How to Avoid Getting Overcharged Abroad – Part 2

The previous post in this series dealt with outward appearance and how it can influence a sale price, and also touched upon the other ways in which it can affect us whilst backpacking such as by drawing unwanted attention from touts and hustlers.

This next post gets down to the nitty-gritty and focuses on tips that may help when it comes to actually making a purchase. I feel they’re worthy of a separate post as they can clearly influence the initial stated price of something and consequently affect our remaining road fund.

As Wade from the backpacking blog Song of the Open Road says: a traveller who saves a dollar today, has a dollar to travel another day.

So, what can we do to avoid getting overcharged when actually buying things?

Tip 1: Learn the lingo – A valuable point mentioned in a previous comment by Stuart from Travelfish is that learning even just a few words in a local language can go a long way. Basics such as please and thank you, numbers, words for local transport and simple questions to find out how much something is or how long a ride takes etc will not only make life a lot easier, but will all also help establish some personal credibility, show a certain level of local understanding, and may also relay a willingness to learn about and adapt to your current surroundings. In short it shows you’re prepared to show some respect and make an effort to get along and fit in.

Tip 2: Be observant – Before you buy something, be it anything from street food to a bus ticket, where possible look to see what others pay for the same item. If you know how much something should be, and a vendor knows you know, then they may be less likely to hike the price up.

Tip 3: Don’t ask the price before you buy – That’s all very well, but then how will I know how much something costs? Seeing what other people pay will help, but failing that you’ll quickly establish a rough rule of thumb for costs in certain countries/areas anyway. For instance, once you’ve bought a few bottles of water in a country you’ll soon establish the average price.

But what if you’ve just you’ve just crossed the border to a new country and now don’t know the new price? Well, comparing prices for other items already bought in your new location to those bought in the previous country can help. Ask yourself: are they a similar price, a bit more, or a bit less? Generally speaking, you can pretty much export what you’ve already learned by previous comparisons to other everyday items with roughly the same adjustment. Forgive me if some of this sounds a little too basic but I want to try and cover everything here.

Nb – Working out a pricing rule of thumb for can also work for transport. If you’re going to be spending a reasonable time in any one country it may be worth making a mental note of how long a journey takes and/or the distance covered and how much it costs. After a few journeys, for each form of transport you may be able to slowly develop a rough rule of thumb. For example, journeys may average out at $1/hour for, say, a local bus or $1 per 10km using a mototaxi. Obviously this’ll vary from country to country and possibly between different operators, but after enough journeys you’ll figure it out.

Tip 4: Ask the price before you buy – But didn’t you just say don’t ask?!? If it’s for something you would normally be expected to pay for afterwards – like a taxi ride, or a meal, or a few beers – then try and establish the cost beforehand. I may sound overly analytical here by saying transactions can be likened to a contracts – i.e. You hand something over and get something in return – but by eating the meal or taking the cab or whatever you’ve pretty much agreed to that contract and may well feel morally obliged to uphold your side of the bargain. If you’ve taken something that you can’t give back but haven’t thought to ask how much it would be first then it’s pretty hard to bark about the price afterwards. If you ask first then you still have the opportunity to turn it down – consequently, a seller will know this too and as such may not feel as confident about giving an overly inflated price that’ll risk blowing the deal.

Tip 5: Pay confidently – If you haven’t established the exact price but are still able to estimate the cost reasonably accurately, try to pay using a note just above that value and wait confidently for your change – it should go some way to giving the message that you know the price (as long as you are in the right ball park) and don’t need to ask. Confidence is the key to this one. If you’re really not sure of the price and end up getting it wrong then it may have the opposite effect as you’ve just declared that you haven’t got a clue how much the thing costs! It’s a tricky one this, and you’ve got to be pretty sure that you can estimate the price correctly before launching into it.

Paying with a huge ‘cover all costs’ bill can offer the impression that you have a fair bit of cash – consequently, this may affect the price and – depending on the country – may also present difficulties in breaking it. In addition, and I don’t mean to sound too untrusting here as its not that common an occurrence, but bigger bills also allow greater scope for short changing. The tip here is to always try to carry a bunch of smaller bills wherever you go so you won’t be forced to pay for low cost things with big bank notes.

Note on breaking bills:-
Breaking notes can sometimes be easier said than done. From the first moment you consider that your small change is dwindling it may be worth starting to look out for potential opportunities to break bigger notes. You can try banks, but this can mean long waits that sometimes end in a refusal, so also keep an eye out for other places that you know are good for the cash and will change it no questions asked (like a department store/chainstore in larger cities) and also have something cheap to purchase (which ideally will be something you would normally buy anyway).

In some countries opportunities like this may be a little harder to come by, but by planning ahead and addressing the potential problem sooner rather than later should give you more time to find a likely place and stop it from becoming a hindrance – or even a real headache if no-one can change it.

That just about wraps this post up. If you know of more tips that you feel should be added, please feel free to share them with us all! Thanks