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Reasons to Purchase Currency Before Traveling to Undeveloped Countries
While it is always recommended, for several reasons, to buy currency of the destination country, it is especially recommended when traveling to less developed countries. While all the normal reasons remain – i.e. safety, less risk of loss, etc. – new reasons and risks arise when discussing less developed countries.
Less developed countries typically have less access to foreign currencies meaning that the difficulty of finding a bank or entity to accept the home currency of the traveler in exchange for the currency of the destination country increases drastically. Not having the currency of the destination country on hand ahead of time can therefore lead to having no money in the destination country for the life of the trip. This is not only unpleasant, but can also be dangerous as it could lead to lack of food, water, supplies, places to stay, and even in the most extreme cases a flight home.
While the traveler may find some entity to accept the trade of home currency to destination currency, the likelihood of the transaction being standardized by the current currency exchange rate is extremely low which could lead to having much less destination currency than the traveler had previously planned on having. This could lead to the traveler not having enough not only to enjoy the trip as they had intended, but possibly not having enough to truly survive comfortably while staying in the destination country.
The next major danger in not having the destination’s currency ahead of time in less developed countries stems from the countries lack of infrastructure. In the case of an emergency – i.e. break down of public transportation, or something just goes wrong while traveling the country – not having the destination country’s currency could lead to a dangerous situation in which the traveler is stranded without a way to pay for help getting out of the situation or getting back to their hotel or place of residence whilst in the country.
It is possible that these issues do not happen; however, it is always better to be prepared for the worst, especially in personally unfamiliar territories such as these undeveloped foreign countries. It is important to understand that in many undeveloped countries, the United States dollar does not hold the same standardized exchange value as it does in the rest of the world, if it holds any value at all.
To avoid getting stuck in these dangerous or uncomfortable situations in unfamiliar, undeveloped countries, it is important to buy foreign currency online ahead of time. Buying the currency online ahead of time ensures that the proper currency exchange rate is used to give the traveler a fair, universally accepted value in the transaction, and to ensure that the traveler has the destination’s currency in hand to avoid possible dangerous or uncomfortable situations and allow for a response from the traveler to emergencies that may occur while traveling. Buying the destination country’s currency online is always the safest and best way to go.