Spain - Carrying money, TC or cash or credit card

While the money belt is a must - do have a CC for large purchases (hotels?) and keep it in in your belt. Small day-cash in a zippered pocket (shirt or pants) should be good each day. ATM for cash w/drawls only then back into the money belt too!

Basically this system should be used anyplace you travel! Id recommened a good pair of pants or shirts with zippered pocket someplace (inside even better). Maybe have your tailor add one for you on exisiting clothes!

Credit cards are used all over in Spain, and debit cards are common, too. In fact, when I visited a friend there last year, I never saw him pay for anything with cash -- gas, tolls, restaurants, grocery store all paid with debit or credit. I used my credit card frequently, too (and my ATM card).

TC's are a waste of time. Wear your money belt, as Rick said, bring $200-$300 bills, and ATM the rest of the trip.

I was at Madrid and Barcelona and there's plenty of ATM's! The bank is called CAJA (Kah-Ha)

Michelle,
Actually, las Cajas de Ahorro are the Spanish equivalent of a Savings & Loan in the US. A bank is a "banco". I mention this, not for the joy of correcting you, but because there will be differences in the exchange rate and the services available to foreign clients. Additionally, a Caja will occasionally have a problem recognizing a foreign card, but I've never heard of a bank having the same problem. Cajas that subscribe to the 4B system tend to offer a higher success rate than cajas which are on the 6000 system. (One logo or the other will be prominently displayed on the ATM.)

Thanks for the correction. When I was looking for ATM's the local person told me "Caja" so I assumed that was Catalan for Bank... Speaking "Mexican" spanish I just kept calling it Caja during my trip.

This is what I love about Rick Steve's forum.. I learn something everyday!

All,

Thanks a lot for your help. I will stay away from TC. And carry cash and CC.

Thanks.

Azim

Michelle, what you're calling "Mexican Spanish" is known in this part of the world as "Spanish", and caja is a perfectly acceptable word to use when asking where to find an ATM. (¿Donde hay una caja? (Don day ai una cah ha?) If you want bonus points in Cataluña, you can use the phrase "On hi ha una caixa? (Ah own ee ah una kai sha?) but, as painful as it may be for them to admit it, all Catalanes will understand your "Mexican" Spanish.

As Rick states in the guidebook, please ensure your ATM card password is a number. Some friends of mine forgot to change their password to a number before arriving in Spain, and they had a very difficult time getting money out of the ATMs, especially in Barcelona. They finally had to go inside a bank and get help in figuring out how to get their password to work on the ATM keypad.