other ids in my bag. And a scanned copy of all my docs in my email

MasterCard / Visa
 

No MasterCard or Visa in Iran