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Foreign Surprises
I finally (3 days before the deadline) got around to filing my claim for that class action lawsuit involving foreign currency transactions on credit cards. Being the sort of traveler that I am (and compulsively organized about financial record keeping, so I actually had the credit card statements to back it up), I chose the option where you itemize your foreign spending by year. A few things surprised me as I was pulling the information together.
1) Some of my foreign transactions weren't. Charges in Ecuador, for example, were in U.S. dollars, which makes sense since that is (or at least was) their currency. But some less obvious charges were made in dollars, e.g. a Welsh train ticket (but not other British train tickets).
2) I am a nicer girlfriend than I thought, since I spent more money taking Robert out to dinner in London than I remembered. I should probably not have just put that in writing since he will now make me pay for dinner when he's here in a few weeks.
3) The single foreign currency I had the highest dollar value transactions in was Canadian dollars. Yes, I have been to Canada a lot, but that's mostly because the Antarctic cruise was paid for in Canadian dollars. British pounds came second. Everyone who I asked to guess, assumed that it would be South African rand, but I guess I paid cash a lot there.
4) I had one transaction in the currency of a country I haven't actually been to. That's what happens when you use a Thai website to pay for a Japanese hotel.
The real surprise will be how much money I end up getting back.
1) Some of my foreign transactions weren't. Charges in Ecuador, for example, were in U.S. dollars, which makes sense since that is (or at least was) their currency. But some less obvious charges were made in dollars, e.g. a Welsh train ticket (but not other British train tickets).
2) I am a nicer girlfriend than I thought, since I spent more money taking Robert out to dinner in London than I remembered. I should probably not have just put that in writing since he will now make me pay for dinner when he's here in a few weeks.
3) The single foreign currency I had the highest dollar value transactions in was Canadian dollars. Yes, I have been to Canada a lot, but that's mostly because the Antarctic cruise was paid for in Canadian dollars. British pounds came second. Everyone who I asked to guess, assumed that it would be South African rand, but I guess I paid cash a lot there.
4) I had one transaction in the currency of a country I haven't actually been to. That's what happens when you use a Thai website to pay for a Japanese hotel.
The real surprise will be how much money I end up getting back.