Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Both have vast numbers of branches worldwide - MoneyGram has 180,000 in 190 countries
and territories and Western Union has 379,000 agent locations in 200 countries and territ-
ories.
The service allows a friend or relative to transfer money to you almost instantaneously.
Once you have persuaded your guardian angel to send you the money, all they have to do
is go to the nearest MoneyGram or Western Union office, fill in a form and hand over the
money (in cash).
It is then transferred to the company's branch nearest to you, where you in turn fill in a
form and pick it up. Both you and the person sending the money will need ID, and you may
be asked security questions so you need to know what the person sending the money has
given as the security question
and
its answer. Make sure they tell you the spelling they've
used and that you use the same.
There are now also smartphone applications for people to send money to each other.
Barclays' Pingit allows its users to receive and send money, without charge, to anyone with
a UK current account and a mobile phone number.
The service links users' current accounts to their mobile number. They can then 'Ping'
money to another mobile phone number (the person receiving the money has to register
with the service to access it). The service is protected by a passcode.
Older travellers with more assets will have specific financial concerns and perhaps more
sources of funds than younger gappers, and we've included some detail in
Chapter 3 - Ca-
reer breaks and older travellers
.
Sticking to a budget
How do you manage the budget when you're away? This totally depends on your style.
You could be the person who loves an old fashioned spreadsheet, or someone who prefers
to wing it and check your account weekly to see the damage and adjust your spending for
the following week accordingly. There are also apps that can help you with your budget,
for example Expense IQ, where you input your budget, and spending each day (there's an
alarm you can set up to remind you to do this). It's easy to use and very helpful if you
tend to overspend! Other similar apps include Money Manager Expense and Budget. We
also strongly recommend any currency converter app on your smart phone or tablet to help
mange your budget.
As a general rule you'll find your money will stretch quite a long way in most of the less
developed parts of the world, and once you're in-country you can find out fairly easily from
other travellers/locals the average costs of buses, trains, meals and so on.
Having said that, the global recession and rises in oil and food prices have had an impact
on most countries' economies. They've particularly hit costs in the less developed world
