Playing your cards right tips for traveling with cards.

Factor in the trouble and increased chance of I. D. theft, and it is obvious some preemptive measures can protect you from a load of heart-ache. Remember that if you duplicate your cards and documents to take with you, you could be giving thieves another opening to rip off your private info. Confirm bills are kept in a secure place so they can be checked against your Mastercard statement to guarantee unapproved charges haven't been made and / or gone unobserved. Two accounts are better than one : When traveling with other family members, even spouses, bring different cards that are on separate accounts. When a card is missing and must be canned, all cards on the account are cancelled too. Who are you able to count on? Just 4 or 5 years back, when you looked for travel rebates you might select between a travel agent, the airline offices and the hostels themselves, and perhaps, if you were fortunate, some travel guru down the road. The actuality is : 9 out of ten online travelers now have some history of buying travel online, and just about 15% of all northern Americans bought travel online last year - that is 5 times the penetration rate of 1998. S Jump ahead to 2002 when 30,000,000 US people acquired travel online in the year. ( PhoCusWright Shopper Travel Trends Survey ) Online travel bookings surpassed $23 bln in 2001, and are anticipated to reach $63 billion by 2005. Net bookings in the 1st 3 quarters of 2002 accounted for over 23% of rooms sold in the Big Apple, and over 15% in Los Angeles, Chicago, and San Francisco. Find out more on travelling.

Having at least 2 cards from separate accounts will stop the situation from leaving you stuck. The less personal information you have, the better off you'll be if your purse or wallet is nicked. Even with the conversion charge, many times ATM machines will have the very best exchange rates and the lowest fees.