Vacation Abroad

It takes a lot of work to prepare for a vacation abroad. There are so many little things to do: You need to stop the mail, cancel the paper and arrange for your bills to be paid. Here are some other things you should add to your pre-trip checklist:

Basics
Photocopy the first few pages of your passport and make a list of all the credit and debit cards in your wallet along with the toll-free customer service numbers. Keep this information in a separate place, such as the in-room safe at your hotel. This will make your life a lot easier if your passport or wallet is lost or stolen.

Let your bank and credit card companies know you’re headed to another country. Otherwise, their security programs could flag your transactions as potentially fraudulent and shut down your cards. What a nightmare!