Getting the right mix of cash, travellers cheques and plastic is important, writes Laura Slattery

Organising a holiday can be so tiring that travellers spend the entire trip unwinding from the logistical nightmares they went through just to make it to that pool-side sunlounger a thousand air miles away from the office.

Finding a flight at the advertised cost on the airline website and affordable accommodation with the right number of stars next to its name is the hard part. Buying colour co-ordinated sunhats, bikinis and beach towels is the fun part.

Getting the right combination of cash, travellers' cheques and plastic cards together, then distributing them evenly between wallet and safety-conscious money belt, however, is more fiddly.

ATMs

The advent of the euro and EU legislation on cross-border ATM charges has eased the dilemma about how to handle money abroad for travellers to countries in the euro zone.

It's not just a question of bypassing the queues in the local bureau de change; euro-zone tourists no longer have to worry about incurring penal charges for withdrawing cash from their current accounts.

Irish ATM cards can be used overseas at most banks if they display one of the following logos - Cirrus, Maestro, Link or Plus.

Tourists withdrawing money from their bank account used to take out large amounts each time to save on the flat fees charged per transaction. This increased the risk of loss or theft of a substantial part of their holiday budget.

But, under regulations that came into effect in July 2002, it must cost the same to withdraw from an Irish account as it would from an ATM in Ireland, i.e. 20 cents if you are an AIB or Permanent TSB customer, 23 cents if you hold a standard Ulster Bank account, 28 cents if you are a Bank of Ireland accountholder and absolutely nothing if you avail of free banking at National Irish Bank.

This means tourists can now continue with exactly the same pattern of banking that they would at home, says Mr Felix O'Regan, spokesman for the Irish Bankers' Federation (IBF).

Outside the euro zone, charges vary from 1.75 per cent to 3.5 per cent of the transaction value, subject to minimum and maximum charges.

Credit cards

The trick to avoiding all kinds of spurious commission charges and rip-off currency exchange rates is to stick with our flexible foes, credit cards.

They may cost €40 in annual Government stamp duty, but credit cards loaded up so they're firmly in the black are the passport to smart money-handling outside the euro zone.

"If you top up your credit card account, you can use it abroad at ATM machines without incurring a cash advance fee," explains Mr O'Regan.

Credit cardholders will need to memorise their PIN, which they may rarely use at home, to do this.

Customers of 24-hour banking can arrange to transfer funds from their current account to their credit card account by going online or ringing the designated phone numbers in order to keep their account from dipping into the red while on holiday.

As for using credit cards to pay for goods, this should cost the same in the euro zone as it would at home. Outside the euro zone, cardholders should expect to pay a currency conversion charge of up to 1.75 per cent.

The cost of the transaction is translated into euro at the exchange rate on the day the item is debited to the credit card account.

Not everybody can get approval for a credit card. For example, students on a J1 visa to the US would often travel without one, despite their advantages for booking accommodation in advance.

But credit cards are so convenient and cost-effective for use overseas that Mr O'Regan recommends that students ask one or other of their parents if they can be a named person on their credit card account.

Cash

Boards advertising currency exchange rates outside bureaux de change have got a lot shorter since the euro arrived in our lives on New Year's Eve 2001, but for tourists making longer-haul trips, they are still worth examining.

The rates on offer won't usually vary too much from bank to bank, as long as travellers avoid the usual pitfalls of leaving it until they get to the airport or their hotel.

What does vary is the small print at the bottom of the board which shows the amount of commission charged.

Fexco's outlet in Clerys in Dublin charges commission of 2 per cent, while AIB, Bank of Ireland, National Irish Bank, Permanent TSB and Ulster Bank all charge 1 per cent.

However, AIB, Bank of Ireland, NIB and Permanent TSB all have a minimum charge of either €1.25 or €1.27. Ulster Bank's minimum charge is just 32c, making it the better option for small quantities of cash.

Some outlets of First Rate, the bureau de change group owned by Bank of Ireland, offer slightly preferential exchange rates but charge 1.5 per cent commission, subject to a minimum of €2.54.

Thomas Cook is also poor value, charging €1.90 for currency up to a value of €63.49, €3.17 up to a value of €158.71 and 2 per cent for anything over that.

Travellers' cheques

As a method of carrying money overseas, travellers' cheques are something of a dying tradition.

Outside the euro zone, they may be a safe, if inconvenient, way to supplement cash and plastic. Inside the euro zone, with the advent of EU regulations on the cost of cross-border ATM withdrawals, they make no sense at all.

Banks in some EU countries are beginning to shun them, according to Mr O'Regan.

"France has been difficult for a number of years.

"A number of French banks simply decided they didn't want to facilitate that line of business," he says.

"There has been growing numbers of disgruntled Irish travellers coming back from France with travellers' cheques they couldn't cash."

Banks all over Europe are following the same trend, Mr O'Regan believes, in a bid to promote electronic banking and dispense with awkward paper-based transactions.

Last year, the IBF also warned football fans travelling to the FIFA World Cup in Japan and Korea not to rely on travellers' cheques, as many Japanese banks use a clearing system that takes up to 12 days.

Travellers' cheques are an expensive way to keep your holiday money secure. Banks will charge between 1 and 2 per cent in commission when cheques are bought, while the same amount is often charged again when holders cash them in.

The main way of avoiding even higher charges at the other end is to steer clear of shops and hotels offering an encashment service.

Tourists can avoid encashment commission altogether by cashing in Thomas Cook travellers' cheques at Thomas Cook outlets and American Express cheques at American Express outlets.