Originally Posted by
AJSpark
It seems really stupid to be traveling with so many cards (stashed away in different places, of course), but my take on others' input is that backup cards are almost a necessity - or am I being paranoid?
Not stupid at all. When I go overseas I usually have at least two ATM cards (at least one Cirrus and at least one Plus) and at least three credit cards (at least one Visa, one MC and one Amex) because you never know what's going to work when/where and it's good to have a combination of cards that are cheap (Schwab, CapOne) and cards that are backed by excellent customer service (Citi World MCs, Amex, etc.).