Prague College Trip
 

My son is taking a 10 day college class trip to Prague. What is the best way for him to pay for food and necessities? Should I pre load a credit card? Use a debit card? Purchase AMEX Travel Checks?

Credit and debit cards are fine but check what charges they incur, might be quite expensive. Use ATM's for cash but again check what charges may be made.
Travellers Cheques are just about obsolete in Europe and I would not use them.

no, travelers checks are difficult to cash and you won't save anything over other methods.

Sounds like he doesn't need any major expenses, just food and walking around money, right? well, the debit card sounds good but it's not clear what you mean by that. If he doesn't have a bank actt, which I bet he doesn't, then are you talking about giving him your debit card? Or are you talking about buying one of those debit cards for people without bank accts? Some of those can be very expensive in usage fees, loading fees, AND even foreign transaction fees.

SOme website recommends this as one of the best, but it does have a 3.5 pct foreign transaction fee (many US credit/debit cards have 3 pct) and a $2.50 ATM fee (perhaps no load or initiation fee).
https://www.netspend.com

Now Paypal has a cash card you can buy and it has a 2.5 pct foreign transaction fee (which is what they charge if you buy something through them online, in fact, as I found out much to my surprise, even though I was using a credit card without a foreign transaction fee) plus a $2.50 ATM usage fee. That may be about one of the best, I suspect, if it has no initial fee.

Or were you planning something else? The problem with credit cards is you cannot get cash with them (well, you can but it is VERY expensive that way), and if you are in a group of young people, you won't be able to easily use that just for your portion of a dinner, for example.

So Prague has a different currency than the Euro. I decided I didn't want to mess around with finding an exchange in the airport, and your son may not be allowed the time to do that when they arrive in Prague with the group.

So I got some koruna at the bank in our downtown. You don't say your son's age, but I'd do about $75 or $100 and do a card as mentioned above for the rest. Our local tourist agency in our city has a coupon so that I didn't pay the $10 fee for foreign transactions. AAA also does currency exchange.

If you belong to a credit union and your son is old enough, can you get him a credit card with a low maximum on it? Our credit union has no foreign transaction fees so it's a sweet deal.

Thanks all for the responses. I think I'll get him 100-200 worth of korona's and have a credit card available for him. Looks like he'll be staying on the college campus and most of his meals are included so he really shouldn't need much

Just for comparison:
meal in McDonnalds 150CZK, liter of water 15CZK, street sandwich 70CZK, public transport one way ticket 32CZK, pack of cigarettes 90CZK, 0,5 l soda 25CZK, meal in average restaurant (drink incl) outside main tourist corridor 400CZK, beer in the pub 40CZK, 1$ 21CZK
Best it debit/credit card. However ATM withdrawal with credit card is very expensive, when debit card withdrawal you have to mkake sure not to use cash machine exchange rate(expensive). Use card exchange rate you will get your money according to current rate. On the other side you can pay almost everywhere with debit card (always chose card rate, not service rate). you can use card in 99% of cases.

" I think I'll get him 100-200 worth of korona's and have a credit card available for him."

Koruna. Korona is a misspelling of a rather poor Mexican beer.

And don't bother. If he has an ATM card, have him use it at the airport to take out $100-200 worth. I had an ATM card in college and that was before we replaced hamsters running on wheels with massive turbines to generate electricity, so junior should have one. You're going to have more trouble finding a bank in the US that carries Czech money (outside NYC) than anything else. US banks do not carry a lot of discrete currencies for small countries - they may carry Euros, yen, Canadian, and UK money but not much else - and the exchange rates they offer will suck. Slip the kid some extra dinero in his own bank account and he'll be fine.

As for f_t_p's comment of "when debit card withdrawal you have to [make] sure not to use cash machine exchange rate(expensive)" - that means you tell junior NOT to convert at the ATM into dollars. At the machine he'll likely have the option to "convert CZK to USD" that shows his 2000 CZK are about $110 according to the cash machine exchange rate (this is an estimate of what the machine would say today, Feb 23, 2018 - go to xe.com or oanda.com for exchange rates) or just to take out the 2000 CZK without converting. Take the NO CONVERSION option, it is always a better deal (today, 2000 CZK are about $97).

And get a money belt or pouch for valuables like passport and money and cc cars, etc that goes under the clothing -Prague like many big tourist cities in Europe has its share of pickpockets who prey on naive - be wary of anyone coming up to you -take precautions and there is no problem.

I have a friend who was mugged in the Prague subway, by the way, and somewhere in the central area. I don't know how it happened, but do be careful.

I had an ATM card in college, also, but that's because I've been working and earning money in jobs other than babysitting, etc. since I was 14 and have had a bank acct since age 14. I worked for the university part-time throughout my college years and always had a bank acct. I don't really know how you could survive without a bank acct nowadays as a young adult, actually. Maybe if you didn't work.

But I will say that getting koruna in the US will NOT be easy unless you order it. I live in Wash Dc, a very international city, and we have foreign exchange booths in a couple spots, like the main train station. But they will not give you koruna. They will if you call and order in advance, though, but they charge a lot of commission (Travelex). But if you can easily get it from your bank, 2000 CZK is about US$100, so that's not a bad idea to have that amt. Travelex charges about 10 pct fee if you order (and can have it sent to your home, actually). In the grand scheme of things, that's not that bad to have some, I suppose.
https://www.travelex.com/stores/unio...ington-dc/1980

So... Big Russ, you probably travel far more than me but I've been both a college student coming over with a group, and I've been a chaperone with a lot of groups.

No group leader is going to want to have the kids all fan out and hit the ATMs or cash exchange places when they get to the airport. They are tired from the flight, a little disoriented in a new place, and more likely to be pickpocketed. And if one wanders off too far, the whole group has to wait. Most likely a bus is waiting outside to take the group to their lodgings. Nope, those kids are getting straight on the bus.

I went to the Wells Fargo in downtown Portland Oregon in 2015. The bank rep said he wasn't sure if he had Koruna on hand but he'd check. If they didn't have it, they would be able to fill my order within a week. It turned out he did have $300 worth on hand. Even better, now my credit union will order foreign money with one week's notice and gives a very competitive rate. Since this mom is being proactive and researching ahead of time, I would definitely encourage her to explore what's available in her city.