Okay, there has been much debate about money belts, types of money belts, whether to wear one, etc.
Here is a different twist on the money belt question that I have not seen. If you are traveling with a significant other, do you both wear one or can one person carry the items for both?
Everyone should take care of his/her own documents except for children.
Our basic approach is never to have everything or most everything in one place. I think it is obvious -- if something happens to that one place then you have serious problems. We both use money belts -- not sure why this is such a difficult concept for new travelers to wrap their minds around -- and we do a little cross carry. I carry the debit we are using and she the backup. She carries the credit card, I back up. I carry copies of her passport, she mine -- etc.
We each had one with our own cards, money, etc. The only exception was that I carried both passports because it was more comfortable in the neck pouch I wore than the waist belt he wore. I can't remember if he then carried a photocopy of the passport but we did have one so he should've!
Definitely separate. Like others have said, it's riskier to have everything in one place, because if something happens to that one place (or person, in this case), you lose everything. Disperse your valuables.
I find money belts uncomfortable and bulky, so I now carry cash and credit/debit cards in my stretchy zippered runners wrist wallet. However, the wrist wallet is not large enough for my passport, so my husband always carries that for me. My daughters also used this approach on their last European visit, having the one boy in the group carry their passports in his belt-loop style money belt.
We carry our own, mine in a money belt, his in a neck pouch. Like it's been said, it's good to have a backup, and if somehow we get separated, we each have our own credit card.
Now, traveling with our kids, we both really need to carry our own, since we both have 2 passports that we're carrying.
We each have our own moneybelt. We carry different credit cards and ABM cards. (If we lose one we have back up.) Also we look after our own personal documents and have copies of each others. I was hesitant at first to wear the moneybelt but now I have to check every so often just to make sure it is there. I don't feel it.
We do essentially what Kent does.
We each carry our own, I carry our daughter, we split the cash. We use RS, mine is around the waist and hubbies is around his neck. We have had no issues and barely know they are there after the initial few hours. We feel much safer this way and would probably not travel abroad without them.
We do what Kent does and each carry our own Rick Steve's money belts. Mine around my neck and his around his waist.
My son (16yrs) and I each wore RS moneybelt. I found it completely comfortable. We divided the money and credit cards (4 cards for 2 accounts) and ATM cards (4 cards for 2 different accounts). We each also carried our own passports.
My wife and I each carry our own passport, extra cash (anything over a normal daily amount), a debit (ATM) card each (from different accounts) and a credit card each (from different accounts).
We also each carry a copied page of important phone numbers and information in case of emergency or lost/stolen card as well as addresses/phone numbers for mailing/calling home.
Like everything else, I try to pack the money belt as lightly as possible.
My wife uses a neck pouch and I go back and forth between a neck pouch one trip and a money belt the next.
Each should wear their own.
Use that apparent redundancy as an added bit of protection. I carry photocopies of the contents of her belt and vice versa. That facilitates replacements / cancellations in the highly unlikely event something happens to the other's belt.
My wife and I each carry our own items in a waistbelt.I also have a neck belt where I put both passports if we are going to need them along with extra cash and CC or tyme cards.
I carry a regular handbag, although depending on where I am, I am a little more careful about it being zipped up, where I put it in restaurants and I am aware of surroundings. I now live in Europe but when travelling in other places do basically what I would do at home in Spain. We would rarely have more than 200 euros each in cash.
Would not consider a money belt. I do not carry my passport in my handbag but have it at the accommodation, along with computer etc. Consider accommodation (usually an apartment) safe.
