Passport tie breaker part 2

Michelle , as a Canadain , living in a very touristy city, I would think wearing a moneybelt or carrying your passport around with you to be extremely strange. First off, we do not have a huge pickpocket problem( actually I have never heard of one such event here in Victoria , but if one left their purse in a grocery cart while shopping, or hanging off a cafe chair while in bathroom , you could have it stolen)
Secondly we do not require you to show your passport, your DL would be normal, and if the police had an issue with you they would simply take you to your hotel to see your passport, this isn't a war zone and unless you have the same name or look like a crimminal on the international crimminal listings I can see no reason a policman would even stop you . lol

You do not need an actual passport to drive into Canada. All you need is a passport card, which I carry in my wallet anyway, even when traveling in the US.

I don't wear a money belt in the U.S. or Canada. That's not because I think North American cities are safer than European cities, but because the consequences of losing my wallet in the U.S. or Canada are so much less for me because I live there. Help is a phone call and a wire away. Also I don't look so much like a vulnerable tourist there and am not much more likely to be a victim than the natives. I use the passport card for ID in Canada because it fits in an ordinary wallet. I'd love to see passports redesigned in size to do that. For most of the U.S. and Canada I wouldn't wear a money belt if I were foreign either, but for large cities and state fairs and anywhere that draw a lot of international tourists I would. The thing is that foreigners are easy to spot, a little more vulnerable, and more likely than natives to be carrying a lot of cash. Pickpockets know that. I don't do my groceries with $1000 in my pocket, but I walk around London, Paris, Rome, Amsterdam, etc. with the equivalent in pounds, euros and tickets in a money belt. Since I have the money belt on and need ID, why not carry the passport?

I am one who does not use a money belt, here at home or in our travels. I use a cross body purse. Pat, we love Victoria. We visited every year from 2001-2010. It's a beautiful city, pedestrian friendly, and never felt unsafe or threatened or mugged. True story - In a Paris metro on the way to the Arc de Triomphe, we sat across a pretty mid-teen girl who seemed to have an attitude. When the woman (appeared to be a tourist) sitting next to the girl got off, this girl upon noticing a shopping bag left by the woman ran after the woman off the metro to give her her bag. The door closed before the girl can get back on.

.....and I do carry my passport everywhere I go while traveling in said purse.

Pat
We are in Canada quite often. I am not a money belt person, either in Europe or in north america. That is why I posed the question regarding Canada. I Find the whole concept of money-belt in western europe strange in this day of computers, Internet, cell phones etc. i lost my wallet in rome recently. I am not sure if it was stolen or lost... I just called the cc company from my flat and canceled it. I watched it on the on-line banking to see if anything was suspicious. I did not report it to the police. Why bother. I would not report it to the police regarding the loss in the USA so I did not see the need. We do not carry any more cash than what we would normally do in USA and we protect it appropriately both here and there. I use ATMs and credit cards similarly here or there.

There are a couple of other choices in Canada. If you already have a passport, and don't travel to Canada frequently, your passport may be your best valid ID. If you go regularly, the passport card is another choice, it's the size of a driver's license so fits in your wallet. I think some states offer secure ID's that also work.

We go to Canada once or twice a year to visit relatives. If the port of entry station isn't busy I ask the border guard if they still stamp passports. They do, and if they aren't busy they are glad to do it. That also works coming back at the U.S. entry station.

I've been to Canada twice and have kept my passport in my purse both times. I was in Toronto this past May and felt very safe everywhere we went. I've never worn a money belt in the U.S. or Canada, for the same reason another poster stated. In the U.S. I'm in my home country, I speak the language, and I know the rules. If I have my driver's license and a credit card, I can get home from any state. In Canada I worry less about losing cash or credit cards than in Europe, I guess because I'm "so close" to home.

Traveling in the US, I don't wear a money belt and will keep my ID and credit cards in the hotel safe if we're going hiking or to the beach. Wherever we are, we can find a way to get money and on a plane home without ID. In Europe, I put my passport and one each - ATM and credit card - into either the hotel safe or moneybelt. It really just depends on what we're doing that day. I pretty much wear the moneybelt for the hassle factor. Going to the Embassy/Consulate for a new passport can take days of vacation time, especially if there isn't one nearby... I would rather minimize the potential hassle as I never want to miss a minute of vacation time.

"I Find the whole concept of money-belt in western europe strange in this day of computers, Internet, cell phones etc." I have no intention of spending an entire day - or more - at the embassy/consulate getting my replacement passport because my messenger bag was yanked from around my neck or my cargo pants pocket was picked. My passport is in my money belt where it can't be accessed short of something really bad happening. You certainly can't call or email the embassy and request that your new passport be sent ahead to your next hotel. "This day of computers, Internet, cell phones" may help you access copies of documents, but they don't replace documents. If I lost my passport in Canada, I could physically walk home. Wouldn't be pleasant, but you get my drift. If I lost it in an Italan village of 635 people, I'd have a problem...especially if traveling to a large city wasn't on my itinerary. I don't wear a money belt in the USA, because the consequences are much less devastating for me. Same thing for someone living in Europe - they might choose to not wear a money belt while traveling in Europe because someone could pretty easily physically come and bail them out of trouble. And FWIW, I've been asked probably 2-3 times per European trip for my passport, and not by the police or a cellphone store. It happens.

Can we please laminate and display Eileen's response? I was in Canada recently, and I carried my passport in my day bag. I had taken a money belt, but didn't use it because I felt safe enough, and figured the consequences would not be too drastic for a lost passport. But here's the thing-it really bugged me. At first I just thought I was being silly and OCD (which I'm not, btw). At the end of the week, I realized I would have felt a lot better with it in my money belt.

Karen, it( your passport) was pretty safe in your purse( here in Canada) . I am not sure where you were in Canada, big city or smaller town, but generally we do not have an issue with muggings, and certainly not with pickpockets. You didn't need to worry.

Eileen you said you were asked 2-3 times for passport , but not by police or cell phone store,, so I am wondering who else felt they had the right to demand it?( besides the hotel clerks which is a given in many places) I think the only ones who actually have the right to demand it be produced would be the police? I do agree though with your good point that losing a passport on holiday in Europe would be alot more difficult,, and as you pointed out, not every place one is visiting would even have an embassy office so it could be alot more difficult to have to then detour to a larger city and spend 2-3 days there waiting for passport issue! Good point.

"....generally we do not have an issue with muggings...." I travel to Toronto quite a bit, and muggings are a problem. There are a lot of junkies wandering around the city center, and a lot of them are desperate to get there next fix. Money belt or hotel room safe is essential.

Pat, my issue is more that I don't usually carry a bag, but I like one when I travel. I'm more likely to just leave it someplace than to get mugged. My point is that I just would have been more comfortable and secure if I'd had the passport in a money belt. So next time, I'll do that. Please don't take offense as a Canadian! I mean no slur. (We were in Nova Scotia, and loved it. Despite the fact that they talk like pirates there, I don't think they really are out to plunder.)

Whoa! No one has "demanded" my passport (except for a few scaries at the airport, heh-heh). I've needed my passport for unscheduled purchases (shipping info/VAT refunds - ha!), for collecting tickets at will-call windows (while that info may or may not be on their website, if they want to see it in exchange for your entrance ticket, I'm not going to attempt to argue the case in Italian), and even though not required I had to show it to a train agent in conjunction with our print-at-home tickets once...although he acted like he'd never seen one of those tickets before. The return trip went much more smoothly... :-) The point is, things would not have gone smoothly for me had I left my passport in a hotel room. When I get mowed down by a crazy scooter driver, my ID will be on, or near-ish, me. I have no problem with anyone wearing a moneybelt in a strange, large city. If some fool yanks my purse off my shoulder in NYC/SF/Toronto/Wherever, I don't want to spend the rest of the day calling all of the credit card banks, my bank, forking over $30 for a new DL (and now I've got TSA trouble...ugh.), etc. A moneybelt - wherever you wear it - should only be large enough for a passport; there's no need to wear those huge honkers anymore! A passport/DL, a few credit cards, some big cash, and perhaps a non-refundable print-at-home ticket is all you should have in there. They shouldn't be 'poofy'. They shouldn't be much more uncomfortable/hot to wear that having some papers in your pants pocket all day. They were great fun to wear when we also carried travelers checks and receipts, rail passes, and airline tickets in their envelopes to protect the tickets. Ugh. I still don't understand the argument that it's necessary to wear a moneybelt in a third-world country, but nowhere else.

I agree with Eileen. The consequences of a lost passport or wallet have a lot to do with the precautions taken such as a money belt, hotel safe, etc. More than a couple times over the years either my husband or I have either lost, left behind, misplaced his wallet/my purse on our home turf. Yes, an inconvenience to go home, dig up the credit card 800#'s, make a few phone calls, and possible have to get a replacement driver's license. In most cases, the wallet/purse was later recovered intact (or maybe with out the cash). Easy enough to call your grocery store and ask if anyone turned in a wallet left in a cart. Put this same scenario in Europe and it becomes a nightmare. Can't call the grocery store as you probably don't remember the name, or if you did, then you have the language barrier. No home number or address to contact you in the event your wallet/purse was found. And now to sit in your hotel room alerting credit card companies and figuring out how to get replacements sent. And then to rearrange your trip directly to a US embassy to obtain a replacement passport.
I think we'll keep wearing the money belts in Europe, but not in the U.S or Canada.