How to pay for expenses while traveling?

The cheapest and most convenient way to obtain local currency is a debit card at a local bank owned ATM. Give your son your debit card. Simple as that. Or you add him to one of your credit card accounts and issue a card in his name. Time is getting short so the quickest way might be to go to your bank and get a debit card for him.

Is there any reason why your 45 year old adult son cannot quickly open an account with CapOne, Schwab, or any of the others regularly mentioned here, and obtain an ATM card? He can have that account funded and obtain cash whenever he needs it, without charges if it's one of the above. For that matter, can he open his own CapOne Mastercard, which has no foreign transaction fees (and 1.25-1.5% cashback)? And if you are covering expenses, can;'t you make the deposits for them?I can understand why you might not want to lend your grandson your own ATM card, but can you lend your card to your son? (For the record, every time our kids have gone abroad between 2011 and 2015, they went using our ATM cards and our credit card issued in their names. They ranged in age from 19 to 25 during this period). Have no idea what an agency would have to do with this. (Once again, Frank types much quicker than me)

Thanks both of you, you both are really fast, much faster response than I expected. Will pass this information on to him. I am going to contact our Credit Union where we do all of our banking and ask them more questions.

Again thank you.

Another option is to have your son pay all the bills on the trip using his credit card and using his debit card for ATM cash. You are being nice enough to cover the costs which can easily be settled once the trip is over by having your son present receipts for the hotels and other expenses you have offered to cover and then you pay him.

Jacesgrammie,
I agree with Mark's reply as the best option.

If your son does not have enough money in his checking account to cover the trip expenses, you may agree to transfer a reasonable sum of money into his account, with the understanding that you will get back the amount not used for trip expenses.

Having said this, it may be a tricky situation, especially since you posted this comment:

We did not go through an agency because sometimes I don't always win the argument.

I must say...You're very generous to offer to pay for your son & grandson's 2 week trip!

I didn't understand that comment either because it has no context. If you are paying for the trip, then does it make any difference how the money gets to your son?

Getting money back and to him is not an issue, I just hate to have him carry a large amount of cash and since I have never done any international travel myself I am not sure what the transaction costs are for using ATM, accessing or exchanging dollars for pounds while in Scotland. He does have some credit space on his credit card but most of the places he is staying charge an additional 2% fee for using a credit card. I am just trying to avoid horrendous fees and increasing his risk by having him carry a large sum.

I wanted to use my AAA membership, but he wants to stay at the smaller local B&B's and was afraid he wouldn't be able to do that going through AAA. My comment about not winning simply meant that I would have turned it over to someone else and he wanted to do more of it himself.

I think we have solved the problem though and I appreciate your insights into this subject.

If you want to pay horrendous fees, buy a wad of GBP here and take them to Scotland, where the ATM's are already well stocked with GBP. 2 and 3 % fees are nothing to what that will run, let alone the security risk of hauling that much cash around. Use the ATM and credit cards where you can.
Best use of cash would be to pay down the credit cards before leaving to have plenty of leeway.

All this is very confusing to me, too.

Sometimes lodgings will take a CC to guarantee a reservation, then only charge anything to it if no one shows up. The kinds of small places your son has chosen are probably like that.

He should not take a wad of cash from here to exchange, and he doesn't need to have a wad over there.

As others have mentioned, he should have an ATM/debit card attached to an account with plenty of money in it. He should get £ cash from local cash machines, preferably ones affiliated with banks. Then he should pay small businesses with cash.

One issue is the amount of $ cash the US financial institution will allow to be withdrawn on a daily basis. One of my credit unions has a large withdrawal limit. The second's is 1/4 the amount of the first. I use the first for about 99% of my cash withdrawals on trips. The second is only a backup.

Related to that, the exchange rate is very important. You have to know that so that you don't go over the $ amount in £ and have the transaction fail.

Of course, be it credit or debit card, the issuer (bank, credit union or other) must be informed about the trip -- where the card will be used and for how long.

For much more information about getting, using and securing his money on the trip, your son needs to read the Money section under Travel Tips on this Rick Steves website. For your own knowledge and peace of mind, you should, too.

I assume both guys have their passports and all the other details in order for the trip. If so, they will have a great time.

Jacesgrammie,

I just hate to have him carry a large amount of cash and since I have never done any international travel myself I am not sure what the transaction costs are for using ATM, accessing or exchanging dollars for pounds while in Scotland. He does have some credit space on his credit card but most of the places he is staying charge an additional 2% fee for using a credit card. I am just trying to avoid horrendous fees and increasing his risk by having him carry a large sum.

As mentioned above, he will get the best exchange rate by using bank ATM's in the UK.

If you think about it, 2% fee is not that much; for example, if he is paying £100 per night, 2% fee is equivalent to £2.

Your son should carry his valuables {credit card(s), debit card(s), passport(s) & extra cash} in a money belt, under his clothes, to protect these from pickpockets.

Rick Steves has a lot of travel information on this website. I suggest you read these articles on money RS Money Travel Tips. These articles may answer some of your travel questions.
Most of us would also suggest you purchase, Europe Through the Backdoor. It will give you a lot of practical information. It's on sale too!

You might look into adding your son as an authorized signer on you credit card account. Some cards allow this -- he would get a card with the same account number but with his name on it. Of course, you would have to trust him with that responsibility but it sounds as if that would not be an issue. You might consider calling your cc company, I am sure they could send an additional card that would arrive within a week. One person mentioned the daily limits on cash withdrawals -- very real issue in paying for accommodations as these might be expensive in Scotland. If you do want to fund a bank account for this trip, some financials institutions may absorb foreign transaction fees (think smaller banks, credit unions, and possibly some brokerage firms).