USA — Page 11

Money Management – Credit Cards Take 1

October 28, 2009 By Danny

water-lilies People often ask us how we manage our money while we’re abroad. Do we just use cash, can we use credit cards, how much do we pay in fees, etc. Although we have a nice little page (ishouldlogoff.com/finance) devoted to how we do this, there are a couple of things left unsaid on that page.

Does it all work out as it should?

For the last 7 months we’ve been testing those financial products we’ve come to depend on to see if they do deliver as promised. We use a Schwab Visa card as well as a Capital One Master Card which both claim to not charge a foreign exchange fee. We also carry an American Express card and while my parents were visiting, my father was carrying another Visa card that made no such promises. Lastly, there is our Schwab ATM card which promises no foreign exchange fees in addition to no ATM fees.

To test if we are not being charged a foreign exchange fee by our credit cards we used all the cards on a single day in Argentina and have calculated the exchange rate we received, automatically, from each service. Since my father had his Visa card with him, we chose to test the Schwab Visa rather than the Capital One Master Card to determine whether Visa itself took a fee.

ARG / USD – 3.8395	Pesos	USD	Rate	Variation
Schwab Visa ATM Card	1011.52	264.29	3.8273	0.32%
Schwab Visa Credit Card	30	7.86	3.8168	0.59%
Chase Visa (Marriott)	204	55.02	3.7077	3.55%
Amex (Starwood Preferred)	24	6.44	3.7267	3.03%

Using the rate provided for me by Yahoo! Finance (far better for these purposes than Google Finance, although not nearly as snazzy) of 3.8395 pesos per dollar on the day in question I’ve calculated the above exchange rates and their variation from that rate provided by Yahoo. As you can see both Schwab cards (the ATM fee is included in the calculation, Schwab will reimburse this at the end of the month) charged me a foreign exchange fee less than 1% higher than the rate reported by Yahoo. Amex was next cheapest at an even 3% and the regular Visa came in around 3.5%, about 3% higher than my Schwab Visa card.

First off we need to understand that I am a travel blogger without regular access to a Bloomberg machine nor did I ever work as an investment banker. Yahoo provides only one rate to me and I’m not sure if each card pulls a spot rate or a day’s closing rate or whatever other options might be out there. Basically I’m disclosing that all the numbers I provide are “close enough for government work” type numbers.

It looks as those Chase bank charges 3% more than Schwab bank. I think it is also safe to say that the 0.5% fee we see from Schwab (and therefore from Chase as well) is the foreign transaction fee charged by Visa and not by the bank. Nothing in life is guaranteed but death and taxes and this is yet another form of one of those taxes.

In its documentation, American Express claims a 2.7% foreign transaction fee. The fee I’ve calculated is slightly higher, I believe this may be a difference in fluctuating exchange rates if American Express pulls a spot rate. In fact, if I compare the AMEX rate to the exchange rate I received at the ATM rather than to the rate provided by Yahoo finance I get 2.7%. Additionally, this means that Visa itself may be charging somewhat less than 0.5%.

In summary it looks like my special ‘no foreign fee’ cards do deliver as promised. Chase is clearly a poor option, as I’m sure are most other banks’ credit cards. Hopefully I’ve not confused you but I have left several questions open.

1.Do Visa and MasterCard charge the same fee?
2.Does my Wachovia/Wells Fargo ATM card charge the same fee as my Schwab card?
3.How does CapitalOne’s promise compare to Schwab’s promise of no fees?
4.Have I made a grave error in proving to all of you that I’m a nerd at heart?

Future posts on this subject will aim to tackle numbers 1-3. Number four I fear, has already been answered. Please me know if there is something else you think should be tested or there is something obvious I’ve missed.

Where are we from?

August 19, 2009 By Danny

A recent post of ours, about going to Colombia, said how excited we were to visit our first new continent together. A reader of ours pointed out that we were wrong…that we were still on the same continent, that of America. As it turns out the number of continents in the world depends on where you went to school. In the USA we are taught that there are 7 continents but in other places there can be as few as four. The Americas can be combined into one continent (as is taught in Latin America) and Europe and Asia can be combined into another. A few people will even group all of Eurasia and Africa together as a single continent. The only places that are undeniably continents are Australia and Antarctica.

We encounter the same problem every time someone asks us our nationality, where we come from. If we answer “Americans” we’re not lying…we are Americans, but we’re also being insulting. Everyone, ever person from Canada’s arctic north to the southernmost tip of Patagonia is an American. If someone asks us our nationality and we respond Americanos we are being insulting to the person asking…implying that we are somehow more American than they are. In English, our nationality is American…we have no other word to call ourselves. In Spanish, we are Estadosunidenses; we are Americans too but no more than anyone else in North, Central, or South America.

Even saying that we are from the United States, which is how we generally respond, can be construed as an insult. We’ve traveled to United Mexican States. Perhaps we should just call ourselves Norteamericanos and leave it there? If there is one thing we’ve learned though it is never to call a Canadian, an American.

Tom’s of Maine Unscented Deodorant (Review)

August 12, 2009 By Danny

Your first question may be why purchase an unscented deodorant? That answer is simple, smell too nice and the mosquitoes will come your way. So when I was presented with a choice of Mitchum, which I’d used just fine before, and Tom’s of Maine, I chose to give Tom’s a try.

The deodorant itself did something, but I’m not sure what. The burning sensation I had in my armpits when using this Tom’s Deodorantwas painful and did not go away as quickly as I would have liked. The packaging was also sub-par in that it broke rather quickly and I could no longer rotate the screw at the bottom to make more “stick” available for use. The benefit of this was that it forced me to throw it out and save myself from nasty burning sensations.

Pentax Optio W60 (Review)

August 12, 2009 By Danny

Pentax Optio W60 Digital Camera

Ultimately we chose the Pentax Optio W60 over the Olympus Stylus 1030SW because of the storage medium. The Olympus uses a more expensive, proprietary technology (the xD picture card) that is limited to 2GB of capacity and also limits movies to 10 seconds or less. While there are ways around the movie limit, it is currently not possible to get around the 2GB storage limit.

Enter the Pentax Optio W60. Pentax uses the common SD memory card which has no limit storage limit and I can purchase 16GB cards for less than $30..about the same that a 2GB xD picture card for the Olympus costs. The Optio does not go as deep under water as the Olympus, nor is it impact resistant, but neither camera really works deep enough to go SCUBA diving. The optics are better than OK, about what you should expect from a camera in this price range. The price tag on the W60, in comparison to the Olympus, is far more attractive as well.[ad#reviews]

Cons: Part of the Pentax strategy for waterproofing is not using a lens cover, something that annoys me greatly. Additionally, when shooting in movie mode the autofocus motor is quite noisy and makes a rather annoying clicking sound. This can be removed by turning off autofocus when in movie mode but that can be problematic in its own right. Additionally, when I adjust the ISO or exposure settings these automatically reset to defaults once the camera is turned off, to some people this may be a benefit but for me it is a nuisance…especially when shooting at night. Lastly, neither camera allows the photographer to adjust the shutter speed or the f-stop, something very few point-n-shoot cameras actually provide but something I do long for.

For the money the Optio W60 is a great waterproof option. Chosen by us mostly because of the memory card and its lower price tag, it works better for us than the Stylus 1030SW did. To be honest however, as a standalone camera, neither is phenomenal in its own right…a function of the limits of the technology employed. I look forward to the day when a suitable impact resistant, waterproof camera is on the market that allows full picture control and semi-professional options.

We aren’t the only crazy ones!

August 7, 2009 By Jillian

Although we’re probably the only people that you know traveling around the world we’re certainly not alone. Although we have no figures to prove it, the downturn in the economy seems to have thrust more people into taking time off to travel around the world. Of course there have always been people traveling around the world, searching out unexplored places or just searching out some place new to them. Other travelers are an invaluable source of information on the road- be it from a hostel or hotel recommendation to a bus company to avoid to advice on a “must-see” that isn’t really so. While most of the travelers we meet are traveling only through a certain region or for a limited amount of time, there are many out there doing a long-term trek. This second group of travelers is slightly different than the first, they often have nothing in particular to return home for, such as the beginning of a new school year, nor do them seem as concerned about getting “everywhere” because they have an unlimited amount of time. Its a different mentality completely.

In Panama we had the good fortune to skype with Andy at hobotravler.com. A world traveler for the last 11 years, Andy was full of invaluable information for us regarding improvements on the website and tips for entertaining our readers. He helped us focus the mission of our website and gave us plenty to think about regarding travel in general. Last month in Bogota we had the honor of eating dinner and drinking beer with Dave from gobackpacking on his last night before returning to the States. One of the first website we came across while planning our trip, Dave and his website were an invaluable resource as we planned and prepared for our trip. Meeting for him the last night of his trip, and four months into ours, we talked about the high and the low points of his trip and ours so far. Funny enough he’s from the DC area, so maybe we’ll meet up again someday.

Each blogger we meet or chat with puts us in touch with more travelers. There’s a core group of people that we email and “chat” with regularly and they have become like travel buddies to us. Some of them are in the same region as us, but many are just starting or in completely different parts of the world. It helps to have someone to commiserate with or touch base with, exchanging advice, travel anecdotes and even recommendations. We might never meet them and often times we don’t have a chance to read their blog, but its nice to know that they’re there, just an email away whenever you need a reminder that you aren’t alone.

So thanks to our travel buddies out there who email, write and remind us that we aren’t alone!

Money Management – Credit Cards Take 1

Where are we from?

Tom’s of Maine Unscented Deodorant (Review)

Pentax Optio W60 (Review)

We aren’t the only crazy ones!

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