Before you travel, call your credit card company and tell them your general itinerary. This will prevent them from suspecting fraud and closing your account when they see charges for t-shirts in Estonia.

With credit cards you can pay in the more expensive restaurants, shops and hotels. Typically, a credit card purchase will get you the best exchange rate available at the time. Considering travelers' check fees and money changer fees, you'll almost always come ahead when you use a credit card. However, beware of additional credit card fees that some more marginal countries assess on credit card purchases. Ecuador tacks on a high credit card processing fee. Be sure to ask!

You can also get cash advances at a bank, with your passport or at a teller machine with a PIN (personal identity number). The charge for these cash advances is about 5 US dollars each time you get money. In almost every country this is now possible, so when you run out of all other options, as long as you still carry your piece of plastic with you: don’t panic!

American express

With American Express you can get cash from their own ATM’s, which you can find on airports, and those of banks that are part of their network. American Express is not widely accepted.

Visa

Visa card has one of the largest networks. You can pay in many shops and restaurants and get money at ATMs.

Mastercard

Mastercard has a good access to ATMs. They are also part of the Cirrus network.