Exchange Money, or Use Your Debit Card?

Japan and Korea are two countries I've easily found a 7-Eleven to withdraw cash straight from my debit card with no hassles at all. (Once my card got stuck in an ATM for about 5 minutes, but this was in Korea at a non-English ATM, and I sort of knew things would go wrong since none of the logos on the machine were Visa or Mastercard. Unfortunately, I thought I could somehow circumvent the rules, and when the ATM asked for my PIN number, I thought I was in the clear.)

Another thing I've done in the past was exchange a little emergency cash with my bank before I left, set up travel notifications with my card companies, and used my debit and credit cards for spending while I was abroad. It'd never been a problem for me in the past, and living in Korea made me even more confident that I never had to bring cash with me unless I wanted to buy headbands on the cheap.

A lot of the cutest places I frequented were cash-only, at least back in 2012..

But on my most recent trip, both South Korea and China were listed as Fraud Alert countries with Chase Bank, and the rep I spoke with said that he couldn't set a travel notification for me, but that if I had any trouble with my card abroad, I could call them collect and they could help me out.

What ended up happening was that I had to rely on my emergency stash for my trip, which was alright, but a minor inconvenience. Just because I could use my debit card in Korea before didn't mean anything now, but fortunately I didn't go to any place that was even slightly tempting to my wallet.

A lot of people suggest that to get the best interest rates, you should order an international money order at your local post office, and exchange it at a post office in your destination country. You can also suck it up and exchange it at your local bank, which won't yield the best exchange rates, but will be convenient and (in some banks) fee-free. And that's only if you're traveling to countries that are Fraud-listed with your bank. Otherwise, heading to your destination country and withdrawing cash from an ATM will usually give you the best bang for your buck for cash transactions, and using your credit card for electronic transactions is an even better option. Make sure your card is set for traveling, and take some time to look into credit cards with great points reward systems.

At the very least, you should have some cash on you just to be safe. And if you don't end up spending it, it won't be a total loss; just exchange the rest back after your trip!