In Reply to: Money matters posted by ggm on Tuesday, 18. January 2011 at 09:56 Bali Time:
Take only the cash you can afford to lose. I take a mix of cash & a CBA travel card. I take my credit card & usual debit card for emergencies only. I used to use travellers' cheques in preference to cash but the travel card is easier.
In-room safes are not safe - I have one here at home. Very easy to get into if you know the master code/have the master key. If you have a problem with your in-room safe & call reception usually someone very lowly in the hotel heirarchy will come to fix it. Just about all hotel staff seem to be able to get into them.
So many people rely on cash only & that's their decision. I only take the cash I can afford to lose. The relatively small charges to use a travel card at an ATM, or the minor inconvenience of Travellers Cheques for me outweigh the horror of losing all my holiday money I take cash & it gets stolen.
Just giving you another point of view.