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Money belts and decoy wallets

Time of past OR future Camino
Francis SJPDP-SDC (2014, 2015, 2016, 2017) , Norte 2018
Pilgrim Office 2018, Hospitalero Acebo 2019
I found this neat video about how to wear and use a money belt as well as a discussion on a decoy wallet. Well worth the five minutes to watch this.

Buen Camino.
Ed
 
Join the Camino cleanup. Logroño to Burgos May 2025 & Astorga to OCebreiro in June
Thx. If you only have five minutes, the important bits about how to use a combination of money belt and 'decoy' wallet are at about the six minute mark. If you want to avoid the sales pitch about silk money belts, go straight there.

If you do want to have a genuine decoy, carry a packet of travel wipes in your hip pocket, and keep your wallet in a zippered pocket on your shirt or the front of your trousers. Not covered that well in the video, but if you need to move money from your money belt to a wallet, avoid doing it in public. Find a private place like a toilet, and do it there. After all, a concealed money belt is pointless if you keep revealing it in public - you might just as well use a waist bag.

My own approach on the CF was to keep my money belt in my pack during the day, and only use it in the evenings when I was walking around a town.

Regards,
 
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I remember well before my wife and I first traveled around the world, we read about the use of money belts and decoy wallets. We read that is certain countries it was wise to carry a decoy wallet with a small amount of cash and expired credit cards in it just in case you were robbed at gun point - that you had something to at least give the person, to remove the chance of physical injury or death.

I can say after 20 years of traveling I never carried a decoy wallet but instead removed all the important credit cards and instead carried these in a waist belt money ( still have the same one ). While walking the camino or any trail for that matter or simply traveling aboard, I carry a basic travel wallet with normally just enough cash for the day.

Should somebody lift or steal the wallet that is all they are going to probably get.

I keep my extra cash,credit cards and other important documents in the money belt not because I believe I may get robbed but more than likely I will simply misplace or leave behind something accidentally.

Personally I have seen and heard more people simple lose stuff of importance because they accidentally leave it behind or foolishly leave out for somebody to take. A money belt is a good place to keep such things.
 
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The one from Galicia (the round) and the one from Castilla & Leon. Individually numbered and made by the same people that make the ones you see on your walk.

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