AMTD PolicyPal The choice between broke and balling
How amazing it would be if you can fund your trip to Japan with the budget of a Bangkok trip. How about being able to spend the equivalent of your Penang trip on your week-long Seoul-searching escape? By saving a little here and there, you can chalk up huge savings on your travel escapades. Before that, here is a list of 6 costly travel mistakes you might be making:
1. Is The Flight Ticket You Bought The Cheapest?
Here’s a fun fact: budget airlines aren’t always the cheapest. Instead of creating an excel sheet, browsing through a gazillion tabs and risk crashing your computer, you can consider using Skyscanner.
Rather than going to each budget airline’s page to check the price of your flight tickets, search across multiple airlines via the Skyscanner website or mobile app to see the comparison across various budget carriers. You can even filter your search by the cheapest month to travel to your desired country!
Our personal favourite is probably this Telegram group called SG Travel Hacks powered by YouTrip. The Telegram group itself has amassed close to 8,000 members where Singaporeans can get the best travel deals, ranging from limited-time flight ticket promotions, itinerary hacks, giveaways, and travel insurance promotions.
2. Travel In The Day Vs. Travel At Night
When you travel at night, you save both time and money at the same time. Furthermore, you can wake up just in time for a new day of exploration. Be it overnight coaches or trains, there are cross-city and cross-border transportation that runs through the countries and promise great sights to wake up to. It seems counter-intuitive, but if you calculate the cost and pay a little more for sleeping cabins or reclining sofa seats, it is actually worth it. Give it a try!
3. Double-Check Your Passport’s Expiry
Did you know that some countries actually require three to six months of validity before entering? This means that just because your passport hasn’t expired doesn’t mean you’ve got nothing to worry about! Even though Singapore has one of the world’s most powerful passports, there are several countries we still need to get a tourist visa for, such as Australia. It is always good to check the validity of your passport. Surely, you wouldn’t be keen to be denied entry right? The thought of losing time and money.
4. Not Optimising The Right Credit Card
Chances are, the “main” credit card that you’ve always been using is not the best credit card to use overseas. It is always good to compare overseas expenditure rebates and currency conversion charges with all of your cards. If you intend to spend quite a fair bit, you can even look for new ones that are potentially more catered to your needs. You may just have a better one to use.
While most conversion fees revolve around 2% to 3%, rebates can go as high as 5%. That is a real steal. Furthermore, ensure that you inform your bank that you’re travelling so that you can shop to your heart’s content. Most banks have anti-fraud security protocols in place, and you don’t want to have your card rejected at the cashier due to suspected fraudulent activity.
5. Not Doing Your Due Diligence In Advance
You might think that it is perfectly alright putting off money changing till the last minute. It is not. We repeat. It is not! It is true that there are money changers at the airport, but they often have the most expensive rates. If you’ve been planning your travel trip for months, you ought to check out the various rates across different money changers. It may seem insignificant at first glance, but the numbers add up, especially when it is in the thousands.
Also, there are travel platforms such as Klook that offer exclusive deals to places of attractions and activities as compared to official sites. When it comes to purchasing theme park tickets, you pay only S$37 for Everland theme park entrance fee when you purchase off Klook as compared to KRW54,000 (~S$66) from Everland’s official webpage. That is approximately a 30% price difference!
6. Scrimping on Travel Insurance
No longer can you complain that it is tedious collating various coverage plans. PolicyPal offers 5% cashback in Credits when you purchase a Travel Insurance via its sister company Baoxianbaobao Pte. Ltd. The PolicyPal Credits in your PolicyPal account can then be used to offset your future General Insurance purchases via Baoxianbaobao Pte. Ltd. Now, you can save on money, time and some brain juice. Also, if you ever need to claim due to cancelled flights, lost luggage or even an unfortunate accident, you can do so on the go. Enquire more with PolicyPal today!
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