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How-to Dismantle Your Life, Lesson One: Credit Cards

My wife and I are taking a very extended trip to south-east Asia to travel and volunteer for a year (or more…) - long enough that I consider the move “indefinite.” That means you’ve got “shut down” activities to contend with - i.e.: arranging a sibling to come over and water your plants is not going to cover you. Instead you need to tackle everything from selling or renting your house, getting rid of your car, quitting your job, getting your investments and retirement assets sorted, and everything in between.

I’ve been working through a tonne of this stuff over the last few months (which accounts in part for my low post volume here). In the spirit of helpfulness I’d like to share some of my learnings for anyone else that makes a similarly exciting and challenging choice.

First Lesson: CREDIT CARDS

Well managed credit, as anyone knows, is a tremendous asset. When you’re on the road, dealing with lots of different currencies, banking systems, and so on, credit cards become an even more important asset, giving you flexibility and access to resources where debit cards and US dollars fear to tread. [image credit: wikipedia]

Here’s some of the key reasons to hold onto those cards and take them with you:

1. They may work: They’ll work in places your debit cards won’t, and the more options you have to try at a recalcitrant Bangkok bank machine, they happier you’ll be.
2. Emergency resources: Credit cards also usually have emergency numbers: my Mastercard, for instance, had an international collect-call number to help get you sorted if you can’t get your card working somewhere. This becomes really important if your bag gets stolen - that 1-800 number can help you get back on your feet after a catastrophic wallet-loss.
3. Insurance: Many cards can come with additional insurance - on cars that you may rent, major purchases you may make, trip cancellation insurance, life & health insurance, and so on. Of course, YMMV depending on your bank and card options, so be sure and compare. That being said, I’m taking one “platinum” card that’s no-fee, and carries car insurance.

Those are the primary reasons I’m taking my cards. Now, here’s what I’m doing to get them ready:

1. PIN numbers: You can attach a PIN number to any credit card. Beyond the advantage of increased security, PINning your card will let you use it at bank machines to withdraw cash in local currencies. Good for where debit cards may work less consistently, or if you (shudder) run out of cash entirely.
2. Share your travel plans: Call your credit card issuer and tell them your travel plans. Otherwise, most credit issuer’s anti-fraud policies will swoop into action and lock your account when they see purchase activity shift suddenly from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Tell them your departure date, return date, and the countries you’ll be visiting while away.
3. Cancel non-essential cards, take the basics: I killed all of my department store / gas station / promotional / etc. credit cards. I’m taking with me a Visa, a Mastercard, and an American Express. The thinking is that a Sears Card won’t do me much good in Bangladesh, and leaving it locked up at home somewhere leaves open a window (however small) that it will be abused in some way (identity theft, data breach, etc.) - which is difficult to handle if you’re in touch only intermittently and trying to fix it from the other side of the world. Cancel non-essentials to minimize your exposure.
4. Carry cards from different issuers: Each of my three cards is from a different issuer, the hope being that if the transaction system used by one doesn’t work, a different one will. Spread your bets around the table a bit.
5. Figure out how to get statements online: If you’re using your card, you’ll want to pay it off periodically. This means accessing statement balances online - so make sure that you’re familiar with your card’s online account management tools and can get that statement balance. Note: there’s an element of risk here in that you’ll likely be using sketchy internet cafes to deal with your sensitive financial details; I’m not sure what the work around might be.
6. Discipline! Create a payment schedule for yourself: Its easy to forget to actually pay your card balance if you’re not getting a paper statement in the mail to prompt you to do so. Pick a day of the month to be the day that get the aforementioned statement balance and then log into your online banking account and pay it. Make sure you stick to that schedule, availability of internet access permitting. The last thing you want to do is have your account locked up or run into other problems because you’ve forgotten to pay a balance for several months.
7. Leave a copy behind: If you run into trouble with your cards, it can be very helpful to have someone in your home country that can go to bat for you with the card issuer without incurring long-distance phone bills (and during normal office hours). To that end, I photocopied the front and back of each card and am leaving a copy (along with a recent statement) with family here.

So there you go - those are the steps I’m taking. If you’ve got any others I’d love to hear them. No doubt as my travels commence I’ll have updates and additions, so take each of these with a grain of salt.

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