Yes, travel does cost money but here are 5 easy steps – most of which we learned the hard way – that you can take to avoid unnecessary travel fees. (Please keep in mind that we’re travel bloggers, not lawyers, CPAs or financial advisors. That should be a relief to everyone.)
Don’t buy unnecessary travel insurance
We have purchased travel insurance for every international trip for well over a decade. We mostly worried about having to fly home because of elderly relatives who might interrupt our travel plans with their inconvenient hospitalizations or deaths. We’re down to one 96 year old aunt and are certain she will definitely outlive both of us.
But we also bought travel insurance to cover trip interruptions, travel companies potentially going belly-up on us and for emergency medical care. We were careful to get evacuation insurance for terrorism or natural disasters. We carry separate annual insurance with MedJet so if one of us needs to be evacuated for a medical reason we will be taken to the place in the world we choose, not the one the insurance company deems good enough and near enough.
So, Blonde recently returned from a trip and filed a claim for trip interruption costs. Her Antarctica cruise had been canceled 36 hours before it was due to depart and she was already in Buenos Aires. After placing a call to the insurance company and having a rep say which part of the policy she thought would cover it, a claim was sent in. It was very efficiently turned down in its entirety.
After discussing the case with the company from whom she bought the policy and learning that travel insurance only covers prepaid non-refundable costs she was quite steamed. Her costs weren’t of that nature because they wouldn’t have been made ahead of time because the replacement trip she took to Patagonia was never one she was planning to take. But a lesson was learned; don’t insure anything that isn’t prepaid and nonrefundable.
After calming down and looking into the situation a bit more it turns out that Blonde’s Chase Sapphire VISA card offers all of the protections – in terms of covering prepaid nonrefundable stuff- as a separate travel policy would cover. If she charges her trip on that card it’s covered without any extra fee. She’s still going to buy a medical policy as her U.S. insurance won’t cover her outside of the country (or very well within it for that matter) but the medical only policy cost $28 and previous travel policies had averaged $158.
This is not to say that travel insurance isn’t important; it is. But know if you already have coverage from one of your credit cards and then only purchase the minimum to fill gaps such as medical. Do not ever leave the country without medical insurance to cover you in your destination.
(If you’re interested in the Chase Sapphire Visa Card they’re offering a great 50,000 miles bonus right now if you spend $4,000 in the first 3 months. No, we won’t make a penny if you click on the link and get the card.)
Don’t automatically buy Collision Damage Waiver insurance when you rent a car
Probably most people know this because it isn’t exactly astonishing news. However, a lot of travelers probably don’t check to see exactly what protection they get through their credit card and what steps they need to take to ensure coverage.
Back to that Chase Sapphire Visa card; it has specific steps to follow to decline the rental agency’s CDW policy and wisely advises you to call first and be sure the country where you are going is covered. There are always a few countries that get excluded for reasons that aren’t always obvious (to us). If you have adequate coverage from your credit card don’t spend extra money on CDW.
But again, don’t assume you have coverage – check with your card issuer for the most up-to-date information.
Before you book your hotel search for ways to save yourself fees
We are quite partial to Starwood brands – St. Regis, Westin, Sheraton, W Hotels, etc. – and know that they guarantee that their website or apps offer the lowest prices. So far we haven’t found a case where that was not true, so we book directly with them. That way our wi-fi is free at any of their properties. But you have to book through their website or app to get that deal and sometimes you even have to tell the front desk that that is the deal (as we had to do in Lisbon).
Marriott has adopted the same wi-fi policy as Starwood now. (Marriott is in the process of acquiring Starwood so we’re keeping an eye on them to see what changes are coming to their rewards programs.)
With Small Luxury Hotels (SLH) we know that if we book as members (no charge) through their website we are then entitled to a free upgrade if one is available. And after your first stay at one of their properties as a member you get free breakfasts with all future stays booked as a member through their site. That can save a lot of money.
Choose carefully when deciding what credit card to use internationally
It used to be difficult to find cards, except with Capital One, who didn’t charge foreign transaction fees. In the last couple years many cards have stopped charging those fees; take only your cards that don’t charge the fees.
It’s smart to alert your card issuer before going overseas and many have made this easy to do online. Sometimes it won’t matter but it never hurts to let them know where you’re going. And when you’re in another country buying something and they ask if you want to pay in your currency or the local currency, always choose the local currency. This is to avoid you paying a major ripoff conversion rate which is set by the merchant.
This is called “Dynamic Currency Conversion” (DCC) and we’re perfectly happy to let Rick Steves explain it for us.
Lately Blonde has noticed that some of her credit cards that have dropped foreign transaction fees are now amending cardholder agreements to force cardholders to do DCC. It’s a sneaky way to recoup that lost fee revenue. Make sure your card has not implemented that policy before you take it with you. And if you get a notice of a changed card agreement actually read the boring thing because they may be telling you they’re going to force DCC on you.
And…choose your debit card carefully too
Generally speaking banks charge you fees for using your debit card at ATMs in other countries. So does the bank where you withdraw the money and probably even the exchange they use. Those fees once added almost $40 to a $200 withdrawal of Blonde’s before she learned her lesson.
She heard that Schwab has a debit card that when you use it all fees are automatically refunded. Not only in foreign countries – all fees everywhere! They don’t have their own extensive ATM network so maybe they’d rather pay the fees than install the ATMS, but who cares what their reason is?
So this one is a minor pain to implement if you don’t already have any relationship with Schwab. But all it boils down to is opening a checking and a savings account with them. Some people say they’ve put $100 in the savings account and some say they’ve never put anything in it. Blonde’s dwindling resources are already at Schwab so she didn’t have to set this up just for travel. But you can and then before you go on a trip put the cash you anticipate needing into the checking account. Not paying all of those fees also means you can afford to withdraw smaller amounts inn case having a lot of cash makes you nervous. (Speaking of fees, Schwab doesn’t have monthly fees or minimum balances for the accounts so there isn’t a hidden gotcha!)
We don’t have any relationship with any financial institutions so the links in this post are only here for your convenience and not our fortune-building. We’re still working on that plan……
Whether your travel funds are limited or abundant why pay travel fees that you can easily avoid? Use the money on something that gives you a good memory instead.
No one ever looks misty-eyed and says on their deathbed “I got so much joy in my life from paying easily avoided travel fees”.
At least as far as we know.