I DID IT! I paid off the last bit on my credit card today. This is the first time ever that all my credit cards are at $0. It is an amazing feeling!! I wish I could have put all that money towards my trip but at least I can go with no debt now. I’m going to cancel two out of the three cards I have and put the other one in the freezer. Never again!! I plan to post an updated trip budget either tonight or tomorrow as quite a few things have changed on it already.
In other exciting news, my co-worker reminded me yesterday that when I move out of my apartment I will be getting my damage deposit back. I totally forgot! So that is another $535 against the trip budget…very exciting! I also remembered to add to the budget the $11/month I pay in bank fees. I am going to have to go to RBC and find out how I can reduce this – I might be able to get away with a lower fee plan while I’m away. Right now I use my debit card for every purchase, but in Roatan I would just be withdrawing money a couple times a month. I also need to look at RBC’s foreign banking fees – while I was in Roatan I was getting dinged $5 every time I took out money. I was looking through the amazing Alex in Wanderland’s informative post about managing money abroad and might look into opening an account at TD Bank for traveling, as she notes that they refund foreign withdrawal fees worldwide. I will have to check into it though as Alex is American and the TD banks in Canada might have different policies. But something worth looking into for anyone traveling! This will also hopefully be a reminder to myself to contact Bank of Montreal (who I have my credit card through) – when I was in Roatan I was unable to get cash advances off my card for some reason and I don’t know why. And also another reminder to myself to find out from my friends in West End what they are doing with their money… where are they depositing it? Are they wiring it home? Keeping it all under the mattress (hopefully not, with the rate of B&E’s in West End….)?
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