You might be familiar with the “30 before 30 Challenge”, which essentially is all about visiting 30 countries before hitting the age of 30 years old. I, like several of my millennial peers, have set this challenge for myself to keep motivated - to see and do more. From cuddling koalas and learning how to surf (not at the same time of course), to climbing the Sydney Harbour Bridge at sunset, taking selfies with kangaroos and perhaps trying a bite of Vegemite if I was really feeling adventurous. Australia had been at the top of my travel bucket list for as long as I can remember. It didn’t take me long upon landing my first full-time job after university a few years ago to realize just how truly precious each and every vacation day is. Do you take the more calculated approach and carefully space them out throughout the year, or do you throw caution to the wind and plan the trip of a lifetime using every single day attached to my employee number. Naturally, I chose the second option – in the clichéd words of a millennial, there would be #NoRegrets.
With so many details involved in the preparations of such a large trip, from flights and rental cars, to booking the highest-rated hostels in the quote-on-quote “trendy part of town”, it’s easy for money management to take a backseat in the planning process. That’s where the Cash Passport prepaid card comes into play, recently released through a collaboration between Payment Source and MasterCard. I jokingly mentioned to my dad that if you really want to test out the true usability of the Canada Post Cash Passport Prepaid Mastercard, give it to a millennial to take around the world – after all, we certainly don’t hold back on our feedback. Next thing I knew; I was boarding a 23-hour flight to Sydney Australia with the Cash Passport card in hand as my primary payment method. It’s also worth noting how incredibly easy it was to obtain and put money on my card in the currency that I wanted, all in one short visit to Canada Post.
Fast forward three weeks later, and my time down under was everything I could have dreamed of… and more! Now you might be wondering, did the Cash Passport end up withstanding the true test of travel as my primary method of payment, or did I end up reverting back to my older forms of plastic? Well the verdict is in, and I can say with 100% certainty that Cash Passport has become my travelling necessity for all of my upcoming worldly adventures. I used my Cash Passport multiple times each and every day on the trip, from purchasing bus tickets at tiny terminals on the side of the road, to paying for a night of glamping (glamorous camping) under the stars, there was no expense too small (or too large – much to the dismay of my crying bank account) for my trusty Cash Passport to shine. The best part was, my Cash Passport was loaded with Australian dollars so I always knew where I stood with no surprise budgeting or conversion surprises.
I was excited to be spending the first part of my trip travelling with two of my good friends from home, one of which has been teaching in Asia for the past year. When the three of us arrived in Melbourne to begin our road trip up Great Ocean Road, my friend’s credit card was declined at every attempt – it seems they had locked her out of her account as she had failed to notify her branch that she would be leaving Asia to spend a few weeks in Australia. One week, 5 long-distance phone calls with her bank later, and a new credit card that could only be shipped to her Toronto address (to then be mailed to our hostel by her mom – note to self: we’re never too old to need our parents) and she was finally back up and running with her credit card. However, I couldn’t help but think that her situation would have become far more complicated and a heck-of-a-lot more stressful had she been travelling all on her own. A situation which all could have been avoided with one simple $15 solution.