ATM vs Debit; Intn'l Banks

echo wrote:
Planning on traveling to Thailand,Philippines and also Central America.
Then I will settle in one of the cities, with BKK and major city in
Philippines on on the list.

Need advice on how to make funds currently in USA major bank available
to me in these cities. Which is better ATM or Debit card? Thinking I
need a good international bank with branches in both USA and various
overseas cities. Or is it better to stick with a local in country bank?

Need your advice on which international banks if any are any good,
preferably one that has a branch in the USA also. Any help?

Yeah like Alohacyberian said, just use your debit card and
that way also you can control how much you can lose if
you lost your card, or someone uses your card number,
(like takes a phone picture of your card). It is hard to
get a card to Thailand because most banks want to
send it to an address in the USA ect. But you can
with a bit of effort get them to send it by FedEx DHL
etc. Thailand is cleaner and cheaper than the Philippines,
and Central America is more dangerous. You can more
easily (I'm told) stay in the Philippines than Thailand,
but it is a lesser civilized place (my opinion).

I could not figure out how to stay in Central America,
which was my first venture in becoming a expat. If
you know of a way, tell us all? I'm sure many would
like to know, if you know. Any information on any other
country would be niced as well.


PS had to take out ( alt.travel.asia)