I use First Republic and Schwab for banking and investing, respectively.\nPreviously, when traveling, I withdrew cash with my Schwab checking account as it had no fees when withdrawing internationally.\nHowever, to get a personal line of credit,\nI moved my checking to First Republic.
\nHowever, First Republic doesn’t explicitly say whether they charge currency exchange fees, but they did say they don’t charge any fees.\nSo, I tried it out by withdrawing money from both my First Republic and Schwab accounts and calculating the effective exchange rates.
\n| Account | \nEuro Exchange Rate | \n
|---|---|
| First Republic | \n1.1824 | \n
| Schwab | \n1.1824 | \n
| Wise | \n1.18050 | \n
Both First Republic and Schwab used the same exchange rate, did not charge any currency conversion fees, and reimbursed me for the €3.95 ATM fee.\nAt the same time, I looked up the Wise exchange rate, which was much better.\nHowever, Wise does not reimburse ATM fees and charges 2%+ for withdrawals over $100, which makes it more expensive overall.
\nOverall, I am happy with my First Republic and Schwab accounts and still haven’t found a use for my Wise account.
\n", "url": "https://jongleberry.com/posts/first-republic-vs-schwab-vs-wise-for-atm-withdrawals", "title": "FR vs. Schwab vs. TransferWise for ATM withdrawals", "summary": "Which bank should you use for ATM withdrawals when traveling internationally?", "date_modified": "2021-08-01T00:00:00.000Z", "date_published": "2021-08-01T00:00:00.000Z", "author": { "name": "Jonathan Ong", "url": "https://jongleberry.com" }, "tags": [ "personal-finance", "travel" ] }, { "id": "https://jongleberry.com/posts/travel-gear-2021", "content_html": "\nInstead of bringing a charger for every device you have,\nyou can simply buy a USB-C wall charger to charge your laptop, tablets, and phones.\nThis is especially a godsend at airports and in the plane as you’d only need to plug in one device.\nAs long as the wall charger is powerful enough,\nit will be able to charge all devices simultaneously.\nI recommend at least a 60W charger, 100W if you have an Apple MacBook Pro.
\nRecommended product: Anker PowerPort Atom III Slim 63W
\nIn addition to the wall charger,\nlook into a USB-C battery pack that supports charging at least 20W through its USB-C port.\nThis will allow you to use the battery pack for your laptops.\nAs I write this post, I am charging both my iPhone and my MacBook Air on a plane.
\nRecommended product: Anker PowerCore Essential 20000 PD Portable Charger
\nUSB-C wall chargers support both 120v and 240v outlets,\nso you can plug it into a cheap travel power adapter and charge all your devices.\nAdditionally, these adapters support low wattage USB charging,\nproviding you a few more USB ports for charging.
\nThe baggage carousel gives me intense anxiety,\nso getting an AirTag to make sure that no one has stolen my luggage is a godsend.\nI haven’t found any other good uses for the AirTag though.
\nThere are a lot of companies making second screens for traveling.\nHowever, if you have a Mac and a recent iPad,\nyou can use your iPad as a second screen.\nMy MacBook Air + iPad Pro have been a great travel combination.
\nFor more information to see whether your iPad is compatible, visit: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210380.
\nWith T-Mobile, you have slow data speeds around the world for free.\nThis has been sufficient for me for two weeks in Europe,\nwith me only paying $5 once to get 512MB of high-speed data in Bruges,\nwhich did not have easily-accessible Wi-Fi like other cities I explored.\nThis is cheaper than almost all other carriers, including Google Fi.
\n", "url": "https://jongleberry.com/posts/travel-gear-2021", "title": "Travel Gear 2021", "summary": "Recommended travel gear for 2021", "date_modified": "2021-08-01T00:00:00.000Z", "date_published": "2021-08-01T00:00:00.000Z", "author": { "name": "Jonathan Ong", "url": "https://jongleberry.com" }, "tags": [ "tech-hardware", "travel" ] } ] }