Dealing with Money in Tanzania

There has been a change in the last decade or so on how to obtain foreign currency. Do any of these scenarios sound familiar if you have travelled overseas?

• • 1. You have gone to your bank at home and converted money to US dollars as they are widely accepted or convertible just about anywhere?
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• • 2. You have gone to your bank and found out that they don’t readily stock Egyptian Pounds that you need for your trip next week?
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• • 3. You have visited a exchange place in the departure airport to see if they can supply you with Japanese yen before your flight leaves to Tokyo?
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• • 4. You have thought that travelers’ cheques/checks were the safest option and obtained several books of them, just to have signature problems when actually using them?
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• • 5. You visit an exchange desk in a foreign airport to convert your home country’s currency, but the commission and exchange fees were not very good.
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• • 6. You try to put as many charges on your credit card in a foreign country, either to have issues with merchants not accepting international credit cards or to a nasty conversion fee on the bill when you get back home?
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  • 7. You rely on your ATM card, but know that your bank at home charges you up the wazoo to use a foreign machine, so you take out as much as possible and walk around worrying about being robbed?
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We’ve all been there and dealing with money is definitely not a favourite of any travel plans. So over the years, we’ve looked at all the options and have come up with we believe to be the best money management strategy for overseas travel. It’s definitely not perfect and you do need to do a little prep work before heading off, but it might be well worth it.