Wednesday 5 April 2017

Travel card: Know the benefits of cashless travelling

A travel trip abroad will require immense planning, especially in terms of financial expenditures. The first step you need to take is to opt for the best financial instrument that you can utilise during your holiday. While the most obvious option here is to carry physical currency, it may not be the best one. Even traditional options such as the travellers cheques are now outdated.

Nowadays, individuals are now opting to use the travel card for trips abroad. These travel cards, also known as forex cards, are the most recommended financial instruments. These cards function like a normal prepaid banking card. However, unlike other banking cards, you can access the funds on the card through multiple foreign currencies.

In addition to these factors, there are several other benefits you can gain from this travel card, such as:
Portability and convenience: One of the most important profits of the forex travel cards is arguable, the convenience and portability it offers as opposed to physical cash. This card also offers the ideal substation for those who would like to avoid the confusion regarding various denominations in foreign currency. Furthermore, this card can also be used to withdraw foreign currency from ATM’s at a substantial amount, as compared to other banking cards.

Access to a large amount of funds: One of the drawbacks of travelling with cash, is the restricted amount you can carry. You are eligible to carry cash equivalent to only US$25,00 abroad as per the government travel regulations. While this may seem like an immense amount, to others it is a restriction, especially for business travels. In this case, opting for a travel card would prove to be a better option. You can store a lot of funds on the card, with the option to reload the card whenever the funds run out. All you need is to contact your bank, and request for the specific amount to be transferred to your card.

Safety: All travel cards come equipped with a magnetic strip, in order to access the data on your card and hence the accounts. Additionally, a unique PIN must also be inputted in order to access the funds. However, these features alone do not offer the ideal protection. Nowadays, in addition to these features, most of the travel cards also comes equipped with the embedded chip which decrypts each transaction you make, preventing any outside access from decrypting it.

Global acceptance: The usage of credit or debit cards would incur heavy fees, especially with high conversion charges. However, the travel card offers the ideal protection against these conversion rates, making them a popular option for both users and merchant outlets. Furthermore, plenty of outlets does not accept banking cards. In this case, one would only need to approach an ATM and withdraw the required physical cash to make the payments.

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