Happy Sunday to all of our travel friends, both near and far! Here are some articles we’ve read from other bloggers (and other sources) that we think you may like, as well, so we’re passing them along.
Tag: banks
Avoid This Foreign Currency Ripoff At All Costs
When you’re traveling outside of your home country, figuring out how much things cost in relation to your home currency can be difficult. You need to know the current conversion rate between the two currencies and then apply that to the purchase price. Sometimes you can eyeball the price when it’s a simple ratio. US Dollars to Japanese yen is usually somewhere around 1:100:
If I was buying something that cost 1000 Yen, I’d know that’s about $10 or a little less. Things get a little more tricky when traveling to the United Kingdom.
If you’d see something that costs £100, it also costs $128 USD. So just think that everything is 30% more expensive than it appears to be and you’ll be fine.
What about if you’re going to Thailand. One US dollar equals 30 Thai Baht. Try doing that math in your head all the time.
Imagine if your hotel, or restaurant or gift shop offered when you handed them a credit card if you would like to pay for the charge in local currency or your home currency? If you’re tired of doing math, I’d bet you’d jump at the chance to pay the amount in your local money, right?
However, If you ever get this question, ALWAYS PAY IN LOCAL CURRENCY!!!
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What Is Manufactured Spending And Why Do People Do It?
Manufactured spending. What does that mean? It’s not apparent from the name, but a good guess would be that it has something to do with spending money in relation to travel since I’m writing about it on a blog dealing with points, miles and travel.
I’m personally no expert on the topic. I know some of the basics of what’s involved in the process. I’ve dabbled with some of the more straightforward methods here and there, but I’m not a regular practitioner.
For those of you who know what manufactured spending is, there’s not going to be anything new in this article, unless you want to read someone who has a basic understanding of the topic explaining it to someone who has never heard of it before.
I don’t think there’s a set definition of manufactured spending or MS. My best attempt at it is that manufactured spending is any method used to spend money multiple times through a financial instrument, to earn some form of reward.
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Because Fraud Is So Common, I Almost Fell For A Phishing Scheme
If you have a sock drawer full of credit cards, having a card compromised is just part of the game. I can’t go more than a few months before I get an alert asking me if my card was used in one place or another.
The most recent case of fraud came while I was on my work trip to New York. Someone decided to steal one of my card numbers and go on one of the most depressing spending sprees I’ve ever seen in Huntsville, Alabama.
Obviously, it was fraud because who needs to go to Zaxby’s right after eating at Sonic?
So after getting that sorted out and receiving my new cards, I figured I was off the hook for a while. Then I got an email from Chase.
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Want A Business Credit Card? Here’s How To Prove You’re A Real Business
Signing up for credit cards and getting the sign-up bonuses is one of the easiest ways to earn a nice stack of points and miles with very little effort. As long as you have good credit and can pay off your bills in full, this is a great place to start. You’ll soon see that besides all of the personal credit cards available, there are almost as many business credit cards. You’ll have twice as many sign up bonuses to choose from. That is, if you have a business.
There’s no shortage of websites that tell you the many ways you can have a business. It all sounds so easy and apparently, everyone has a business and can apply for a business credit card. Here are some examples I’ve seen:
- Do you sell anything?
- Do you provide any services you get paid for?
- Do you rent a property?
- Do you have a side job?
- Do you run a lemonade stand?
- Do you sell brownies at the local market?
Congratulations, you’re a business. Now go and sign up for a business card with this referral link!!!
Sometimes it might be that easy. However, other times it’s not. For instance, I had to prove to Chase that I do run a real business and it’s not as easy as it looks.
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