Checklist: Financial¶
As always the Online Student Guide from Barcelona SAE has lots of good suggestions. Be sure to read the Money, Phones, and Mail section. This checklist assumes that you have paid your program fees and have worked with COCC’s Financial Aid Office where appropriate. At this time Malissa Hice is the Study Abroad contact point.
Notify Card Issuers of travel dates and locations.
Create backup of card numbers and other important data.
Get some cash (euros) for the trip over.
Credit/Debit Cards:¶
The two big tasks here:
The first is to let the issuer of your cards know the dates of your travel and where you will be so they know to expect you to pop up in Spain during the program. If you are planning extensive travel in Europe during or after the program it is wise to keep your card issuer informed to avoid challenges.
Checklist Item
Card Issuer(s) notified of travel dates and locations
The second task is to document card numbers, expiration dates, codes, and phone numbers for reporting lost or stolen cards. Be aware that if this is written down as hardcopy anyone with that information can pretend to be you and use your card information. You might consider a password management tool that keeps this information securely on your phone. Most such tools have a way to access your account from the web in case your phone is lost. The idea is to have multiple ways to access the information you might need.
Checklist Item
Document card numbers separately from the cards themselves. Include the phone number for reporting lost or stolen cards.
Here’s my personal version of the checklist for my important cards etc.
Notified |
data saved |
photocopy |
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|---|---|---|---|---|
Passport |
- [ ] |
- [ ] |
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|
Credit Card #1 |
- [ ] |
- [ ] |
- [ ] |
|
Credit Card #2 |
- [ ] |
- [ ] |
- [ ] |
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Debit Card |
- [ ] |
- [ ] |
- [ ] |
|
Bank |
- [ ] |
- [ ] |
- [ ] |
Cash for Travel:¶
We get very used to being able to pay for everything with cards or digital tools. It is often important to have small amounts of cash available for small purchases or tips. Barcelona SAE notes that for purchases of less that 10€ (like coffee) many vendors don’t accept cards. The general recommendation is to take roughly 100€ in cash on your way to Barcelona. You can get euros from your bank here in the US before you go. It takes a few days so plan ahead.
Checklist Item
Get some euros (€) for the trip. 100€ - 200€
Financial Plan for Barcelona:¶
The Online Student Guide linked above has some good guidelines for your possible expenses while in Barcelona. These fall into two general categories – day to day needs and travel/exploration. Remember that if you’re in a homestay you will have two meals a day provided along with laundry. This means you only typically need to provide your midday meal for yourself. Travel and exploration is hard to gauge and depend a lot on your travel style and expectations. There is a great deal to do in Barcelona that is free and fascinating and other activities that can have real costs. Just think it through and have a backup plan.
Transaction Fees:¶
Read and digest the Online Student Guide to Banks and Money.
As part of your travel planning consider contacting your card issuer or bank to find out about transaction fees for international charges. These fees which apply to purchases in other currencies than dollars when you’re out of country can be significant. Debit cards from your bank will also assess transaction fees that you can find out about in advance.
Depending on how much cash you end up using the fees for withdrawing cash from an ATM can also mount up. These withdrawal fees are sometime fixed amounts regardless of how much you withdraw which suggests that withdrawing larger amounts of cash to reduce this cost. On the other hand a large wad of cash has it’s own risks to consider.