Cards, cash and the fees nobody mentions

Every itinerary on this site carries a budget in the local currency, because that is how you will actually pay. What those budgets assume is that you are not quietly losing 5–10% on the way. Three habits cover almost all of it.

1. Always pay in the local currency

When a card machine or ATM asks whether you want to be charged in your home currency instead of the local one, it is offering dynamic currency conversion. It looks like a courtesy. It is a markup — typically 5–10%, set by the terminal’s operator rather than by your bank.

Always choose the local currency. Krona in Norway, forint in Hungary, koruna in the Czech Republic, euro in the euro zone. Your own bank’s rate will be better than the terminal’s every time.

This applies identically to card terminals in shops, restaurant machines brought to the table, ATMs, and ticket kiosks.

2. Use bank-branded ATMs

Not all cash machines are equal:

• Bank-branded ATMs — an actual bank’s name on the machine — charge the least and usually give the honest rate.
• Standalone machines in tourist areas are where the fees live. Across Europe the blue Euronet boxes are the ones to walk past; they sit in exactly the convenient places and combine a withdrawal fee with poor conversion.
• Airport exchange counters are the most expensive way to get local cash anywhere. If you need money on landing, take a small amount from a bank ATM in the terminal, then do the rest in town.

Take fewer, larger withdrawals rather than many small ones, since most of the cost is a flat per-withdrawal fee.

3. Know where cash still matters

Cards work nearly everywhere, but “nearly” hides real exceptions, and they follow a pattern: the further you get from a city, the more cash matters.

• Park gates, mountain huts and rural transport are frequently cash-only even in countries that are otherwise entirely card-based — the Kazakh mountains and park gates are cash country while Almaty itself runs on cards and QR payments.
• Small family restaurants, markets and ferry kiosks in the Mediterranean often prefer cash; €50 in small notes covers a week.
• Tipping, where it is customary, is easier in cash.
• Some countries invert this completely. Kenya is startlingly cashless — cards and M-Pesa everywhere, with park gates that take only cards.

The working rule: carry enough local cash for a day of small purchases plus any gate fees you know are coming, and put everything else on a card.

A note on worn banknotes

In countries where US dollars are used alongside the local currency — Cambodia is the clearest example — torn, marked or heavily worn dollar bills get refused, at visa desks and in shops alike. Bank-fresh notes solve it. Bring them from home; you cannot rely on getting clean ones once you are there.

What to set up before you go

• Tell your bank where you are going, or your first withdrawal may be blocked.
• Carry two cards from different networks, stored separately. Some countries lean Visa, others Mastercard, and a single blocked card in a cash-light country is a bad afternoon.
• Check your own card’s foreign transaction fee — it is the one cost that no amount of good behaviour at the terminal will avoid.

Every trip on this site lists its budget in the local currency, converted live: browse the itineraries.