You`ve heard the ad; we`ve all heard the ad: The American Express card. Don`t leave home without it.
Like millions of other travelers, I don`t leave home without my American Express card. But then I don`t leave home without my MasterCard or Visa, either. Nor my ATM card, which gives me, at least in metropolitan
Philadelphia, easy access to my own cash through hundreds of bank automatic teller machines.
It`s amazing when you stop to think of it: In the span of little more than a generation, the wallet-size plastic card has come to hold a prominent spot-along with cash and personal checks-in the marketplace. And nowhere is the revolution more apparent than in travel.
Frankly, I might be able to do without my credit and ATM cards, but I certainly wouldn`t want to try, and I sure don`t recommend it to anybody who travels overnight more than once a year.
I pay for all my transportation costs by credit card-air, rail, bus, rental car. I pay my hotel bills the same way; in fact, I can`t recall the last time I`ve seen somebody pay a hotel bill with cash.
Travel unlimited
What`s most amazing about these credit and automatic teller cards, however, is that if you have them, you can travel almost anywhere in the Western world and pick up cash without much difficulty. I`m not, however, recommending you take off tonight for Athens without a few drachmas in your pocket.
But when you add the cash availability that credit cards provide to the exponential growth of accessible automatic teller machines, at home and, increasingly, abroad, it hardly seems worth the trouble anymore to buy or carry traveler`s checks. In my view, we are witnessing the beginning of the end for traveler`s checks. But, of course, the folks who sell them can muster powerful and reasoned arguments to the contrary.
If you have an ATM card, take it out, flip it over, and you`ll probably find the name Plus or Cirrus on the back, with an appropriate symbol for each. These are the two existing national networks-fast going international-which enable you to tap into your own bank account for instant cash while you`re traveling, whether in London or Louisville.
Neither system existed before 1983. Yet Cirrus currently claims 120 million cardholders with access to 29,000 machines, and Plus says it has 150 million cards, with well over 30,000 machines.
Rush just beginning
While both systems have machines throughout Canada, the rush beyond North America is only beginning. Plus says it has 1,200 machines at more than 300 locations in the United Kingdom, with 500 in Japan and others sprinkled over Europe and, soon, in Mexico and Latin America. Cirrus claims machines in nine nations, and hopes to link up by year`s end with a network of banking systems throughout Europe.
There is a lot of competition, between the two systems, and among them and the regional networks, such as MAC, or HONOR in the Southeastern United States-not to mention MasterCard or Visa, which often can be used in ATMs to get fast cash (albeit in the form of a loan). The point is obvious: Vast numbers of people have these cards.
If you are using your bank ATM card abroad, there is a very big advantage over credit cards or traveler`s checks: It`s cheaper. Get cash from an ATM in London, for example (almost all machines dispense the local currency), and it will be at the equivalent of the wholesale bank rate, and with no commission. Plus is currently touting a survey it did in June at London`s Heathrow Airport, in which it found that an individual traveler would save $6.13 to $11.49 using a Plus system ATM, rather than a commercial exchange, to get 100 pounds sterling. The savings took into account a $2.50 user fee charged by the home bank holding the ATM card. Your bank will charge a fee for each out-of-town transaction, usually $1 to $2; if you use a credit card, the bank that issued the card probably will charge a similar fee.
No interest fees
An additional advantage of using a bank ATM card over a credit card is that you are tapping into your own funds, rather than into a line of credit, where whatever you withdraw is immediately subject to high interest rates.
But let`s look at credit cards for a moment. Visa, for example, claims it has the largest cash-access network in the world-42,040 ATMs in 38 countries. That is a lot of ATMs, even if many of them overlap with Cirrus or Plus machines. But then Visa has a lot of credit cards out there-204.5 million worldwide, according to a representative.
MasterCard, which owns Cirrus (Visa owns a third of Plus), now has 9,000 machines and is in the process of building their network. Like Visa, or your own ATM card, for that matter, you need a personal identification number (PIN) to use the card. And, again like your ATM card, the bank that issued your credit card sets a daily withdrawal limit-generally $200 to $300.
American Express (technically a ”travel and entertainment” card rather than a credit card) is also very much in the ballgame, claiming its cards can access about 18,500 machines worldwide, with an additional 85 of their own cash machines in strategic locations, mainly airports and American Express offices. Again, you need a PIN number to access the machines. And you pay for the service, $2 to $6, depending on the amount you withdraw. Want to know where there`s one in your neighborhood? Dial 800-227-4669 (CASH-NOW). American Express also has a worldwide ATM directory it will send out free to cardholders. The bank that issued your MasterCard or Visa also should be able to provide a directory of accessible ATMs.
Toll-free numbers
Cirrus and Plus have toll-free numbers you can dial to find the nearest ATM that will permit you to tap your own bank account in the United States. Plus is 800-843-7587 (THE-PLUS); Cirrus is 800-424-7787 (4CIRRUS). In both cases, a touch-tone phone is needed. You enter your ZIP code and then the area code and first three digits of your phone to access a computerized voice that gives the nearest ATM.
If you travel a lot, your best bet may be to carry two bank ATM cards-one for the Plus system and one for Cirrus. Even this may soon be unnecessary;
Cirrus and Plus have reached an agreement that will eventually permit the cards to be used in either system.
”It`s getting to where you can pretty much use your card anywhere in the U.S.,” says Tom Reynolds, senior vice president of Speer & Associates, an Atlanta-based financial consulting service. ”The international growth is limited right now, but that`s just a matter of getting the right parties together and expanding what they`re doing here.” –
