Cash, credit, travelers' checks?: Financial options for students studying abroad?

[Nicole Monnier]

Dear SEELANGers,

Three of our students leave in January for a semester of study in Russia
(two to Moscow, one to St. Petersburg), and an anxious parent has asked
about the safest and/or easiest and/or cheapest way to deal with finances
abroad.

In the mid-nineties, I used my American Express card and the St. Petersburg
main AmEx office to write and cash checks directly off of my American bank
account. Is this still possible? If so, does it make more sense than using
ATMs? Are ATM machines plentiful? What are the fees charged? Or should
students simply bring enough cash or travelers' checks to last the semester?
If travelers' checks are preferable, of which flavor (AmEx, AAA, Barclay)?

I apologize for the jumbled list of questions (I also fear I haven't asked
all the pertinent ones), but I'm out of the loop. If you have any
advice/suggestions, please reply to me off-list [monniern at missouri.edu]; if
there is a general interest in such information, I'll be happy to post a
summary of responses.

Curiously,

Nicole


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Dr. Nicole Monnier
Assistant Professor of Russian          phone: 573.882.3370
German & Russian Studies Dept.          fax:  573.884.8456
University of Missouri
Columbia, MO  65211

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