Wednesday, 8 March 2017

A Journey of a Thousand Miles Takes a Miniscule Fourth Step


(22/1/14)
 
Side-tracked yet again. But, on a not-totally unrelated note, I did manage to accomplish something to do with my plans for after travel; which, I am not going to divulge here. At least, not now.
 
So travelling overseas is daunting in itself, and part of what is so scary is the various details I just might forget to tend to. For example:
(i)                  Getting cash when I am in Europe. Does it make sense to be carrying around three weeks’ worth of cash? How do I withdraw cash overseas?
(ii)                Can I afford to finance the whole thing in cash?
(iii)               Is it practical to do so?
 
I’ve found that it might be useful to have a credit card with me; for some reason there are things that just cannot be bought with debit cards (or is it my debit card provider is lousy?) even if you have sufficient balance.
 
Also, some credit cards come with travel insurance, which I will and probably should get.
 
So last weekend I went to sign up for my very first credit card. My God….I made the mistake of doing so at a fair, and I was bombarded by cc sales people and free gifts which I did not want. Now Today I find out that there is one card that has been approved, and unfortunately it is not the card that I want. I wanted one from another bank, as fellow users have attested to the cc’s good customer service, benefits (as in dining discounts and such), and policies.
 
The clock is ticking in on my decision of travel mode. Should I buy that Rail Pass? I have another week before salary comes in (I am planning to get the Rail Pass as well as book accommodations using my cc (should I already get it) or try to use my debit card (which has not yet been successful so far).
 
What I am trying to do here is use my remaining months’ salaries to fund as much of my expenses, so that my savings remain intact. Yes, it means that no added savings can be made, but not much is lost either. Hopefully, I can get back on track with my savings when I return.
 
Yes, the last paragraph sounds awfully confusing; I apologize for that. However, there are things I have not mentioned here, which is why it is a bit confusing. I just needed to clear my head. Sorry.
 

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