Travel Banking
I thought it relevant to include a quick section on what travel cards you will need for your visit to Sri Lanka.
As a rule of thumb, we always take 4 different travel cards with us.
- 2 live in my wallet
- 1 lives in my big rucksack
- 1 lives in Cazzy’s big rucksack
Question: Why do we have 4 and why do we spread them out?
Well, to cover any worst case scenarios of our travel gear getting stolen!
If someone stole my wallet (or I lose it) then we have the backup ones in our big bags.
And vice versa, if someone stole (or the aeroplane loses) one or both of our bags, then I have those in my wallet as a backup.
We also try to keep about $50 US dollars in one of the bags as a last minute resort as well.
This is a pretty universal currency and is enough to get us out of a sticky situation if we are stuck somewhere with no other cash and no ATMs.
What are the best banks in Sri Lanka
The two banks that we found didn’t charge for withdrawals were Bank Of Ceylon and People’s Bank.
This is based on us using mastercards for withdrawals.
There are lots of other banks in Sri Lanka, but they always charged us for withdrawals.
Which travel cards do we use?
We each have a Monzo card and a Revolut card.
If you are from the UK, then you shouldn’t have much difficulty getting one of these; in fact it’s very simple for both.
Simply head to the App Store or Play Store (depending on whether you’re Android or Apple) and download the app.
Once you download the app, you simply put in some personal details and then request to have the card sent out to your home address.
It typically arrives within a week and, once you have it, you login to the app again to register it.
From there, you are good to go and use it all around the world.
You simply top up in GBP and then when you withdraw money abroad or use a card to pay for something, you do so in Sri Lankan rupee (LKR), and Revolut/Monzo automatically converts it to the best possible exchange rate.
We have used both of these all around the world in every country we have travelled together, which as of writing is almost 3 dozen (see them all here).
If you’re from outside the UK, then I’m not sure if you can use them, but you can likely find an alternative.
We also always take our local bank card as well which, though they charge ridiculous fees, means we can hopefully get cash out in an emergency if for some reason Monzo and Revolut don’t work.
Read Also: Monzo vs Revolut: Which Is Best For Travel?
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