When people share travel stories that sound like they came out of in one of those travel books about taking in Europe on $20 a day, all you usually hear are reports of going through regional airports to take advantage of the cheaper airlines, and maybe making sure that you save on at least one meal each day by filling up on bar counter snacks on a night out. Actually, those accounts, as entertaining (and as essential) as they are, aren't all that you need to do to keep on budget without seriously cutting back on essentials. To keep your overheads down, you could do something lots of travelers forget all about - planning for the best way to order your finances even before you set foot in an airport. The most important part of that course is, getting the best credit card for travel.
Almost every credit card company will add on extra fees for anything you ring up in another country. Citibank, Bank of America, AmEx - everyone charges around 3% extra on every little thing you charge to your credit card when you leave the country. And it isn't just when you enter a store in that country; over there, you could be making a purchase over the Internet from a US store, and it would still cost you to process your order through their affiliate bank in that country - and so they believe the old. You could actually look up what each card charges on CardRatings. If you could find a card issuer who would do it, the best idea for travel overseas would be to apply all afresh for the best credit card for travel.
There are all kinds of options though. Reason does prevail in some fringes of the credit card issuer community. For instance, you could pick Discover - they actually have no overseas fees at all. It will be nice if Discover were welcomed everywhere the way the big three, Visa, American Express and MasterCard are though. And if you have a Charles Schwab card, they give you a free ride too, and they'll give you a couple of percent in cashback offers. But most thrifty travelers actually prefer Capital One, one of the best credit card options for travel possible. Not only does Capital One not charge you anything in fees, it even does away with other little fees as well. So what is the catch? Nothing really, except that they can be a little tough with security. So if you need to be going to another country, they expect you to call them up in advance to tell them. If you don't, they imagine someone stole your card to spend with it in another country. And calling them up to notify them isn't ever easy - set aside a good 15 minutes to get through.
Even the best credit card won't help you in some places when you travel in Europe though. Some budget hotels in Germany for instance, in the sticks, will accept no plastic at all. Now, if you want to use your credit card to withdraw cash at the ATM over in another country though, they often charge you a flat $5 fee and a 1% transaction charge (3% at Citibank). That is of course unless you are able to find an ATM that belongs to a bank that your credit card company calls an affiliate. If this really burns you up that you need to pay them money to use your own money, what you need is a nice money market account at an online bank, like ING direct or Capital One direct banking. You just have to funnel money from your online account to your credit card. Traveling on a budget is all about thinking out of the box. It's part of the fun; it's part of the charm.