Avoid my holiday money mistakes!

Learn from my mistakes and dodge these nine financial holiday mishaps.

I've just come back from a holiday, to Sardinia in Italy. I thought I'd been fairly savvy when it came to the financial nuts and bolts of my trip.

I even followed my own journalistic advice for once, getting a good rate of exchange online and not using a debit or credit card that levied hefty overseas charges.

However, I still ended up being stung by lots of unexpected financial niggles. Gah! I've rounded the little blighters up here, so you can avoid making the same holiday money mistakes I did.

1. Remember your travel insurance excess

When it comes to travel insurance, it may make sense to pay a bit more and eliminate any possible excess payments.

This means that if, for example, your belongings are lost or stolen, you won't have to fork any money before your insurer coughs up.

It's definitely worth comparing the price of your policy with and without the excess. I worked out (too late) that it would have cost me just £5 more to get rid of the excess on mine entirely.

Compare travel insurance with lovemoney.com

2. That credit card could come in handy

One way to dodge hefty overseas credit card fees is not to take your flexible friend at all. This is what I did. However, a credit card can come in very handy, as I discovered.

When hiring two bicycles, my partner and I were asked for a 300 Euro deposit. They would have accepted a credit card, but because neither of us had one on us, we had to hand over the deposit in cash.

This virtually cleaned us out of spending money, and meant we had to withdraw more using our debit cards at local ATMs - just what we'd been trying to avoid.

Of course, we got those Euros back at the end of the holiday - just when we didn't need them. Car and cycle hire firms very often request credit card details as a guarantee, so it might be worth taking one for this purpose alone.

To find out about the cheapest debit and credit cards to use abroad, the best online exchanges and currency cards, read The cheapest travel money ever!.

Compare credit cards with lovemoney.com

3. Beat the aeroplane currency rip-off

When it comes to air travel, the best course of action is to buy nothing on the plane at all. However, if you have to buy food or drink, make sure you have some currency both from the country you're leaving, and for the country you're travelling to.

This is because the airline will probably charge more, in real terms, for items bought in one currency than the other. For example, on our return flight, cans of drink were priced at £1.50... or two Euros. Given that the exchange rate at the time was almost 1:1, people paying in Euros were getting an extremely raw deal.

To find out about other airline scams to avoid, read Avoid these two sneaky airline rip-offs!

4. My plastic bag saga

This rip-off had me doing my Basil Fawlty angry dance. Ready to carry moisturiser and medicine in my hand luggage, I turned up at Luton Airport with a couple of clear, tie-handle freezer bags I'd brought from home.

The man at security then proceeded to tell me that my bag wasn't sealable. I thought I demonstrated its sealable qualities admirably by tying a great big knot on the neck, but he was having none of it and insisted I buy four zip-shut plastic bags for £1 from the nearby vending machine. Aaaagh!

I stood gibbering furiously by the vending machine and handed my three spare bags to other unfortunates. My only advice is take zip-lock bags and hope for the best.

5. Squeezable luggage could save you pounds

This was something I witnessed rather than experienced, but I thought I'd pass it on. If you're carrying large hand luggage and you're not sure it will pass the airline's size test, go for a squishable rather than hard-backed bag.

They're much easier to ram into those hand baggage size-checking stands airlines use... and the alternative is paying a substantial penalty fee.

6. Announce your absence

Tie up your affairs, make all necessary calls and tell your friends you're going abroad before you jet off.

I didn't do this, and ended up being called by various friends who were unaware I was on holiday. Foreign call charges being what they are, this cost both me and them a fair bit.

Just don't announce your absence too publicly, or thieves may spot the excellent opportunity to break into your house! To find out about cheaper phone usage while you're away, read Cut the cost of calling from abroad.

7. The cheapest flights can cost you more

When booking our flights, I pounced on the cheapest option on the departure date we wanted, costing just a few pounds and leaving at 7am. Unfortunately, it didn't turn out to be the bargain I'd hoped.

If (like me) you're relying on public transport to get to and from the airport, bear in mind the extra taxi costs that might be involved in travelling when no trains or tubes are running. I didn't. Doh.

The alternative, of course, is to arrive at the airport the day before and sleep on the floor. I have done this too, and frankly the memory of those never-ending announcements still haunts me.

8. Remember the postal strikes!

The recent wave of postal strikes seems to have been going on forever. If you're ordering any important travel documents in the post, leave plenty of time for them to arrive (and I'm talking weeks, not days).

I ended up on last-minute tenterhooks waiting for both our EHIC cards and our travel insurance documents. They ended up arriving the day before we left (despite ordering them almost two weeks before that).

Some slightly reassuring news: I phoned the EHIC people in a panic and discovered that as long as your application has been processed by the scheme, you'll still be covered, even if your card hasn't arrived before you go on holiday.

In this circumstance, you'll need your National Insurance Number in order to make a claim while abroad, so make sure yours is packed.

9. Give your printer some love

Ryanair charges through the nose if you don't check in online and print off all your flight documents before you leave the house. In fact, most airlines now require you to print things off yourself, so make sure your printer is working and has enough ink!

Don't do this at the last minute after all the printer cartridge shops are closed. We ended up shaking ours desperately to try to make the ink last while printing our flight references...

More: Bag a luxury holiday for £1! | How to have a Staycation