Jun
23Smart Travel Tips for your Summer Vacation
Tagged Under : Summer, Summer Vacation
You’ve packed up the kids, the sunscreen and your best summer romance novel, so what’s left?
How about your finances? If there’s one thing to be prepared for, it’s handling your finances and protecting yourself during your summer travels. Here’s what to do:
- Contact your credit card company, particularly if you are traveling out of the country, and advise them of your travel plans. Many times, credit card companies will put a spending freeze on your credit card if they see unusual activity on the card, so it is best to advise them of your travel plans so you can avoid dealing with a frozen account while away on holiday.
- Take the credit card, leave the cash. Although you will want to have a bit of cash on hand while traveling, in general it is best to charge your expenses on a credit card. A credit card will provide you with a number of protections and, unlike cash, can be easily replaced if lost or stolen.
- Charge your car rental, hotel reservation and airline tickets. Many credit cards (check yours before you leave) offer such perks as lost luggage insurance, airline ticket insurance and car rental insurance. It just doesn’t make sense to pay for these things out of pocket when your credit card likely offers them for free.
- Place a hold on your mail service while you are away. It is always best to put in a request with your local post office so they can hold your mail until you return. Mail sitting in a mailbox for any period of time is an invitation for credit card thieves to swoop in and steal your credit card and other personal information.
- Keep your credit card company phone number in a separate location so you can quickly contact your credit card company if your card is lost or stolen. Write down the phone number for a lost or stolen credit card (it’s usually located on the back of your card), and stash it in another piece of luggage so you can quickly get a hold of your credit card company in case of an emergency.

