Few months down the line, I may get an opportunity to go to Canada for a conference as well as doing bit of sight-seeing as well. While I do have debit cards from few banks, I was told credit cards are better as foreign exchange fees is a bit less. How much of this is true ? I have both mastercard and visa debit cards. Does it make sense to have a credit card apart from Debit card ? I am looking for which would have less charges for me. The banks I am looking at are State Bank of India, Bank of India and Bank of Baroda, all nationalized Indian banks. I do not know if they matter at all as for international payments, in either case it would either be 'visa' or 'mastercard' mechanism at work.
Another sub-question is in the event the opportunity arises I might be away for more than a month, in such a situation I could also use a joint account with a relative so they can do the payments within time as well. Is this advisable or not ? The Debit and Credit card will be in my name as I would be the first holder in the account.
My primary motivation is to get money from ATM's to use petty money for laundrette, paying off hostel fees, lunch, dinner etc, those kind of services. I suspect it might be cheaper to do things by cash than card as well as no possibility of any creeping fees apart from usual banking fees during ATM transactions.