Money for Family Trips Abroad: Smart Use of Cash, Cards & Exchange

Q: If I am asked to pay in yen, which should I choose?

Local currency, as a rule. Card issuers themselves note that DCC rates tend to be less favourable than the rate the issuer would apply.

Q: How many cards should we carry?

At least two, kept in different places. Fraud checks abroad can block a card without warning, and one card leaves you stuck.

※ This article contains affiliate links (ads).

With kids, the "money" side of a trip is easy to put off, yet it is a headache to fix once you are stuck abroad. Where to exchange? How much cash? Will cards work? Here are the basics our family uses for preparing and mixing money on the road.

What you'll learn

The right answer when a terminal asks "Pay in your home currency?"
What is actually added on top of a card payment abroad
A realistic split between cash and cards
Where to change money without losing much
The parts that only matter when you have children with you
Whether your child can have a travel money card of their own — and what actually decides it

1. "Pay in yen?" — the answer is usually no

Let me lead with the single most useful thing in this article.

Pay by card abroad and you will often be asked whether you want to be charged in your home currency or the local one. The terminal may helpfully display the amount in yen.

This is Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC), and as a rule you should choose the local currency.

The reason is the exchange rate. Card issuers themselves advise that the rate applied under DCC is frequently worse than the rate the card company would otherwise use. Seeing the figure in your own currency is reassuring, and that reassurance is usually being paid for somewhere you cannot see.

On a single purchase the difference may be small. Across a week with a family of four — meals, entry tickets, souvenirs — it adds up. Choosing "home currency" every time can cost a meaningful amount over one trip.

💡 Remember this: when the terminal offers JPY alongside the local currency, press the local currency. The moment you are most likely to get it wrong is at a till with a restless child, so agree it with the family before you go.

📎 Sources: for how DCC works and why its rates tend to be less favourable, see the official guidance from card issuers and banks (Sumitomo Mitsui Card / Mitsubishi UFJ Nicos / SMBC Trust Bank PRESTIA). Treatment varies by merchant and issuer.

2. What gets added to a card payment

Even paying in local currency, you are not billed at the raw market rate. The card network's reference rate is converted with the issuer's overseas handling fee added on top.

That fee differs between issuers and is revised from time to time. A difference of a few percent matters across a whole trip, so check your own card's terms for the overseas handling fee before departure and decide which card to lead with.

While you are there, check your credit limit too. Hotels abroad often place a deposit hold on the card, which reduces what you can spend. Between rooms for a family and a possible medical advance, the headroom disappears faster than you expect.

3. Carry both cash and cards

Even in largely cashless countries, travelling with children leaves situations where cash is required.

Public toilets — frequently paid, and without coins you cannot get in
Coin lockers — for luggage and a folded pushchair
Street food, markets and small shops
Tips, where that is the custom
Ticket machines and small bus fares

Paid toilets are the pressing one with children. An adult can wait; a child often cannot. I would go as far as saying keep local coins in a pocket at all times.

Larger amounts are safer on a card. Keep cash in small amounts, split across more than one place. Simply not carrying everything in one wallet lowers the risk substantially.

4. Where to change money

Rates and fees vary a good deal by venue. As a general shape, this holds up:

Airport bureaux, at home or on arrival: convenient, rarely favourable. Change only what you need for the first day
In-town exchange offices: often better than the airport, but they vary widely — check the posted fee, not just the rate
ATM withdrawals in local currency: the rate is comparatively transparent, but there is the ATM operator's fee plus your issuer's. A cash advance also accrues interest, so check in advance whether you can repay early

At an ATM too, if asked whether to dispense in yen, choose local currency. DCC exists on cash machines as well.

💡 With children: making a child stand and wait through an exchange transaction is its own trial. Bring just the first day's cash from home and sort the rest once you have settled in.

5. The parts specific to travelling with children

You will be paying while watching a child, so decide your payment method before you reach the till
Choose a wallet that is hard to drop over one that is quick to open — your hands will be full of child and pushchair
Pocket money, if you give it, works well as a small amount of local currency in its own little purse. It teaches the value of things
Carry two cards or more, kept separately, so one blocked card does not halt the whole family's plans

6. Can a child have a travel money card of their own?

This is the question we are asked most, and the honest answer is the one the comparison pages tend to skip.

Under 18, there is no travel money card that belongs to the child. The mainstream multi-currency accounts are adults-only — Wise and Revolut both set 18 as the minimum for a personal account. Everything marketed as a card “for kids” is a sub-card on a parent's account. The child holds the plastic; the parent holds the money.

Which leads to the part that catches people out. Eligibility is decided by the parent's country of residence — not the child's age, and not where they are travelling. Wise's own help centre makes this unusually concrete. Young Explorer is for 6–17 year olds, but only for parents who are already Wise customers living in Australia, Brazil, Canada, New Zealand, Singapore, Switzerland or the UK. Seven countries. If you are a parent in Japan, the United States or anywhere in the EU, your child is not eligible — however old they are, and wherever they are going. The card fee, where it exists, is small: 7 GBP in the UK, 10 AUD in Australia, 14 NZD in New Zealand, 8.50 SGD in Singapore, 8 CHF in Switzerland, and nothing at all in Brazil and Canada. Wise also states plainly that the child “won't have their own account details”.

Revolut takes the same shape — its Kids & Teens accounts run from 6 to 17 and sit under a parent's Revolut account — but the country list differs, and Revolut has been adding markets steadily, Japan among them. At 16 the picture changes again: Revolut lets 16- and 17-year-olds open a restricted account in their own name. We could not read Revolut's pages programmatically to verify the current terms, so treat the Revolut detail as a pointer and check their own page before you rely on it.

So the practical order is the reverse of what most people try. Do not start by comparing cards. Start by checking which providers serve the country your own account is in, then see which of those offer an under-18 product. That one check removes most of the shortlist in about a minute.

And if nothing serves you, the fallback is the one families have always used and it is not a bad one: a small amount of local currency in the child's own purse, topped up by you. Our daughter spent six school years abroad as a minor — Year 4 through Year 9 — and for most of that time the question was never which card was best. It was whose account she was allowed to be attached to.

📎 Sources, checked 24 September 2026: Wise Help Centre, “How Young Explorer works” and Revolut, Kids & Teens Terms. Availability and fees change; confirm on the provider's own page for your country.

📌 Last updated: September 2026. Exchange rates, fee levels and issuer practices all change. Always confirm overseas handling fees and limits with your own card's terms and official sources. This article recommends no particular card or financial product.

FAQ

Q. If I am asked to pay in yen, which should I choose? A. Local currency, as a rule. Card issuers themselves note that DCC rates tend to be less favourable than the rate the issuer would apply.

Q. How much cash should we bring? A. Think in terms of use rather than a total. With children, never running out of coins for paid toilets, lockers, street food and tips matters more than the headline figure. Cards cover the large purchases.

Q. Is changing money at the airport a bad deal? A. Airport bureaux are generally not the most favourable, but arriving with no cash is its own problem. The first day's cash at the airport, the rest in town is a practical compromise.

Q. Can I get a travel money card for my child? A. Only as a sub-card on your own account, and only if your provider serves your country of residence. Wise's Young Explorer covers 6–17 year olds but only for parents in seven countries; Revolut's Kids & Teens works the same way with a different list. Check your own country first, then compare.

Q. My child is 16. Does that change anything? A. Yes. Sixteen is the usual step-up age — Revolut, for example, allows 16- and 17-year-olds a restricted account in their own name. Below 16 it is a parent's account in every case we found.

Q. How many cards should we carry? A. At least two, kept in different places. Fraud checks abroad can block a card without warning, and one card leaves you stuck.

Useful for planning

PR: contains affiliate links.

Travel eSIM (Yesim)

← Back to all articles