The next time you travel abroad, don't bother to buy traveller's cheques — it really hurts to pay commission to encash them. Some money-changers charge up to $5 for every hundred. And carrying cash is patently too risky.

Get yourself a pre-paid travel card instead.

State Bank of India (SBI) has launched, in partnership with Visa International, a pre-paid foreign travel card that allows you to load up to $10,000.

And for the budget traveller, SBI has kept the minimum load at a modest $500.

You could use the card at over 13 million merchant locations worldwide, or draw cash out of 8.5 lakh Visa ATMs. Though there are no commissions to be paid, cash withdrawals would cost 40 cents. And if you run out of money, ask someone back home to reload your card so that you could get going again. Reloading costs Rs 50, while the card costs Rs 100 — there’s no entry fee till March 31.

SBI isn’t the first to launch a pre-paid travel card. Some foreign banks offer the same product, but most insist on the customer reloading it himself. SBI, however, says, a relative could do it at any of its branches selling the card.

The key advantage of the pre-paid card is it allows you to spend up to $10,000 (plus you can reload if necessary) whereas with a standard international credit card you can’t spend more than a couple of thousand dollars at best.

And if you lose it, all you have to do is call Visa’s local customer assistance centre to deactivate the card. This would block all further transactions on the card. What is more, you could even get a replacement abroad, along with the four-digit PIN that you need to draw cash from ATMs.

The card stays valid for two years, which makes it an ideal product for frequent travellers. The down side, however, is the dollar is depreciating, and it is not advisable that you hold on to a big balance on your card for too long.