Top 3 ways to lose money while traveling internationally

(Besides actually spending it)

1. Learn how to use the safe in your hotel room, and then don’t use it when you need it most.

2. After changing most of your cash into the local currency, keep what is left of the cash from your home country’s currency in a transparent bag.

Then take the transparent “cash bag” out of the bag you are carrying around with the intention of putting it in a safe place (but not the safe, of course — that would be way too logical). There’s no point carrying it around here since you don’t need it, right?

3. When you go to an ATM in a foreign country to withdraw cash, once the cash has been dispensed, don’t take the cash right away.

Take a minute to put away your debit card and your receipt and then reach for your cash — if it’s still there.

This happened to me!

Believe it or not, I am writing based on personal experience. I never bothered to learn how to use the safe in a hotel room all these years, and then this past summer, a friend showed me — without my asking- how to use it. We were in Malaga, Spain for her son’s wedding and she was giving me some safety tips.

I did start using the safe box in my hotel room — but only when I thought it was necessary. The time when it probably would have mattered most, I didn’t secure my belongings — or use the safe — because I was just going for an early morning walk and didn’t think I would be out of the room that long.

Keeping cash in a transparent bag seems like an obvious “no-no”, but it had been in the handbag I had been carrying around with me — until I decided to take it out — since I didn’t need dollars and pounds while in Spain. It was only at the airport on my way out of the country that I suddenly realized that I couldn’t find my “cash bag”. I had been made to check in my carry-on luggage, so I secretly hoped that perhaps it was in my luggage. Of course, when I got to my next destination, the cash wasn’t in my luggage. I kept thinking I might find it somewhere in my belongings — but it was gone.

Earlier this month, I was in Cairo and had been instructed by the tour company to pay the driver with cash (at the end of the tour). I don’t understand why they couldn’t accept a credit card payment, since it seemed like card payments were accepted for most other transactions. After two unsuccessful attempts to retrieve money from ATM machines, the driver took me to a machine that was owned by a “real” bank.

(I was told that the first two were private machines, and that may have been the issue). One of the machines had indicated that I couldn’t withdraw more than 4,000 Egyptian pounds at a time- and while this may not have applied to the ATM machine at the “real” bank, I assumed it did. So, I successfully withdrew 4,000 pounds, but this wasn’t enough to pay the tour fee. My guide suggested I try to withdraw some more money from the same machine, which I did. The problem this time? While I was putting away my receipt (evidence of the withdrawal) and debit card (lest I drop it and lose it), the ATM “swallowed” all the cash before I could retrieve it! This actually happened! So, what next? I was advised to call the bank in the morning to see what could be done. The driver took me back to my hotel — and I went to an ATM machine in the hotel, withdrew more cash and paid him. I guess that’s what I should have done in the first place!

The next day, I had the hotel concierge call the bank on my behalf and the bank representative kept telling me I needed to contact my bank (in the US). I kept trying to tell him that my US bank couldn’t be responsible for the malfunction of an Egyptian ATM machine- but didn’t get anywhere.

Learn from me!

Fortunately, it was not a huge amount of money in both circumstances, but it was still very annoying. I would much rather have given the money away than lose it either way. Hopefully, someone can learn from my mistakes. The next time you are at an ATM anywhere in the world, please take your cash before you do anything else! Also, the safe box in your hotel room is there for a reason! Don’t be like me — learn how to use it and then do just that!