Expat White Pages
The Secret to a Smooth Expat Transition©
by Dr. Gayle Scroggs, A.C.C., C.M.C.
Making a successful significant change in one’s personal or professional life takes extra energy and planning. Moving to a new place in your life or on the globe can involve major stress or fear, and yet it can be a major opportunity. How you handle it makes all the difference.
Within my clients and in my own life, I’ve noticed there are two key questions we need to answer for ourselves in transitions.
Read the rest of article at passportcareer.com.
Keeping Your Wallet Safe Abroad – 7 Tips!
by Dr. Gayle Scroggs, A.C.C., C.M.C.
Picture yourself in a foreign country-with no money, no credit cards, no driver’s license, no passport. You can’t prove who you are. You can’t get money from an ATM. You can’t make a pay call or take a taxi, or even buy a cup of coffee to calm down. What will you do?
In swift moment, your traveler’s dream turns nightmare!
When my treasured microfiber “healthy bag” disappeared as I ran errands in the small Argentine city where I live, a cold chill swept over me. I am not really not sure how it happened, but suddenly I couldn’t find it. No one accosted me or bumped into me – the old “mustard” distraction trick. Stolen or lost, it really doesn’t matter as the consequences were the same: no money, no ID, no passport, no more camera. . . and a bit of panic.
When you are traveling or living abroad, take advantage of my hard-earned lessons on how to avoid this disaster and ways of coping quickly and calmly if bad luck strikes. Here are my seven valuable tips for managing your cash, cards, and ID while abroad:
1. Carry little and hang on to it!
Don’t be the hapless tourist who tempts thieves by tossing your backpack on the cafe floors while eating or by slinging purse straps over the back of the bar stool. A couple years ago, the younger Barbara Bush learned this the hard way while hanging out in San Telmo, the funky antiques district of Buenos Aires. The Secret Service agents standing guard made no difference!
Keep it on your lap or wrapped around your leg – but ON you. When walking, keep it in front of you. Got a shoulder strap? Hang on to the purse anyway so if a fast working thief cuts it, you will be the one left holding the bag.
When getting out of a taxi, off a bus, take your time! Make sure you have everything before you exit. Most often forgotten: the purse on the floor, the jacket on the seat. Count your bags before the taxi takes off. In general, don’t carry so much stuff that you can’t keep track of it.
2. Do not keep all your cards and cash in a single purse or wallet.
Why make it easier for the mugger to make off with everything? Put larger bills and travelers checks in a front or inside (but not back) pocket? Travel shops also sell money belts, security pouches for wearing inside your clothes, and even clothing with hidden pockets.
The smart traveler keeps a list of credit card and travelers check numbers elsewhere. This comes in handy if you have to report them missing. You might also note the bank customer service number (though this can be obtained easily from the Internet.). You can call those 800 telephone numbers, but it will not be toll-free from abroad, so see if there is an international number which allow collect calls. Leave these lists in your hotel.
3. Keep cell phone, keys, and some cash in a safe pocket.
When the shock of not finding my purse wore off, I was relieved to discover I still had my cell phone and keys. At least I wasn’t totally stranded. Losing a cell phone can be a major pain in the neck. Of course a hotel key could be replaced easily, but why risk it?
Keep your phone, keys, and a small amount of money in your pocket. If any thing goes awry, you’ll be glad you kept a few coins and bills in your pocket for a phone call or taxi! Also, with a few small bills handy, you don’t have to fish through your wallet or bag hurriedly, risking ‚ “fallout” or tipping off thieves when making a call or paying a taxi. Taxi drivers will wait until you have paid!
4. Leave your passport and important documents in the hotel safe.
New US passports come with a card to file so you always have the number. Go a step further‚ make copies of the main page, and put one in your files, one in your wallet, and one in your suitcase. When traveling, leave your passport in a safe box at the hotel unless you need it. For merchants requiring identification, a good photocopy usually suffices. I have my number memorized‚ and just rattle it off here, where it is more a formality than a fraud check.
Ditto for any other important documents‚ put them in the safe. For convenience sake, add that above list of credit card numbers. And why not tuck in your list of emergency telephone numbers, too.
5. Carry an American Express card.
American Express cards may cost more and be accepted in fewer places–but as the ad tells the truth: “Membership has its privileges.” American Express offered to replace my card in less than 24 hours. I preferred express mail to a three-hour trip to Buenos Aires‚ and received it in four days. (They also refunded my lost travelers checks with no hassle.) My other credit cards took three weeks!
In any case, have a back up plan in place for getting enough cash for lodging, food, and replacing a lost passport. I keep a few travelers checks in my suitcase for emergencies. However not all merchants accept them, and this calls for a trip to a currency exchange service.
6. Have at least one person you can call to wire you money if desperate.
Western Union works great‚ as long as the person on the receiving end has official identification. My daughter wired money via the Internet, which I picked up easily with my expired passport. Without that, I would have asked her to send the cash to my husband or a friend, as they could provide acceptable proof of identity. Here some agents will not deal in sums over a few hundred dollars‚ so do not assume anything.
In some more remote destinations, they do not take American Express, MasterCard, or any credit card at all. When my mother and daughter visited Mali recently, Sara planned ahead and had money wired to her in Timbuktu. Did you know that cash can be wired directly via the internet? Check out the options at http://www.westernunion.com.
7. Know how to find the nearest consulate.
The local police had no interest in my stolen or lost purse. But since my passport was in it, I headed right to the U.S. Consulate in Buenos Aires.
Consulates are the branches of embassies that help citizens abroad. The U.S. Consulate in Buenos Aires merits five stars for friendliness and service‚ among staff and citizens! While waiting, I bought two coffees and croissants, splitting them with a teary yet amiable young woman whose backpack disappeared from under a cafe table. The consulate clerk accepted a call from Michelle’s mother in New Jersey, accepting mom’s credit card number to pay for the new passport that her daughter was handed by mid-afternoon. The clerk gave the young solo traveler a chance to ask her mother to wire her money via Western Union to pay for her hotel and food until her plane left the next day.
You might get help from other travelers at the consulate. An older California couple forced 50 pesos on Michelle for taxi and lunch. The wife had lost her purse too‚ forgetting it on the taxi floor as she exited quickly, laden with shopping bags on a busy street in downtown Buenos Aires. The couple was delighted to discover that the emergency passport would be ready in a couple of hours, well in time for their evening flight to Chile.
As I was not in a rush, I applied for a regular new passport. Fortunately I had a legal copy of my birth certificate, my previously expired passport and the number of the lost passport. Applying for a replacement took less than an hour. My new passport arrived at my doorstep from the US via special delivery ten days later. Others report equally great experiences in U. S. Consulates in other countries.
Learnings from the wallet-free life.
Losing a purse provided lessons beyond prevention and recovery. There were two transcendental moments that transformed it into a good life lesson for me. First, while sitting on the Western Union office bench, tapping my toe and twiddling my thumbs, a vision flitted through my brain of hundreds, even thousands of other folks in Latin American countries waiting, as I was for cash from California, or maybe Texas or Colorado. My new residency papers suddenly took on deeper meeting.
Second, while waiting to replace stuff, every time I left the house, with neither the customary wallet nor purse accessories, I felt oddly naked. That feeling quickly morphed into one of liberation, a freedom form carrying a collection of plastic and paper tying me to government and financial bureaucracies. I enjoyed a new lightness of being, a delicious freedom that had disappeared the day I got my first driver’s license and had to buy a wallet to keep it.
Six weeks have passed, and I have gotten used to a smaller, older purse. The new cards and some cash have been stuffed in an Argentine leather wallet a friend gave me. The passport is staying home, and a new camera will just have to wait. For now, I am going to keep it as light as possible…and of course I will keep it in sight!
Do you have a similar experience to share? More tips for travelers abroad? Please write me at gayle@essencecoaching.com. I’d love to hear your tale!
