Credit Card Woes AKA A First World Problem
I lost a wee bit of money twice today with credit card / exchange rate woes which would tick me off a bit more if I wasn't quite so aware of just how much of a first world problem it is.
You can get 'international' credit cards that let you take out money anywhere overseas without charging extra fees. I do know this but I still just have an everyday Visa card. I can get money, at a very fair exchange rate, from practically any ATM, anywhere in the world, but I'm charged $5 a hit by my bank each time. Same with my debit card.
My solution to this is to take out quite large chunks of money at a time (I'm obviously not worried about being mugged) and to pay for everything with cash, so that at least I don't have to pay so many $5's - which is a fix that occasionally backfires.
The last time I needed money in Romania I took out a large chunk, just by force of habit, without stopping to calculate how much more I'd actually need before I left the country... and so today, back in Turkey, I found myself with a fistful of Romanian Lei, and, of course, switching it to Turkish Lira cost more than $5.
Then, on the same day, I chose the wrong bank machine, and after asking it for another huge wad of Turkish money it informed me that it was going to charge me 3.5% (presumably on top of the $5 my bank charges me) and asked if this was OK. No, I said, no, no, no and I hit the cancel button twice, or maybe ten times, but it spat out the bills out anyways. I don't want to know what 3.5% of a lot is but I'm pretty sure it's more than $5.
On the upside everything here is so cheap that my new pile of bills ought to last a long time. I booked a flight to my next destination for $50 including tax and it allows one 15kg bag of luggage so I should be good to go. I also booked 6 nights in my next hostel at $15/night, which includes full Turkish breakfast, ie brunch (and this one even has a pool!). To celebrate I went out for a fish dinner under the Galata Bridge. The bill for my dinner - ice cold water and a basket full of fresh bread with awesome spiced oil to dip it in to start, a full perfectly grilled sea bass and a large portion of both fries and salad as the main course, and apple tea to finish with - came to $10 (I always quote prices in CAD unless otherwise stated) and I was so very happy with the service I tried to leave a $5 tip, twice, but had it adamantly refused, twice.
I'd much rather give my extra $5's to extremely charming waiters who work under bridges than to impersonal financial institutions that seem to keep grabbing them when I'm not paying enough attention, but, as my kids would say, and I totally agree with them on this, the fact that I can't get upset over losing $5, even through my own carelessness, proves without a doubt that I have a first world mentality. Maybe I should get one of those international credit cards.
