SUNDAY, MAY 16, 2010
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F5
Passport, please: You basically can’t leave home without it.
by Andrea Sachs
QWhen do I need to carry a passport?
A
Basically for all foreign trav- el, with a few caveats.
Last year, the U.S. State De-
partment implemented the final phase of the Western Hemi- sphere Travel Initiative, requir- ing Americans to carry a pass- port or an accepted alternative when traveling by air, sea or land to Bermuda, Mexico, Cana- da and 17 Caribbean nations. U.S. territories such as Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Guam are exempt, as are closed- loop cruises that begin and end in U.S. ports. Under the WHTI, children
younger than 16 traveling to the above destinations by land or sea can continue to use their U.S. birth certificate (original or copy) or another form of citizen- ship to reenter the States. Addi- tionally, U.S. passport cards val- id for sea and land crossings (note: not air) are available to travelers of all ages. Cost is $45 for first-time adult applicants, $35 for first-timers younger than 16 and $20 for travelers who already carry a valid pass- port. For application info, see
travel.state.gov/passport/ ppt_card/
ppt_card_3926.html.
Other WHTI-compliant docu- ments include Trusted Traveler Cards, U.S. Military ID with travel orders, and Native Ameri- can photo ID cards.
How much advance time do I need to apply for a passport?
It can never be too soon,
whether or not you have a for- eign trip planned. Obviously, with a passport in hand, you can leave on short notice. However, if your passport is nearing its ex- piration date, renew as soon as possible, because some coun- tries require passports to be val- id for six months after a travel- er’s entry or return date. An- other issue to consider: Some nations require passports to have two to four blank pages for visas and stamps.
Can I apply by mail?
Not if you’re a first-timer.
Mail-ins are for renewers whose old passports were issued with- in the past 15 years and have not been damaged or stolen or ha- ven’t expired. The passport also must have been issued after your 16th birthday, and there must be no name change for which you do not have legal proof. To renew a passport, place a
DS-82 application form (avail- able on the State Department’s Web site, at post offices and at travel agencies; see below), your most recent passport, two iden- tical 2-by-2-inch passport pho- tos and a check for $75 (see be- low for upcoming price hikes) made out to the U.S. Depart- ment of State in a padded enve- lope. If your name has changed, also include a certified copy of the legal document specifying
the change (e.g., marriage li- cense, court decree, etc.). Mail to National Passport
Processing, P.O. Box 13408, Philadelphia, Pa. 19101-3408. If you use a mail service that does not deliver to post office boxes, send to National Passport Proc- essing, Attn: Department 13349, 1617 Brett Rd., New Castle, Del. 19720. You can also receive extra visa
pages in your passport at no ad- ditional cost; attach a signed re- quest for additional pages with your application. Your new pass- port should arrive within four to six weeks. And fret not: Your dog-eared, stamp-plastered passport will be returned for fu- ture gloating purposes.
Who must apply in person, and what is the process?
If any of the following apply to you, then head to your near- est passport facility: You’re a first-time applicant. Your passport was lost, stolen or damaged. (If it was lost or stolen, you must also complete form DS-64.) Your old passport expired and was issued more than 15 years ago or when you were younger than 16. Your name has changed since your last passport was issued and you do not have a court or- der or marriage certificate re- flecting the change. You’re a minor, 14 to 17 years old. A parent or legal guardian (with his or her own ID) must be present if the teenager does not have acceptable identification. Parental consent also may be re- quested. For children younger than 16, consent and/or appear- ance by both parents or legal guardians is required, as is proof of relationship (e.g., their names on the child’s certified birth certificate). And yes, even newborns and toddlers need a passport and must be present when their par- ents apply on their behalf. Application materials include form DS-11 (but unlike with the mail-in, do not sign it until the passport official gives the word); proof of U.S. citizenship, such as a birth or naturalization certifi- cate; personal identification, such as a valid driver’s license or military ID; two 2-by-2-inch passport photos taken in the past six months; and payment of $100 (16 and older) or $85 (younger than 16).
Where do I go to apply in per- son?
There are more than 9,400 passport acceptance facilities nationwide, including many fed- eral, state and probate courts, post offices, public libraries, and county and municipal offices. The department’s Web site (
iafdb.travel.state.gov) will help you find outposts in your neigh- borhood. In the District, for example, the post offices at 1200 Pennsylvania Ave. NW and 3430 Connecticut Ave. NW provide such services, but only during specific hours or by appoint-
ment, so check ahead.
I heard that the State De-
partment is considering rais- ing fees. What are the new prices and when will they go into effect?
The agency has not yet an- nounced an effective date, but here are the proposed fees: First-time passport for adults (age 16 and older): $135 Passport renewal for adults: $110 Passport for minors (younger than 16): $105 First-time passport card for adults: $55 Passport card for adults who hold a valid passport: $30 Passport card for minors: $40 Additional visa pages: $82
I’m in a hurry — my trip is in a few weeks!
For expedited service, you can apply by mail or in person. For the mail-in, send in the requisite materials plus an additional $60 and overnight delivery costs. Write “Expedited” on the enve- lope; no proof of departure is re- quired. To ensure timely deliv- ery — two or three weeks door- to-door — splurge on two-way overnight delivery. If you’re leaving in two weeks or sooner, don’t risk the mail. In- stead, make an appointment with a Regional Passport Agen- cy. Bring all the necessary docu- ments and the extra $60 with you. In Washington, the center is at 1111 19th St. NW; it is open weekdays from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. You can schedule an appoint- ment via automated service at 877-487-2778. For even faster — but costlier
— service, employ a private com- pany that can deliver your pass- port in a jiffy, say 24 hours. For the one-day process, the com- pany charges a first-time appli- cant $199, plus government fees; for delivery within six to nine business days, the price is $75, plus fees. Other companies of this ilk include PassportVi-
saExpress.com (703-351-0992,
www.passportvisaexpress.com)
and All American Passports (888-930-8889, www.
allamericanpassports.com).
Where can I find official pass- port information and addition- al help?
The U.S. State Department is
the official source, and its Web site (
travel.state.gov/passport) clearly outlines the process, re- quirements, fees, etc., and posts announcements. For advice or a status report on your application, contact the National Passport Information Center at 877-487-2778 or check online at https://passportstatus.
state.gov/opss/OPSS_Status_i.
asp. The site will let you know whether your application has been received by Passport Ser- vices and about when to expect your passport. Currently, it is taking about a week to 10 days for an application to be tracked online.
sachsa@washpost.com
How the money changes
Top-rated
euros continued from F1
it that you were going overseas? Or a thief spots you withdraw- ing a lot of money and tries to rob you? We set out to try to make some sense of it all, taking a the- oretical $200 and seeing how many euros it would buy both here and in Europe. What we found is this: With-
drawing cash from an ATM overseas or using your credit card is probably the best way to go, but it wouldn’t hurt to have a little foreign money in your pocket when you land. If you want to convert money state- side, avoid the airport exchange booth and pray for a customer- friendly bank. And if you want to use plastic, let’s hope you have a card from an issuer that doesn’t charge a high foreign transaction fee. Here’s how we reached those conclusions.
Home turf
Before heading off on our search for euros on April 28, we checked the published rate on- line at XE-Universal Currency Converter. We found that $200 would give us 151.70 euros, so each euro would cost us about $1.32. We were thrilled. Our first stop was Citibank, where we have a checking ac- count. “The euro has gone down from a few days ago,” the teller told us. Fantastic. For $200, the bank would give
us 142.42 euros, so each euro would cost about $1.40, more than what we’d found on the Internet. That’s because the Internet rate isn’t what con- sumers get, but what banks get charged to convert large pots of money. “Where people are most mis- led is with the exchange rates,” said Evan Shelan, chief exec- utive of
eZforex.com, which sells foreign currency to banks and credit unions. They think they’ll get the same deal banks get for exchanging $1 million, and “that’s the biggest misconcep- tion.” We abandoned our hopes for the published rate and asked the teller about fees. That depends on the type of bank account you have, she told us. With ours, we would have to pay a $5 service fee. Some accounts incur a de- livery fee, but not in our case. The money would arrive the next day, she said. Roll in the service fee, and each euro would cost $1.44. Next, we reached out to AAA.
The availability of travel prod- ucts varies by location, but this is what we were told when we called AAA Mid-Atlantic: If we were members, we could order euros online or by phone, pay- ing a $10 shipping fee, and the currency would be delivered to our home within 48 hours. But the minimum order is $300. One euro would cost us about $1.43 in that case, meaning that $300 would get us about 210 eu- ros. Include the shipping fee, and our euros would cost about $1.48 each. If we exchanged more than $1,000, there would be no shipping charge. But we only wanted to change
$200. In that case, we had one option: At the Alexandria AAA office, we could buy bags of eu- ros on the spot. Each bag con- tains 78 euros and costs $124 — $1.59 for each euro. Our next stop was the Amer- ican Express office at 15th and K streets NW. One euro would cost $1.40, said the woman behind the counter. That would get us a little more than 142 euros. The fee would be $4 or 1 percent of the transaction, whichever was higher. That would be about $1.43 a euro.
How can you get the best exchange rate when traveling? We checked out the price of a euro (including fees) at various locations at home and abroad.
April 28
Published price: $1.32
Actual price in the U.S. Citibank: $1.44
AAA (minimum $300):
$1.48
AAA currency bag: $1.59 American Express: $1.43 Travelex at Reagan
National: $1.57
Actual price in Europe
Hotel Konig: $1.41 Erste Bank: $1.37 Airport booth: $1.54 Stephansplatz booth:
$1.60
Westbahnhof Station booth:
$1.36
ATM withdrawal with Citibank card: $1.38
Finally, we went to National
Airport. We were prepared for the worst. Annie Jenson, vice president of marketing and op- erations at Travelex, which oper- ates exchange booths at all three Washington area airports, said that it usually costs more to ex- change money at airports be- cause the companies have to pay extra for the privilege of setting up shop there. A euro would cost $1.51 at Na- tional. For $201.33, we would get 128 euros, about $1.57 per euro because of a $7.95 fee. On this side of the Atlantic, Amer- ican Express or our bank seemed to be the best deals.
Over there
Across the Atlantic on the same day, in the Austrian capital of Vienna, we first hit Ibis Wien Mariahilf, a budget hotel near the Westbahnhof train station. No currency exchange there, so we ventured over to the swanky Hotel Konig, which does change money — but only for registered guests. For $200, the hotel clerk told us, guests could get 142 eu- ros, equivalent to about $1.41 per euro. Our next stop was a branch of the Austria-based international Erste bank. We were offered 145.66 euros, but we’d have to pay a 4.50 euro commission fee. Each euro would basically cost $1.37. By opting for a bank, though, we were giving up some convenience because European banks tend to have more limited hours than American ones. Greg McBride, senior finan- cial analyst at
BankRate.com, said that convenience shouldn’t be taken out of the equation. “The best rate isn’t going to be the one you get at the hotel or at the airport,” he said. But ex- changing at these locations is “at the top of the convenience factor.” Next, we took a trip out to the
airport, where we found an ex- change booth that offered 130.50 euros, about $1.39 for each euro — before a 9 percent commission fee. That turned us off, because it would translate to about $1.54 for each euro. We returned to the city to try
an exchange kiosk on Stephans- platz, the cathedral square where horse-and-carriage driv- ers tempt young couples with romantic rides around town. Our mission was not as roman- tic. The agent at the exchange booth offered us 125.34 euros, about $1.60 for each euro with a 5 percent commission. We vis- ited another booth at the West- bahnhof train station, where we got an amazing quote of 147 eu-
ros at the rate of $1.33 per euro, with a 2.50 euro fee — about $1.36 per euro, the closest we’d come all day to the published rate. Flabbergasted by the differ-
ence between rates at the booths, both of which had Western Union signs, we asked what accounted for it. “For exchange rate houses that also offer Western Union ser- vices, the foreign-exchange busi- ness is run independently from Western Union’s money-transfer service,” said Kristin Kelly, the company’s director of market- place communications, in an e- mail.
Okay, even in the same city,
rates at exchange booths can vary widely. Now we were ready to hit the
ATM. We withdrew150 euros, fig- uring that would be close to $200. When we checked our bank state- ment online the next day, we saw that our guess had been good: Our account had been debited $199.77. But we were also charged a $5.98 foreign transaction fee, about 3 percent. And because we didn’t use an ATM belonging to our bank, Citibank, we were charged another $1.50. So those 150 euros actually cost us $207.25, approximately $1.38 to the euro. Still not bad. (Note: The owner of the foreign ATM might also charge a fee. Gladly, that did not happen to us. Also keep in mind that many European ATMs allow only four-digit PIN num- bers.) We’d lucked out with the West- bahnhof exchange booth, but if we hadn’t, the ATM or the bank would have been the best option.
Paper or plastic?
There’s one other option: credit
cards. Most credit card companies
charge for foreign transactions. Chase, Bank of America and Citi charge 3 percent. American Ex- press levies a 2.7 percent fee and Discover 2 percent. Debit cards would incur similar fees. Visa and MasterCard charge the banks 1 percent to make the conversions, but why the banks’ extra fees? We got no good answer. Then we discovered this: Nei- ther Capital One, HSBC (for the Premier World MasterCard) nor Schwab (for the Invest First Card) charge any foreign transaction fees. They refrain from doing so to build customer loyalty, the companies told us. To add to the confusion, there are also cards that work as debit cards specifically for travel. AAA has the Visa TravelMoney card. We could load it with $200 and the exchange rate would vary de- pending on when we used it. We would usually pay a 2 percent fee per transaction, we were told. Travelex’s Cash Passports es- sentially work as pre-loaded trav- el cards. Basically, any money we loaded onto it would be convert- ed into euros at a rate that was locked in when we purchased the card. We could spend it months or years later (though there is an inactivity fee of 2.30 euros per month if you don’t spend it with- in 12 months.) And what about traveler’s checks? Many say that they’ve gone the way of the dinosaur. They’re still accepted in lots of places around the world, but credit and ATM cards have made them somewhat obsolete, and a good number of merchants will levy their own surcharges. Oh, the confusion. It pays to do your research. But for now, let’s just stick with our bank and the ATM. Or use credit cards with no transaction fees and a favorable interest rate. Because who knows whether we’ll luck out at the ex- change booth.
trejosn@washpost.com
Christina Talcott, a former Travel staffer, reported from Vienna.
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