It’s about 30 days before my trip to Singapore: my first time in the country. I’m visiting because I was invited by a Seattle friend of mine (and former colleague) who grew up there. We’ll be staying in her Mom’s apartment in its many empty rooms. Luckily I’ve met her mother and got along with her well. It should be a fairly frugal trip all things considered.
In preparation for this trip I started looking into the specific facets of living in Singapore and how that would work with my life. I started with how I would make my way from the airport to her house. Usually I would take public transit and have previously (even in places where I don’t speak the language…sometimes with…interesting consequences). I discovered that taking public transit would take about 2 hours, which is not what I would want after 18 hours on a plane. The alternative is spending $20 and getting a taxi. Sounds like a good deal. Done.
Then I dug deeper and discovered that taxis in Singapore don’t accept Visa credit cards (the only kind of card I have…) and put a 10% additional fee on all credit card transactions. So I needed to figure out how to get Singapore Dollars for my taxi ride. According to travel sites airports give the absolute worst exchange rates at their currency booths. The best way to get cash is at the ATM (minus the fees…) so I needed to discover if I could use my debit cards in the country, where the ATMs are in the airport and what I should expect.
I research average ATM fees, how to avoid them and what my specific banks claim to be their fees (none…). I was ready. But wait….where’s my debit card and what’s my PIN? Uh oh. I realized I haven’t used an ATM in years – definitely not since we moved to Seattle. There’s no need for cash here. Even farmer’s market vendors and food trucks have Square on their phone. I think the only place you need cash is legal weed stores since the banks aren’t on board with that (yet…?)
So I set out finding my debit cards. I found one along with a clue to what my PIN would be (Thanks Past Me?) so I set out to test it. I found another bank’s ATM and put in my PIN guess. It turns out it works! I didn’t see a “cancel” button and wasn’t sure if I was actually “in” so I decided to check my balance. While I was doing that my partner (who was watching) said that the ATM wouldn’t charge for my checking my balance…..it turns out that wasn’t correct.
So now I have a $1 charge on my checking account which made me irrationally angry 🙂 . I’m trying to let it go. It was my mistake – I should have read the fine print more closely and taken my time. I was in no rush. I should also brace myself for ATM fees abroad. Before retirement I’m going to get a Charles Schwabb account because they reimburse all ATM fees globally. For now, I have 1 debit card and know it’s PIN! I have also re-ordered my second debit card (I can’t find it…but nothing has been stolen from my account…), which will come with a new PIN. I also asked for a replacement to my main credit card and am checking if I have anything other than a Visa backed card. Overall $1 for all of that (which is free…) is making me feel a little better. Time to learn from my mistakes!