My boyfriend and I are traveling to Italy in April (Rome, Florence & Naples) and are trying to figure out the best way to handle our money. From our research we know that a debit card is easy and convenient, but we would like to use an account not tied to any of our other funds in case our card gets lost or stolen. Has anyone ever used a Visa TravelMoney® Card from AAA? We will be bringing a credit card also. Any advice or recommendations would be happily received. Thanks!!

If your debit card gets stolen your money will be refunded for fraudulent use. But if you want a back-up for your debit card, you might take a few travellers checks. Chances are you won't use them, but if they are stolen you can get new checks while you are traveling.

Open an account in your local credit union and put in funds that will more than cover your anticipated withdrawals. I also use them for credit cards because they do not charge a fee above the 1% conversion charged by Visa, and they will carry out automatic payments from my account for the time that I am gone. That avoids charges for late payments--we usually are gone for two months.

Good idea, Michael.

Let me add another thought to the idea of taking traveler's checks as a back-up to your debit card. Be sure to get them in US$, not euros. If you get them in euros you will get a lousy exchange when buying them, then when you bring them back home, you will lose again by changing them back to US$.

yeah, I agree and that's what I do -- take some TCs in USD as backup as I get them free from AAA, and if I don't use them, just deposit them at home in my bank account or something. Don't get them in euro, you'll pay twice -- once at AAA for the conversion and then if you use them, even if in euro.

AAA Travelmoney costs too much -- it has some flat fees tacked on, fees to cash it out, and has a bad exchange rate, also. So, not very advantageous as something just in case.

I'd either take USD Travelers checks or even cash as a backup, however, since you are going with your boyfriend, you already have two different debit cards, right? that's a reasonable backup right there, along with credit cards.

I opened a free checking account at a different bank than where my main accounts are, and I use that as my 'travel fund account'. I use the debit/ATM card to pay for hotel, restaurant, tickets and withdraw cash for daily purchases. When I get home, no credit card debt to repay.

If the card is lost/stolen, then I do have a credit card to fall back on while traveling.

This method is better than the 'travel money cards' because it's FREE FREE FREE. Have you read the charges associated with those cards? there are fees to load, fees to use, fees to get the balance out, and then it expires! Also, there is a limit to the balance you can load, so.... consider 'my' method - it works.

I disagree with the need to bring traveler's checks as a backup. Even if you get them free, it is when you cash them that European banks will charge a huge fee for every check you cash.

If two of you are travelling together, then each can carry an ATM or debit card and a credit card from different accounts. I consider that adequate back up.

If you're still very worried about losing all your cards or none of them might work, then at least carry traveler's checks in $100 denominations to avoid the big per-check fees of anywhere from $5-10, plus a poor exchange rate.

ttt

If you don't want to do a bank account atm as others are suggesting, then I would suggest a visabuxx card. If you do a google search for visabuxx, the website should pop up. I got one for my son when he went to China this past summer and it worked really well. I had checked out the visa travel money card from AAA and compared it to the visabuxx card (which I had Wachovia Bank issue) and found visabuxx to be cheaper and a better deal. Now visabuxx might only cater to teenagers, that I don't remember but overall I found the visa travelmoney card from AAA to be a waste of money with all their extra charges.

We have an independent account for travel and use the atm from that account. If you do decide to open an account and it is a savings account, Just make sure your bank doesn't charge extra for withdrawals from it and limit the number you can do in a month. Some federal regulations may apply to certain savings accounts-we found out the hard way but foturnately the bank had given us wrong advice and paid for the charges.

Melissa, I'm pretty sure any of the preloaded "travel cards" being sold now have high fees and bad exchanges rates. I'd check out the details carefully before getting into that method.

Open a separate checking account and get an ATM card for it if you feel the need, that's still by far the best value.

Also I carry cash (hey call me crazy) both US which could be exchanged in an emergency, and local currency which I order from my own bank at home ahead of the trip.

Suze, I do the same thing. When I leave the US I always have some US cash with me. And I always have some money for the country I am going to. ATM's are great BUT if the power is down you cannot use an ATM.

Melissa, having a separate checking account for your travel fund along with an ATM card for that account is the best way. Make sure the new account you open up is a checking account as I have been told that getting money from an ATM in Italy will not work if it is a savings account. I don't know personally however but I wouldn't take a chance.
Have a wonderful trip.

Thank you all so much for your suggestions. I think that we are going to open up a "travel fund" account at a local credit union and bring some cash in euro ordered from the bank before we leave.