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How to Bank Smart

So let's talk about how to banks part who likes giving money to their banks nobody that's the right answer all right, so the first thing we're going to talk about is you made all this funding don't give it to the banks make it work for you right giving it away you know, five dollars, ten fees they do really add up over time avoid eight pm fees uh time to go to the bank your bank's gonna charge you some money another bank is probably didn't charge you some money too, especially in the u s if you have a u s bank definitely going to charge it so there's a couple options to avoid bank fees one the global eighty m alliance this is, uh a network of international banks bank america in the u s barclays being that's part of it so west bank was pack in australia there's about twelve thirteen banks and if you use the banks in their network you don't pay any eighteen feet so if you have a bank america, you're in england at a barclays bank and you put your card in you know you're avoiding the fees ...

on both ends um charles schwab is a u s bank this is the one I used all the time there are no eighty m fees and if you get charged a fee they will reimburse you and there's no monthly maintenance fees there's nothing you have to get an investor account but you get an investor like investment account and they give you the investor checking account is not to put any money in the investment account all my money just goes in the checking account um and I use that card overseas it's everywhere never had a problem you lose occurred getting by machine the fedex you want next day actually hsbc global network is completely free to use never any charges sometimes that's my secondary bank hsbc high you're learning something huh? Um charles fob definitely number one bank you should go to capital one of fidelity don't charge and the fees but don't reimburse you on the end uh hsbc as he brought it up two dollars, fifty spent auntie em out of network in that work no eighty m fees if you have certain global accounts so not every tch checking and savings account applied to that uh you think they've always change the rules that used to be a dollar he now is to fifty and they limited the account so if you do I do like hsbc because they have banks everywhere and to fifty eight a m fees a lot better than the five dollars bankamerica charges you or tv north bank or a big bank uh but read the fine print on your account so charles schwab is my globe is my main one hsbc is my backup worse case scenario bankamerica why don't we keep bankamerica because it's the one bank in my town so if my parents have to like do something for me I got stuck on the road they can like easily go to the bank otherwise I haven't paid a fee uh since like two thousand ten to eleven I got uh both to both my primary and backup card stolen and uh when I was traveling so I had to use a bankamerica for a while so they have to pay some bank fees but not voluntarily credit cards so we've eliminated banky's now you're never gonna pay another it can be right going to go spit your banks and avoided if you're overseas and you know you're in canada or australia new zealand, check your local banks and credit unions there are options for you I have some listening on my site g capital in australia is pretty good there's ah trust a builder's trust bank and london that has no eight am fees. There are options for you question about that we have a member who has a teaching job in seoul there or wondering about getting a korean bank card as a new ah person who's living there or sticking with an american one if you're if you're living long term in a place, so if you're living long terminal place I would definitely get the local bank account because every time I go use my charles father count when we're going, we're going to briefly talk about this in a second and more detail, but I'm not paying any candy, but do you have to convert you know the local currency back into you know the dollar equivalent to debit may and in that transaction they're taking a little off the top so if you're living long term in the place, get the local card you know she's teaching the souls he's probably being paid and creating one and so and so there's something about money back home in losing in all these conversions get in one because then you're just going to a local bank out you don't have to worry about the exchange rate, so getting the right credit card ah good credit card can earn you free flights free hotel rooms and avoid you foreign transaction fees and let's talk about foreign transaction fees first who spice plastic when they travel yes, no one hates this I want to know how I get to I have like twenty more at home too we're gettinto why have so many? But they charge you a fee it's usually three percent of whatever the foreign transaction and every time you swipe it you get three percent so it's important to get a car without luckily, more and more cards are avoiding the three percent so the easiest card to get is the capital one no hassles rewards card I'm sure you've seen alec baldwin on tv with the vikings talking about you know, getting all these cards either way I think that's a venture card but no fees this is easy card to get you don't have to have a great credit score um can one just basically handed out yeah, I mean you would I really have to have screwed something up maybe declared bankruptcy to not get this card they give it out to cause gets all the time and this is a great car there's no yearly fee um there's no you know and there's no transaction fee and they're really good about when they exchange money so this is a great card the rewards on this carter is not so great we'll talk more about picking a right reward card but if you just want a simple, easy to use card that's not going to charge you any fees capital one is that chase sapphire is a great card it also comes with the chip so if you're people always asked like oh, I'm going to europe and they have the little chip thing is not gonna be a problem, you know they sold swipe it but tripp does make it easier and um you could get chip cards for all these but the chasing card chase sapphire um you know I didn't mind was plus chase inc that's a business card amex platinum assure baller um all no fee cards I'll have yearly membership fees so now these cards are great when it comes for a travel rewards that we're going to talk about in a second but now if the's you come with membership fees first year way we'll get into all that good stuff but these were sort of my favorite uh no fee cards discover also have no fees but normally takes discover overseas few people take a and next to overseas eso mastercard or visa or are going to get you the most I use out of it um you know it's always good to have a backup, you know and that's one thing I do want to stress don't go receipts with just one bank card on one credit card because you're gonna end up like my friend sarah who got robbed or something like broke into our account and suddenly she has no bank hard until bank american mills it's your house males in thailand or, you know, end up like me where you put in um you go to a great place in africa and they duplicate your credit card and suddenly it's frozen and, you know, luckily had a backup card but it was an amex and really wasn't taking around that much or I've had my eighteen cards duplicated you know you have to have accounts frozen and they're only going away with one you're suddenly left with no money so always bring him back up safety first um yes you're only talking about bank cards and they just you ever take traveler's checks for emergencies or like american express I no no no childless checks were I have ah fly that deals with traveler's checks but never traveler's checks and I'll explain why in a second but they're a bad option um it was a challenge even for emergency I mean because american express love also help you with travel stuff if you have an american express card or american express travel check yeah so use their certainly their services are great but they're actually selling off their travel unit. I never said that it's a secret but they are I know people who work at amex and they're setting the getting rid of that but the problem with traveler's checks is they're actually not really change that much anymore no that's for emergencies emergency backup having mx having an amex account is beneficial because you khun dial somebody on the phone I was just wondering how you rank those in order the favorite number one to whatever one, two, three, four five order ok good if you're this has a four hundred fifty dollars at least see if you can afford it one, two, three four five and this is only last because it's a business card not personal if you have foreign business expenses this would probably number one really depends on the situation but definitely the best one just for just straight e simple to use credit card so using a m cards and credit cards elegy to minimize what is the exchange rate penalty so this goes into travelers tracks in exchanging cash and all these other things every time you go to a bank they have to convert your the foreign currency back into your home currency right? Unless you'd suddenly become a bank um they're going to take a little bit off the top, you know? And so you know, when you're the, uh the airport right and they have, you know, the foreign currencies you know, buy, sell my god, I look at those spread some time and I'm like, wow, they were getting some serious profit because I have my little app that tells me the official exchange rate um and you can't get that the rate that the interbank rate that's what one bank is given to the other you can only hope to get as close to that rate as possible and so using atms and credit cards will get you closer to that rate credit cards were the best cap island capital one because they tend to only take like one percent and the exchange chase is really good two for that so but when you're using for we save cash you end up getting hurt so if you always asked should I bring cash to exchange locally I keep emergency cast with me because you know if your mom there's no eight times around I once went into where was I did I land I was bulgaria yeah spoke area and what this small atm airport the small airport I had didn't have an eight p m that would take my card said it did but my credit kept on coming out and luckily I had some extra cash but if I had you know just assume that it would work I would have no way to afford anything so keep extra cash but exchange for emergencies only never exchange money at airports travelex sorry travelex I don't like you they have awful currency spreads and I would avoid them at all costs um I like if I exchange money I do it in town I had a bank a proper bank itself or trying to go to ethnic communities and fine so the local like exchange service you know they will do the interbank rate I went to I exchanged a bunch of pounds and um england because I brought back my poker ways and uh one some a little bit at the casino and how they certainly needed dollars got the interbank rate ethnic uh for the money changers in look knees much better than changing in an airport aboard traveler's checks because they're not always taken and sometimes you can't find a bank and eight teams are much more widespread traveler's checks for sort of very old school way to do it that you don't really need to do use anymore avoid ran in eighty amps like the seven eleven right or in the casino or um in some bar those will have huge bank fees and the exchange rates now can you scared because there's they're not a real bank they're like a they're going to get out so they have to then change your money that has to get changed again that's just get changed again and avoid avoid that that was that you used to get that exchange rate we have a lot of people asking ok the apple ii uses called currency but if you go online there's e dot com uh taxi yeah um and then pretty much every time I go into apple sort type currency you will just fine listen list of free aps I mean android smartphone iphone all of it great thank you. Um this is a new thing that I want to talk about so over the last couple of years you go let's say you go teo new zealand they say ok, take your country do you want to be charged in new zealand dollars or u s dollars always pick u s dollars let your bank make the rate don't let them do it because they're not going to give you the bank rate they're going to give you like the machine services rate it's not gonna be nearly as good as if you just let your bank now of course you're only talking about you know, if you sense here there you know small very presented but adds up over time through away for a while and you're losing half a percentage on every transaction well that's going to add up you know to some money better spent on food, right? I love good food so it's not about traveling for free who wants to travel for free? Ok to, um who um has a travel rewards credit card and the rewards credit card being one that you can get points for miles with a branded company one, two, three, four for reloads you don't what keeps you from getting one never thought about it I'm a college student and it's hard to get credit for uh can reward winds so capital one for you? Yeah anyone else? I just I'm afraid that all get sort of caught up and using my credit card rather than cash for purchases okay great that's a great concern that I'm going to adjust because that's one that people always talk about, you know I have spent more money never I haven't had cash in my hand for so long remember now because I want those miles and I want those points so everything my one dollars goes on my credit card merchandisers hate the sight of me so yeah that's like you have well water dollar fifty here's my card yeah because credit card companies watching you use your car because they take a commission every time into use retailers hate it because they have to pay a fee every time you use the card so you're judging henry's yeah, yes I avoid credit cards because I don't like the idea of paying somebody to use my own money yes, we'll talk about fees to like deals might be too good to be true yes, that is yesterday I signed up for a credit card uh I got one hundred thousand points america airlines I have to spend ten thousand dollars in three months no, I mean talk about how I'm going to spend that because I can't spend it but like I can't like actually like there's nothing I can not baller enough I was bought enough. I have one of those and next platinum's uh but there's a way to like sort of make those too good to be true deals good, we're going to talk about it so I collect millions of points a year uh and hotel points without ever leaving my couch um there's not my couch um my coaches actually far are going um and I do it through what is called travel hacking travel hacking is the use of points and miles and frequent flier programs and loyalty programs to get free travel the too good to be true stuff when I came here I came a couple of days early I need a place to stay I stayed at the hyatt I spent spent zero dollars I used my points uh if you've been a couple years ago I gave away all my point four hundred thousand american airlines points to give him like a top readers like you because I don't actually use them I collect up but I am a total quarter total point order I'm like no I don't want to get rid of my points I only have one hundred fifty thousand left but I collect tons and tons I currently have um close to two hundred thousand chase points um I'm fine I just flew a friend in to visit use my amex point for that still got one hundred thousand left there I got like three hundred thousand american airlines points tons and tons of points that you can get because you get the points you cash him in he traveled for free and no it seems like it's too good to be true but if you use it responsibly they can be great they come with large sign up bonuses and the ability to earn points so let's talk about my my recent point I have twenty six credit cards you can put that out there I just got a new one and so I can now have one hundred thousand points right but it seems too good to be true because a lot of times people will say well you get the points but you have to spend the money right well we're gonna talk about hot to do that but if you could responsibly spend your money you everyday purchases your dollar water your starbucks your lif rides on a card and you can meet them and I'm spending these points you just out of money they're designed to get you to have the card because the credit card companies want you to have the card because they want you to use it because that's where they make the money the airlines want you to have it because then you're you're attached to them if I have two hundred thousand american airlines points probably not gonna go fly united and delta probably going toe continue to focus on that one point system so they want they want to get you hooked right uh but if he is responsibly you're never going to pay anything I've never been left like oh my god I just have to go spend five thousand dollars because I had to meet this new spending requirement in order to get the bonus uh so is my height some luxury things in my room at the hyatt from a couple days ago this is the version first class lounge and heathrow, which is the best lunch I've ever been in sushi haven't absolut martini bar grey goose far sorry massage british airways first class here's my points for that when you just use my points again for this in december so this I love budget travel but I love traveling like that unfortunately, I can't afford to travel like this, so I have to use my point and so I look for cards with huge giant bonuses thirty thousand points or more um, you know, nowadays you have a lot of very, like sixty one hundred thousand points, so my hundred thousand point card british airways has one hundred thousand point card uh and the spending I'm going to just deal with this now instead of waiting for the side the spend requirement there are ways to fake spending now do you know you can pay your taxes on the credit card? Yes. So luckily attacks time so I'm gonna get, like, halfway through my I mean spend by paying my taxes on the credit card you pay one point eight percent fee but you know that's ninety dollars on you know wherever I owe uncle sam let's say five grand then there are ways you can send amazon payments, right? So you can send a thousand dollars free a month to somebody else so I could send you a thousand bucks trusting that you will hand me the check so I can put it back in my bank account and pay off it. I can do it to you, and I can do it for you. Right? Um, I try the time getting these credit cards for big purchases. Um, so that you know, if I have to buy some flights that can sort of get me there. Now, this ten thousand dollars this is unrealistic. Does not. This is, like super high, and I'm only doing it because I know I have to pay my taxes. Otherwise I would never recommend a card this high. Most sign up bonuses have low minimum spending requirements of five hundred to one thousand dollars. So you think it's too good to be true? Well, let's say, um, that chase sapphire card right gives you fifty, forty, fifty thousand points depending on when you sign up. Uh, if you spend a thousand dollars within three months and this isn't like you have to spend it all today, they usually give you a ninety day period well, if you just send me a thousand bucks it's on amazon payments and I cut it right back to you there you go you sort of fake the spending you actually have to go and spend it he sort of just moved money from your bank out to may and I could move it back to you you've incurred this charge on your card that you just sort of cycle through and pay off many of these cards have five hundred minutemen spending's how many of you will spend five hundred dollars in three months? Pretty much everyone even the collars soon and over here is going to spend five hundred thousand three months, right? Um s o it's not like every card comes with these huge spending requirements they're quite low and there are ways to fake spending and I detailed over in my book on travel hacking on my website how to do this in much more detail but the simple way is is that most people get caught up on the fact that they had to spend money and they think, well yeah, fifty thousand points is great, but I have to actually spend five thousand dollars well one never spend five thousand dollars that's saying ninety days if you can't actually if that's not your normal spending don't spend money to get points because then you're actually not doing this uh yeah if you do, if you can afford it, you can't fake it fake it till you make it, but many come with yearly fees are wait um from fifty through ninety dollars dollars their wave the first year where a lot of people do is they get the card they used the bonus to cancel the car or what you can also do is college credit card company like he hasn't really want this card? Well, they want you to have it. What can we do to make it? Have you keep it well, the wave, their feet or in many times the move between no fee version that card you still got the bonus win win went before notes of caution don't spend money just for the point it's spending if you can afford it, fake it if you in order to get it, uh, start out slow, I have a lot of cards started with a card that gets you to your goal if your goal let's get you to botswana and you realize you have to fly south african airlines, you need ninety thousand united points find the cards and we'll get you those points and that's it don't start don't go overboard and then you find yourself like, oh my god, I have to spend I just got twenty cards have to spend fifty thousand dollars in the next nine months, what am I going to do? Don't get what other cards if you're gonna make a big purchase you to take a credit being every time they you buy one uh so if you're about to get a car or a house or school loan and they see like you just signed up for five credit cards on the problem that can give you that loan, space it out have a goal okay? Get card for your goal don't get them just for the sake of getting them uh so use properly this is like free money I have never make sure you pay your bill on time if you have credit card debt or cannot afford, you know, like you're thinking that don't get a credit card because they have higher interest rates, but if you pay your monthly bill on time and you want to travel more, get get these cards weii do need to just point out, of course everybody needs to act responsibly the advice they were giving as well about getting a car when avoid defeat I mean, there is an impact of you shut down a card you can you're just you know, be aware of all of that, but the men generally advice here is really the biggest factor into your credit score, which is what everyone freaks out nobody's gonna handle my credit score credit to debt ratio I've all the cards collectively I don't even know how much my credit limit is um but my debt is so small that they look at that and think oh wow, this is great that's not using it, but if I had a five thousand dollars credit limit, I hated that every month they're going to be less likely to give me a card but this is why, you know, start out slow like crazy people like me we go on binges like travel hackers I know we will go at a time and get like five credit cards all at once and, you know, figure out the ways to like time it so when it hits your credit score, the other banks don't see it because we're nuts and this is a re obsess about this, but for everyday people don't go overboard if you get a car here and you get a card there, your impact is minimal. The idea is to get these travel credit cards and then to pay your entire ballot like to make all of your everyday purchases and then pay your entire balance off each month. Yeah, so act responsibly if if you spend a thousand dollars a month right, well, you should pay off a month don't like be like, well, I spent a thousand and only forty eight hundred travel critical one he shouldn't spend that much money you shouldn't spend more than you have but beyond that travel credit card is not for you because interest rates will be higher because they're giving all these parks out so they sort of balance out by having a higher interest rates. But if you're spending a thousand dollars in cash that's a thousand points you're giving up going backto opportunity costs you're giving that up yes do any of them have points it don't expire so I did this and I had trouble keeping up I couldn't I didn't have enough vacation time bees on my free right miles and so it was so this card right here is my I'm not give you my card number I did something american advantage, right? So they're good for eighteen months, so if I don't, you fly eighteen months, then they expire, but go buy a pack, a gun, you get that miles certainly your kind active all over again and the count resets um couple other ways to get to get points I want to talk about his points are really important. I didn't really do start doing this until I was like three years into my travels and I missed I love so many free flights and hotel stays and points that critic captain traveling longer and I know there's a new version that you want to give your banks for money and you wouldn't pay a feat yearly fee but there are no feed point cards. They'll waive the fee. You get the government to waive the fee again, you pay your balance off it's like free money shop with partner airlines shot with partner like program. So, like every airline has an online shopping portal, I do this I go into gap or banana republic wherever I want to go try jeans on like I want those jeans. All right, all right down what it is. I go online, click through american advantage, so they have, like the tracking link by my line get four points instead of one point. So if a free flight is twenty thousand points, I now and I'm getting four points in seven dollars. One point, I only have to get spend, spend five thousand dollars instead of twenty thousand dollars for the flight shop online avoid crowds, get more points, fly quicker and sometimes they were in creating deals like they had woman came out, we had twenty points for a dollar spent was like, all right, well, I need new, like, flashlights and batteries, so I just bought some host hold items and suddenly, twenty points instead of one point. This could say every word will highlight, um, like what point programs they're offering the best deals I use my family a lot they give me their miles if they fly, I'll have them given to me or I'll put them on my card so my mom will spend money or my sister well friend and then giving the money for the balance. Um, and then I get more points signing for news, others oftentimes you get these great deals through airline news, others they're not advertised on their web sites. You can follow crazy folks like me who signed for every news other, um, because I'm always looking, or just sign up for your favorite if you love flying american or united or lufthansa or swiss. Sign up for the newsletter and wait take online surveys starwood's is doing a thing we were right now when you enter your number and you can earn points um hi, it just gave away one hundred points for chinese new year's just by clicking on a link on their website not a lot of points, but hey, they add up right hundred better than nothing uh, today I'm bonus offers again, so the best way to travel is traveling style for free and travel hacking wants to do it again. I want to emphasize use responsibly, ok, I got a lot of flak from a lot of people, sometimes about pushing credit cards, I'm not pushing credit cards on pushing miles you know one credit card use one of these methods but what I want to impart on everybody that you gotta use the miles get the miles because you're basically saying no to free money and who wants to say no to free money no it's a lot easier to fire tyrann when you don't have to pay for the fight because you got miles miles can you sell your miles for dollars you can sell your miles there's a few websites out there I forget the name of it not mile point there is a web site out there that let you sell your point balance but other people I have to look up the name of it but they do exist so if you have a lot of points and you are going to use them you consort of cell you're miles but you could do that too. If you rolled with an airline you can buy the ticket on somebody else's behalf? Yeah, with your mind yeah, you just give you the payment. Yeah, so like you know I mean that's another way to do it to this also cites I will let you like sell your upgrades pre much you can prevent sell anything these days but this whole section I really wanted a part on you the idea of first cut out the low hanging for theirs in tons of ways you can save money uh, without having to find extra work if you just look at your expenses and realize, like, you know, I'm leaving money a little bit here and there, one thing that always got me when I was traveling through europe is I love gelato, um, like my hangover cure, you know, getting the two sometimes three july was a day, but, you know, I mean, that adds up over time over back home, you know, always go to the movies are always eat out because it's, quick and convenient doing the things we talked about is not quick and convenient, but the reward is you get to travel longer and that's going to be more enjoyable. You will not remember the fact that she didn't go to the bar with your friends that one night that like every other night, but you will remember the fact that you're now you know, school were diving in the great barrier reef. Secondly, don't get banks your money ever get a no fee, a time card, getting no feet, travel credit card, even if you don't want to do the whole point of miles thing, at least get a car that doesn't charge you any money when using overseas, because there's gonna be more convenient and you're going to get a better rate. I try to avoid paying cash as much as possible domestically because I won't point overseas because I know I mean I think a better exchange rate and if I just start converting cash all the time but I'd love to hear from our students actually as it's been like this section on our harmon because it's been a wakeup thing I mean rachel, you seemed a bit you know, uncertain about cars so this has been something maybe convinced you or you leave more convincing no, no, this was definitely like that that real estate conversation that I needed to have been particularly with like which cards orb best to travel with and avoid fees because I know I've been I hate paying credit card fees and you know when you have so many credit card points and you're playing the game you can kind of end up you know, on my nearly feeling they go we're going to get a thousand bucks this year and I don't want to do that so you have kind of just take some fun and financial tracking and mastery, but if you start slow with just a couple of cards it's going to be fine where she just get like a capital one card and have it simple and easy like that's that's sort of like the no brainer just get that and you're fine for law student also kind of response to what you were saying I have the capital one no hassle, and when I was in barcelona, I didn't even realize it should have been paying off the car and using that for purchases instead of paying the eighty mps because I didn't even think of doing it like that like that, so I'm just gonna ask chairman, thanks for showing us anybody else actually only doing this isn't really, you know, already leaving the credit card bill, I was really interested also to learn about the charging in the local currency versus the other one. I just spent a month in new zealand and prior to that I was in southeast asia, so everything was mostly cash based there, which was really different because normally at home I don't I don't use cash for anything, I use my cards for the points, whereas in new zealand distance I got there everything was on cards because that was far more convenient and trying to get cash out at each point. One last thing I will say to that is when you're in a lot of developing countries where, you know credit cards are easy and you know so many like question countries and, you know parts of asia, but like central america, south america, southeast asia, africa, they will charge you the three percent faith, so instead of that meeting, the cost will attacking onto your to your fate so it's sometimes cash is better and I was just in nicaragua and a lot of times they catch because they don't want to have to report to the government right? So I was in nicaragua and they're like whoa yeah you could put it on the card but we're going to charge you you know, the three percent b plus like the government tax or you could just pay in cash and paying cash lose on a couple of points but better than paying all these fees so keep that in mind too, madeleine because when I first started traveling I only used traveler's checks actually what jay was asking but I felt in a way I was I was lending the bike back my money I was kind of carrying around cash that could have been earning interest except so it's all done things we're learning about here wait traveler's checks stolen it becomes a whole hassle yeah, I get it back ko mentioned we are going to the break but we are going into our next segment which is about staying safe finding companions what else are we gonna talk back? We're going to talk about safety uh we're gonna bring on uh so when you talk about female safety and women safety tips that's same thing finding companions not getting ending up alone how to deal with being overwhelmed by the planning process and we're also going to talk about how to deal with in support of friends and family. And, you know, not let them get you down. When you're like, I'm going to go away for two years or two months or wherever. The like, you crazy or I'm going to go two weeks. Tio, you know, entire to god, you're not saying we're going to talk about how to deal with that.