Money issues: I agree get a Credit card. There are 4 primary choices: 1) American Express - charges an annual fee, but provides benefits, which are typically

Money issues: I agree get a Credit card. There are 4 primary choices: 1) American Express - charges an annual fee, but provides benefits, which are typically of value to travels. Accepted at most places. 2&3) Visa / MasterCard. Pretty much the same as each other. These are sponsored by various financial institutions. Benefits and cost vary radically, shop around. I typically use Visa as it seems everyone accepts it. 4) Discover - easiest of the 4 to get, but not as universally accepted. Bank: There are 3 types of banks: Your standard traditional bank, insured by either the FDIC or a state agency (up 250K per account). These are for profit operations. Credit unions - usually non profit. They are usually regional or concept regional (people who work for company XYZZY). You can often join the concept ones if you donate a trivial amount of money to 'Friends of XYZZY'. These are also insured (up 250K per account) by a variety of either US government or state agencies. Since they are non profit they often have your best interest at heart. Less services than a bank. Most schools have a credit union. If you can join it before you travel to the US all the better. Non insured bank or credit union - just avoid. They offer the world and then go belly up. Money xfer - I assume you need to move money. I use transferwise as it only costs me 1% to change money. Most US banks are expensive to change money. For tipping I recommend you get a book. The opinions on it are all over the place.