How To Carry Foreign Currency When Traveling

Armed with a debit card and a stack of American dollars, my significant other and I went on a vacation recently. We needed to unwind as we take a step back from the hustle and bustle of the city.

One thing is for sure! It was a good idea for us to research on how to carry foreign currency in a country we have not been before. Consider the following methods to safely convert your money to foreign currency while traveling.

#1: CREDIT CARD

Credit cards are best used for significant purchases such as hotel reservations, car rentals, and airline tickets. Credit card purchases are usually exchanged at the interbank exchange rate, which leans towards your advantage. What’s more? There are credit cards that rub off their rewards such as added travel insurance or airport lounge access.

The only downside with carrying mere credit card is that some restaurants or stores do not accept credit card transactions. While there are advantages in carrying a credit card, keep in mind the charges that can add up quickly as you return home.

#2: DEBIT CARD OR ATM

Arguably the most convenient and cheapest way to get local cash is to swipe your debit card through the ATMs. You will reap the same interbank exchange rate when you make cash withdrawals through your ATM or debit card as you do when you make a credit card purchase. Spend directly from your bank account with your Visa or MasterCard debit card when you go overseas. Simply ensure that you are aware of the in tree international transaction fees that come with it.

The downside to using your debit card is its foreign ATM use and currency conversion fees. Research on this.

#3: CASH

For immediate purchases that you must consume within the first 24 hours, it is a good idea to carry an ample amount of foreign currency. Before you leave Singapore, remember to exchange your SGD to foreign currency to handle expenses such as taking a cab or buying a meal. Use your cash until you can find the nearest ATM.

It goes without saying that you would not get the greatest conversion rate from your home country. However, it provides a cushion for your immediate expenses and prevents you from being stranded. If you are traveling to a major international airport or a well-known city, you probably do not need to hoard cash as ATMs are of access.

Image Credits: pixabay.com

A WORD FOR SAFE KEEPING

When you are traveling or living overseas, it is entirely impossible that you will not need to spend money in the local currency. Whether you are paying for your essentials or sending money back home, there are several ways to secure your funds.

Research is your best-friend! Know where to get or how to convert your funds while you travel. Bring a small amount of foreign currency abroad unless you can guarantee that the conversion rate is favorable to you.

Nonetheless, you may carry your local currency along with your plastic cards as you cross different countries. Convert your local currency periodically when needed.

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Ways to organize budget-friendly kid’s birthday party in Singapore

Kids are the bundles of joy. They bring immense happiness to the lives of the family members. Being the parent you want to shower him/her with happiness only. You want to fulfill all the dreams that the little member of your family is weaving. That’s why your kid’s birthday is also a big event for you. Birthday comes once a year and you must spend this day well and shower him/her with gorgeous birthday gifts. But again for that, you don’t always need a huge bank balance. And even when you have profuse income, why not save the money for your kid’s education rather than spending lavishly on his birthday party? So, in case you are looking out for budget-friendly or low-budget ideas to celebrate your kid’s birthday party in Singapore, then read below:

Home is the best venue:

No venue can be as inexpensive as your home. It’s free if it’s your own and in case you are already paying rent then also it’s perfect. Streaks n Strokes, My Little Climbing Room, or MINT Museum of Toys are some of the happening places to host a kid’s birthday party. But these places would be expensive and that’s why bring some elements as per the taste of your kids and decorate your home. If your kid is a fan of Minions, then, bring things like cut-outs of Minions and place them at different places. Use all your kid’s favorite superhero quotes and images as theme to give your home a perfect birthday special makeover. That way, you will save lots of money. And also remember that if you book any outside area as the birthday party venue, then, you will also need extra transport costs to reach there.

Bake your cake:

There are various online shops and local shops where you will find various designer cakes. And you also know they are costly. You can prepare the same cake at your home. All you need to do is watch a few videos on YouTube and buy the baking accessory items that are necessary. United Bakery Supplies, Bake King, and Sun Lik Trading are some of the places where you can easily find what you want. If you say that you don’t have an oven then you can always borrow that from a friend or relative for a day.

E-mail or Messenger invitation:

Save paper and also the cost of printing on your kid’s birthday party and opt for easier ways to send out your invitation. This way you will be able to contribute something to the environment also. Simply write fun and cute invitation and send them through e-mail, messenger, or WhatsApp. It will save the time of going to a press, selecting a card, waiting for them to arrive, and then sending them to everyone’s address.

Plan Food cleverly:

The best time to host a kid’s birthday party would be post-lunch hours and bring an end to it by the evening. Those ways, there won’t be any heavy meal commitment and you will save much. The kids will have their lunch while they arrive at 3-3:30 P.M. Provide lemonade or any special drink that you can make at home and after the cake-cutting ceremony distribute plates with a piece of cake, some candies, and spring roll/sandwich.

Plan activities too:

Don’t spend anything on a balloon carrying guy or a joker for entertaining the kids. Go for treasure hunt games that you can arrange yourself. Arrange quiz contest and give out nice gifts. These gifts can be anything like fresh fruits or popcorns dipped in chocolates or a box of sketch pens or crayons – that you can arrange in a tight budget.

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Shopee celebrates its Shopee 12.12 Birthday Sale with non-stop deals, sales and promotions galore

Beauty products for men, electronics for women; you can buy everything on Shopee!

As the year-end shopping festival draws to a close, Shopee, the leading e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia and Taiwan, celebrates its fourth birthday with the launch of the Shopee 12.12 Birthday Sale. For this grand finale, Shopee is going all out to bring users unbeatable promotions, upsized Flash Deals, new in-app games,
and more.

The Shopee 12.12 Birthday Sale: two weeks of non-stop deals From 29 November to 12 December, users can enjoy two weeks of super promotions and entertainment, as well as free shipping and 10% cashback with no minimum spend. Key highlights include:

● Unbeatable prices on some of our most in-demand products such as the Etude House Eyebrow Pencil and HP Sprocket Studio Photo Printer.
○ Interestingly, Shopee’s data showed that male shoppers are increasingly searching for beauty and personal care products such as eyebrow pencils, while women are searching for electronics such as photo printers!

● The return of the popular themed days such as the 12.12 Tech Day on 1 December and 12.12 Health & Beauty Day on 8 December.
● On 12 December, shoppers can enjoy storewide discounts of up to 90% off leading brands, upsized Flash Deals, and more.

Celebrate Shopee’s Birthday with a host of party games

Shopee will be bringing back iconic games such as Shopee Catch and Shopee Shake, along with new in-app games, to offer users an even more engaging and social shopping experience.
● Users can play Shopee Catch and Shopee Shake twice daily, and stand a chance to win up to 400,000 Shopee Coins and attractive prizes worth more than $1,000.
● Users can play Shopee Throw up to five times daily and win up to 110,000 Shopee Coins and vouchers.
● Flip & Match is a new memory game where users match cards within 90 seconds to win Shopee Coins.

Leading brands crash the party with irresistible deals

Leading brands on Shopee Mall will join the Shopee 12.12 Birthday Sale to offer users tons of deals, including:
● Over 100 brand boxes with popular items from top brands, including Logitech, L’Oréal, SK Jewellery, and more, at up to 80% off.
● 2-Hour Brands Flash Sale on 12 December with upsized storewide discounts of up to 90% off brands like JBL, Razer, Philips, and Fossil

Key partners bring users more reasons to shop and give back this 12.12

Shopee has also teamed up with key partners to provide users with exclusive privileges and allow users to donate to causes they support during the Shopee 12.12 Birthday Sale.
● Join the giving movement with #ShopeeGivesBack : Users can donate Shopee Coins to the Children’s Wishing Well, Food from the Heart, and Habitat for Humanity. With every Shopee Coin donated, Shopee will match the amount donated to the respective charity. Shopee is also collaborating with sellers to make food donations to
Food from the Heart.
● Win attractive prizes with Standard Chartered: From 29 November to 3 December, users can play a Standard Chartered adaptation of Shopee Slice to win attractive prizes such as a 2D1N staycation, Bose SoundLink Revolve Plus Bluetooth Speaker, and more.
● More discounts with exclusive bank partners :
○ On 29 November and 2 December, Shopee users can enjoy up to $20 off with a minimum spend of $120 when they check out on Shopee with a DBS/POSB Credit Card, OCBC Credit or Debit Card, Standard Chartered Credit Card, or a UOB Credit/Debit Card

○ On 12 December, Shopee users can enjoy $12 off with a minimum spend of $80 when they check out on Shopee with a DBS/POSB Credit Card, Standard Chartered Credit Card, UOB Credit/Debit Card, or Dash Visa Virtual Account

Tiger Wang, Head of Marketing, Shopee Singapore, said,

Shopee has achieved incredible success over the past year, cementing its position as the leading e-commerce platform in the region. We have done this by providing our users with a highly-localised, mobile-first, and social shopping experience. We would like to thank our shoppers, sellers, brands, and partners for their unwavering support, and share our success with them. As 2019 comes to a close, we invite all our users to end the year on a high note, and join us in celebrating yet another key milestone in our Shopee journey.

Find out more about the Shopee 12.12 Birthday Sale here: https://shopee.sg/12-12.

Download the Shopee app for free via the App Store or Google Play

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4 Things You Need To Know This Cyber Monday

The shopping holiday is not over yet — Cyber Monday Sales starts at 12 midnight on 2 December! Here’s a list of stack-hacks and attractive deals that will help you snatch the best deals this coming Monday!

1. BFCM LUCKY DRAW (SHOPBACK APP ONLY)

Been eyeing the latest Airpods Pro? Be sure to check out ShopBack BFCM Lucky Draw on 2nd Dec, exclusively on their app! Simply follow the instructions stated below and you might win a Nintendo Switch Lite, Apple Airpods Pro, Playstation 4, Dyson Airwrap, Apple Watch Series 5 or $500 Bonus Cashback!

ARE YOU THE LUCKY ONE?

LUCKY DRAW SCHEDULE

HOW TO WIN:

  1. Go to the BFCM Lucky Draw page on the ShopBack app:
  2. Click on the “CLICK TO WIN” button to redeem a prize
  3. Winners will be chosen at random and your prize* will be revealed immediately in the next screen

*Terms and Conditions apply.

2. 12 AM HOURLY EPIC DEALS

It’s easy to miss out on some Cyber Monday deals, but you wouldn’t want to miss this. ShopBack kicks off Cyber Monday to a great start with fashion deals from Zalora and Nike. At 12 midnight on 2 Dec, enjoy up to 38% OFF + Up to 20% Epic Cashback with Zalora.

Shopping for shoes? Be sure to apply our stack hack for Nike!

For Nike, enjoy 40% off your order plus FREE standard shipping when you buy 2 or more items listed on the promotion page. Exclusive for DBS / POSB Cardmembers**, you get additional 20% cashback, capped at $30, on top of the Epic Hourly 19% Upsized Cashback from 12 – 2 am on 2 Dec.

**DBS/POSB Cards is the Official Card Partner for ShopBack ShopFest 2019 where you get to enjoy up to 20% additional cashback at the following participating merchants like Adidas, ASOS, Cold Storage, Deliveroo, FairPrice On, Farfetch, Guardian, Mr Porter, Net-A-Porter, Nike on top of the already crazy deals. Moreover, there is a 4% additional cashback on travel merchants like Singapore Airlines, Qatar, Emirates, Etihad and Traveloka and Airbnb when you pay with your DBS/POSB card. Check out the ShopBack DBS/POSB Exclusive page for more information. 

Save a copy of ShopBack’s Cyber Monday Hourly Epic Cashback cheatsheet so that you never have to miss another epic deal!

3. DYSON DAILY FLASH DEALS

ShopFest is not complete without their iconic Flash Deals. Own your very own Dyson Cyclone V10 (U.P. $799) and enjoy 20% Upsized Cashback (was 1%) when you purchase on 2nd Dec only.

4. AGODA 12% DOUBLE CASHBACK – 24 HOUR ONLY!

Ready for your next adventure? Plan your next trip with Agoda! Whether it’s a trip down River Nile or hiking up Peru mountains, enjoy a 12% Double Cashback on 2 Dec 1 am – 3 Dec 1 am when you book your accommodations with Agoda. All destinations covered except Japan.

Set your alarms, it’s time for Cyber Monday!

How ShopBack Works

ShopBack is a platform that allows users to earn up to 30% cashback every time they make an online purchase from 500+ stores like Lazada, Qoo10, Shopee, Foodpanda, Agoda & more. ShopBack is free to join and is available on desktop, app store, play store and on the browser extension. Learn more here.

 

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Surefire Ways To Sell Your Items On Instagram

Whether Snapchat agrees or not, Instagram reigns supreme when it comes to engaging its audience. These days, many Singaporeans refer to Instagram as their catalogue of all things travel or lifestyle-related.

Consider the following tips to help you figure out how to sell your items on Instagram with or without its pesky algorithm.

POST THE BEHIND-THE-SCENES CONTENT WITH STORIES

Over 200 million people use Instagram stories on a daily basis. More than one-third of this number view stories for business purposes. Instagram stories last for 24 hours, and they do not show the comments or likes publicly. This means that you can post as many stories as you want to feature a spotlight product or a flash sale.

Image Credits: pixabay.com

Use text, drawing tools, stickers, and GIFs to bring your brand’s creativity to life.

SELL YOUR ITEMS THRU HASHTAGS

As an Instagram user, you are probably aware of the importance of hashtags. Hashtags are important to brands as these tags direct the specific consumers. Branded hashtags represent the majority of big brands such as #BMW or #Prada.

The most used hashtags come from these well-known brands. You may either use their power to your advantage by using related hashtags or use hashtags exclusive to your brand.

USE INSTAGRAM ADS TO REACH YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE

Instagram provides a variety of targeting options through its Instagram Ads feature. You can choose specific targets that will suit your business’ needs. With promotion, you can choose how much you will spend, where your ads will be seen, and how long you want to run them.

Simply set up your business profile account and click the “promote” button. Instagram ads are critical to the marketing strategies of any business.

HOST INSTAGRAM-ONLY PROMOTIONS

With Instagram, you may host an Instagram-only promotion for your followers. They can click the link in your bio to join. To amp up your promotion, you may consider establishing partnerships with Instagram Influencers within the area such as Melissa Koh.

Image Credits: pixabay.com

Instagram influencers continue to be popular given that sponsorships have nearly replaced digital ads these days. The personal recommendations that they add boost the brand’s image. The personal touch makes it easier for consumers to imagine themselves while using your products.

Sources: 1 & 2

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