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Cash or Plastic - Currency - Europe to Asia? Cash or Plastic - Currency - Europe to Asia?
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  #1  
Old 20 Sep 2011
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Cash or Plastic - Currency - Europe to Asia?
Hi

I hope this is in the right place.

OK, planning a trip next April and have quite a stash already saved. I will be doing Europe, then east via Russia(or south and Iran) and onwards to Pakistan, the Silk Road bits to Singapore.

I was thinking of taking US dollars with me, because the exchange rate is quite good now, but I would have to buy notes and then carry them.

Is this a silly idea, or should I just wait until I travel and carry plastic, like I did in the Americas and just cash out at ATMs.

I will definitely take some dollars, for those 'special' moments, but I was thinking of quite a bit, which is a security risk

For those who have traveled this route, what is needed along the way, any advice would be welcome

Thanks in advance
TravellingStrom
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Old 20 Sep 2011
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Hi TS,

In general, in regards to carrying cash, safest idea is to not carry much. Not much benefit, a lot more risk. Bank cards and credit cards to access cash along the route are fine with some back up cash for emergencies. When planning on riding through more remote regions, carry enough to get you through to next town with banking services.

If your motivation is to lock in the strong $AUD, you can open a USD denominated account at many banks. Or even a Euro denominated one for that matter. Some free (and therefore to be taken with a grain of salt) F/X advice, I would just leave it in AUD as your relative interest rates are ~5% and you would earn almost nothing on USD accounts and therefore you will be that far ahead when it comes to compensating for future negative currency fluctuations but still allow for upside if there are fluctuations in your favour.
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Old 20 Sep 2011
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Euro
...been checking advisability of same for next year, evidently almost everyone is predicting the Euro to drop below 1.20 to the dollar by spring...or worse.

Zig
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Old 21 Sep 2011
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OK thanks for that, it reinforces a few things I have read since.

I would like to lock in some dollars especially for the far east countries, but it is all a gamble playing with currencies

I will look into the Travellex card again,

Cheers
TS
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Old 21 Sep 2011
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TravellingStrom View Post
Is this a silly idea, or should I just wait until I travel and carry plastic, like I did in the Americas and just cash out at ATMs.
If you go to Iran, this might not work. But on the upside, it´s quite cheap to travel there, so unless you stay for a very long time, not really a problem to even carry the cash with you (though it´s always a risk).

We probably carried enough money to get us from Turkey all the way to India... so I don´t actually remember, how this was in Pakistan - maybe someone knows?
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Old 21 Sep 2011
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OK, thanks again, I have come to a decision, take a mediochre amount stashed away for those 'special' days and the rest using plastic, if I get dollars now with Travellex, I can lock in the exchange rate and take pot luck on the Euro.

Cheers for all the responses
TS
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  #7  
Old 21 Sep 2011
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or wait for the new Greek money
Looks like they might capitulate and withdraw from the Euro...ouch !
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