How To Travel Safely With Your Valuables

Photocopy important travel documents. These include the first pages of your passport; credit cards and bank cards; immigrant cards and papers; travel and health insurance; plane tickets; and traveler’s check serial numbers. Leave these with your family or a trusted friend. This way, if you lose everything, it is easy to get these papers back when you have these copies. Bring a set of photocopies with you in a waterproof envelope and put the envelope in a place separate from your originals.

Bring only what is necessary. When packing, if you cannot think of a specific occasion when you will need a card, an original document or a piece of jewelry….don’t bring it. You cannot believe the stuff people pack that they never use. If you ever get in a jam, the odds are you can buy what you need in a local market.

Get a pouch that you can keep on your body. This is handy to keep your passport in or any identification or credit cards for that matter, as you will want to carry this around when you go places. It is good to keep your stash of cash there, especially when you are traveling in different places each day. Make sure you button it inside your shirt or inside your pants. If you carry this pack exposed, you are really telling everyone..."Hey world...here are all my valuables....you can steal everything at once!!!"

Stay in hotels that have safety deposit boxes in the rooms or in the lobbies. You can check the internet travel sites for all this information. Sometimes, these boxes are big enough for a laptop. You can also go to the hotel internet sites to check this out or call a hotel itself to find out. It is better to keep the stress low since traveling itself can be stressful. You can leave extra cash and other documents you don't need in these boxes and not be lugging these with you while you are shopping in the street markets. Everybody has heard the story of stealing from these safes...but no one has actually met anyone who lost anything!

Keep a wallet just for local currency. This will also make life easier for you as you will not find yourself in shops giving the storekeepers change they have never seen before. It is handy for tips, beggars, shopping locally and for local transport as well. You just bring this with you when you go around locally or when you buy water and groceries close by. When snatched, your worry is minimal. You can also throw this out to a mugger in the unlikely chance you meet one. Don't flash your cash!

Find creative ways to hide your valuables. Sometimes, you have to stay longer in a place and even though the hotel staff are honest, you still worry. So, to appease yourself while out of your room, hide your valuables in the most unlikely of places. Just make sure you remember these yourself. Insert your cash, for example inside a thick book and place this on a shelf not lying around beside your bed. Or put some in pockets of pants neatly hung in your clothes closet. Vary the amounts and places. Understand, if a serious thief hits your hotel room, you will loose everything there in seconds regardless of what you do. But at least it's tucked away from the traffic through your room of hotel staff during the day. Don't create temptations. It really isn't fair! 

Find out about ATM machines. Again, internet sites will tell you this, or you can find out from your hotel contact or your travel agent. You can just bring enough cash for emergency as you can withdraw whatever you need wherever you will be. The ATM access fee can be around $2.20 more or less in addition to what your bank will charge. But then, there is the peace of mind of not carrying so much cash all the time with you. When you use your cards, better do this in ATM machines right in bank offices so if your card is not returned or something happens, you can immediately go to the bank counter and deal with it. You may need to call your own bank for some transactions. Always try to get cash from ATM machines during bank office hours. This will save you a good night's sleep when something happens. Better to use international banks as they have better knowledge of how to deal with whatever happens.

Use ATMs carefully. In many countries, space between two people may be perceived differently so they are closer to you than you might want. Make sure you cover with your body, your hand or whatever when you are punching in the PIN numbers. Make sure you take the receipt. When someone sees how much money you have in your account, you can be volunteering as a target.

Have a back up credit card that you keep separately...just in case! In the very unlikely circumstance that you lose everything...You can always go to the banks or other financial institutions around to get a cash advance from your card. There is also a card registry that, for a fee, enables you to call up just one number and it will take care of informing all the other card issuers listed by you that disaster has struck. This is handy for those who travel a lot.