Cash Nexus

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We returned from a journey through Portugal in time to vote on Thursday. It was our first foreign trip in over a year (because of that dreadful house issue) and I have to say it took a while to acclimatise ourselves once again to the challenges of travelling. When I say acclimatise there were no problems on the weather front, discounting rain on 5 days but we had at least gone prepared with waterproofs.

Now I know a year had elapsed, but I'm confident that on our previous ventures, save for a small purse of euros, we have managed our funds by way of one of those credit cards that promises a live exchange rate and no transaction fees. Starting in Lisbon, it wasn't long before we came across bars and cafes where cash was king. Of course, that should not have been a problem as, armed with a Santander debit card, we are promised cash withdrawals from the Bank's ATMs again free of charges and with the live exchange rate. Even better, Google Maps confirmed any number of Santander branches within easy walking distance.

Life is never that easy though is it? The ATM tucked in the entrance to the bank refused to accept my card. We queued for assistance and the bank clerk who attended advised that the particular machine we had tried to use was reserved for Portuguese cards. I explained why we were looking to withdraw funds in euros from Santander. Anxious to please, he accompanied us to another machine on the outside of the building, got me to enter my PIN and press the appropriate button for cash and then very much took over resulting in the one thing we did not want, namely a bank conversion into sterling and a resulting 11% charge!

Once bitten twice shy, you might say but the Portuguese are so willing to please that we experienced two similar occurences when using the advantageous credit card. Indeed by Day 3, I was beginning to wonder if both Mister E and I had finally got too old for travelling in retirement and needed to cuddle up in rocking chairs, whimsically recalling the days of travellers' cheques. 

Fortunately, the brain fog and reliance on the kindness of others soon dissipated and I quickly became adept at handling the payment and withdrawal machines without interference or assistance. For some reason in Portugal you are required to decline a conversion not once but twice. With the bit between my teeth, I would have declined a hundred times, if need be, although fortunately that was not necessary. In fact, I can honestly say that I am now living proof that you can teach an old dog (well a retired person anyway) new tricks.


Comments

Treaders said…
When I first started reading my mind instantly went to "travellers' cheques" and all the associated horrors. It is a pain switching currencies isn't it but I'm so used to it by now I don't even pay attention to it (Swiss francs to euros mainly). I've probably lost thousands by not paying attention!
8 July 2024 at 09:18
Caree Risover said…
Our ability to pay attention to the finer details certainly went AWOL at the beginning of this trip! Relaxed and enjoying the holiday vibe we just weren’t ready for the hassle.
8 July 2024 at 12:18
Marksgran said…
IF you are planning any more trips abroad may I recommend a Revolute card. I had not heard of it but my son in law uses it all the time and it is incredibly easy to transfer funds from your uk bank to the Revolut card and then from Sterling to any type of currency required free of charge. We keep about £50 sterling in ours and we have left the remaining funds we had for Australia in dollars. In Australia we made the dollar account our main account within Revolute (it shows as two accounts as we have sterling and dollar accounts) and used it as we would our normal account here. The transactions are free and I recently converted some sterling to us dollars to give to my granddaughter for her trip (she also has an account)
ps I cannot remember if it it Revolute or Revolut!! If I wasn't so lazy I'd get up and go look but I'm sure you'll find it online in a search lol.
11 July 2024 at 08:11
Caree Risover said…
Yes, my younger generation do this and you’ve just reminded me that I always intended to look into it further. I guess because we’ve always been happy with our travellers’ credit cards it’s something we’ve overlooked but our recent experience showed that not everywhere is the cashless society we’ve come to expect and we really do need to have an alternative, especially for those countries without Santander ATMs.
11 July 2024 at 22:49
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