Maybe you’re planning a trip around Europe? Or that road trip around South America that you’ve long dreamed of making a reality? Or perhaps you travel frequently for work?

It doesn’t seem that long ago that travelers’ cheques were the first solution for those who found themselves needing access to their finances in different currencies.

After all, carrying cash in large quantities is never really the safest option.

Thankfully we’ve moved on past the era of travelers’ cheques, and in all honesty, you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone under the age of forty who even knows what one looks like.

The advent of credit cards effectively put an end to travelers’ cheques as the primary form of payment for the overseas traveler, but using your regular credit or debit card in a foreign country can result in quite sizeable fees being levied against you.

Those fees are a real pain point for many travelers, which has led to the next stage in financial solutions for those who travel frequently.

Multicurrency cards.

Better rates and access to benefits

Most multi-currency cards offer users access to several currencies, with major financial institution offerings from the likes of Travelex, Capital One and Wells Fargo providing customers with better rates and access to various benefits.

It isn’t just the well-known traditional financial companies offering such services though, with smaller, more bespoke offerings coming from the likes of Wirex, FreeWallet, ATRONOCOM, and Tokenpay all offering a range of traditional fiat currencies as well as access to cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin in many instances.

The ability to use one card in several countries is of benefit to those who regularly travel, with many offering a locked-in exchange rate that is set at the time you load your card. This comes in handy if you plan to use the currency on the card over several weeks, or even months. The foreign exchange market is known for its fluctuations, and such a guarantee will protect you from losing money while your card is loaded.

ATM charges are a necessary evil…for now

The truth is, for anyone who finds themselves traveling from one currency hotspot to another, a multi-currency card is the way to go. Travelers’ cheques aren’t accepted in as many places as they were during the ’90s and early 2000s while being able to use chip and pin or even contactless payment is on the rise.

The only potential downside of using multi-currency cards is the fees applied by banks by way of cash machines in certain countries, but these are problems that even locals face if they don’t bank with a particular institution. The fees charged and the options for users will depend on the destination country and which bank owns the ATM in question.

We have seen an increase in free ATM usage in many places, and this should hopefully continue over the coming years.

The question of accessing funds has been one that has plagued regular travelers for decades, and in all honesty, they’ve never had it better than they have today.