Deciding how to handle your money when travelling is a big concern. Whether you use cash, checks or plastic, you have to be careful.
You may convert money to Saudia Riyals at some banks before you leave home. Often you will get a better exchange rate if you do so, but you then have the problem of traveling with a lot of cash.
If you don’t want to travel with plastic, you have the option of Travelers Cheques.
Make sure you know the currency conversion rates when you make purchases so you have an reasonable idea of what things really costing you.
If you don’t know any Arabic other than you salat and duas, please take some time to learn “How much?” and be able to count to 100 in Arabic (you will have a lot of time to practice while waiting on planes and busses). Otherwise, you will end up having to hand a merchant a bunch of cash and just letting him take his asking price from it. Alhamdullilah for Islam, the Saudi merchants are honest, but it doesn’t feel good to have to transact business that way.
Keep copies of the numbers of any credit or debit cards.
Set up a separate account for hajj expenses with a separate debit card. Do not link your hajj debit card to anything else. Some of us have debit cards that link to several accounts or to the same account in which we receive our pay electronically–that can spell disaster if you lose it.
Make sure your pin number will work overseas. Apparently, pins with more than 4 numbers or with zeros can be a problem.
Be aware that your bank’s ATM may charge international transaction fees.
Purchase or retail fees for debit and credit cards range from as little as $1.50 to as much as 4%. (Example, a Muslim woman found when she made hajj that she lost in fees $20-$30 every time she used her card.
The Discover Card doesn’t work in the Middle East.
Here are more tips for using credit cards or debit cards while making hajj.
