Curious Idiot question #3 How do you pay for that?

[landlockedsquid]

So, heres the next question in the series.
When it comes to money, what do you do? I can't imagine carrying thousands of dollars on a boat to different countries. So how do you handle the cash situation? Visa? Debit card? Are there cash machines in the Solomon's?

[Cap Erict3]

Plastic works most everywhere.

[TurninTurtle]

yep... credit card.

[StuM]

BSP, Westpac and ANZ all have ATMs in SI which accept Visa and Mastercard (both Debit and Credit cards). Same just about anywhere these days.

[Lodesman]

It's a good idea to keep an emergency cash cache on board. You never know when you might not be able to access "the network" to use credit cards or ATMs. We keep a couple baggies of $US squirreled away in hidey-holes; when underway, one of those goes in the ditch kit.

[Kenomac]

Credit cards with no transaction or exchange rate fees. Simple. No cash onboard.

If we have a problem, I'll go looking for Lodesman's boat.

[daletournier]

It depends where you sail. Where I've been sailing you need to carry a reasonable amount of cash, for various reasons, one being cash solves problems quickly if you find yourself in a situation.

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[Sailmonkey]

We carried a simple month worth of cash in a dank inaccessible hole. Plastic no fee debit card for the rest.


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[CSY Man]

. If we have a problem, I'll go looking for Lodesman's boat.

[denverd0n]

Originally Posted by landlockedsquid

Are there cash machines in the Solomon's?

There are cash machines EVERYWHERE nowadays!

Any place with a marina and a decent sized grocery store is going to have a cash machine or a bank. The only place you won't find access to money is in places where you really can't use it that much anyway; places where the people would rather barter for goods than take your cash.

(Of course, to satisfy the nit-pickers, I should probably mention that the above is a generalization. There probably are a few, remote places where they would prefer cash, but don't have a bank or cash machine. Still, the above is going to apply 99.9% of the time. Bottom line: carry a credit card, don't worry about it.)

[DDabs]

ridin' the rails, tradin' stories for spongebaths.

[TeddyDiver]

Originally Posted by denverd0n

There are cash machines EVERYWHERE nowadays!

And if you find a place where they don't and nobody accepts credit card there is not much to buy either. Trade with goods you happen to have with you (tins, flip flops, sunglasses, sailcloth, engine oil, diesel)

BR Teddy

[Stumble]

I think it is a bad idea to have no cash on hand even these days where plastic is accepted almost everywhere. But you don't need a lot, and make sure it is in small bills, if you are somewhere that can't/won't accept plastic they are also unlikely to be able to break large bills.

I think a few weeks worth of cash in $5-$10 denominations would be more than enough.

[jeremiason]

We cruised with $500-$1000 cash on board through Mexico and Central America. Always in small denominations and buried in the darkest spot on the boat.

But with that said, you will be surprised how many places have ATMs!

The only place we ever need to use a lot of cash between ATMs was the Sea of Cortez and San Blas, Panama. Most of the little villages did not have ATMs

[El Pinguino]

Most of my daily living is done with cash... chilean pesos.... sucked out of a cash machine in town.

Bigger purchases I take a card ashore, 3 unlinked accounts, only one card on my person at any time. Its a real bugger if you lose a card... happened to me once... new card couriered out muy pronto but until I got back to Oz I could only use it to draw cash out from the desk in Banco de Chile branches... not very convenient.

I have a very small US$ float ... untouched since I bought it back when $A was at parity with the the $US . It goes with me when I fly... just in case... along with three other currencies.

Fee free Debit cards? Where do you find them? I use mine to draw cash... always get hit with a foreign transaction fee.