Funny Money Tricks the Travel Industry Likes to Play

Hold on to your wallet. Businesses don't just want to get their hands on your cash when you're on the road -- they also want more of your money, and on their terms.Take what happened to Gordon Angell when he was visiting La Paz, Mexico, recently. Many restaurants in town display the "Visa" and "MasterCard" stickers, signifying that they accept credit cards.But on Angell's first evening, after finishing a meal at a restaurant, his server informed him the credit card machine didn't work, and pointed to an ATM. He paid in pesos."The following evening we went to another restaurant called The Three Virgins," he says. "We made sure that we asked them if they accepted credit cards and they said 'yes.' Surprisingly, when we offered to pay our bill, it was a repeat of the previous evening. Their machine was 'not working.' They told us to use the ATM."The ploy allegedly uncovered at The Three Virgins is just one of two interesting tricks used by clever businesses to get more of your money when you cross a border.
In a way, these little games assume you won't think about money, and do the necessary math.It's no secret that any businesses would prefer your cash, for example. After all, they don't have to pay any fees to Visa or MasterCard. But saying the business is "cash only" is a turnoff to many tourists, who don't carry a lot of local currency.So in order for the restaurants to have their metaphorical cake and eat it too, they tell a little white lie. Yes, they accept credit cards. But you didn't ask if our machine works. Those naughty virgins!Here's another interesting sleight of hand involving money. It happened to Chris Hynak on a recent stay at Bluebay Hotel in Zanzibar. When he checked in, an employee informed him that all of his incidentals would be charged in shillings, the native currency of Zanzibar."I figured this wouldn't be a problem," he says. "I would simply pay my bill by credit card and have the amount of shillings converted by Visa at the daily rate, which as of today is slightly more than 1,600 shillings to the dollar."