Travelling for longer than a month will require you to get money in the country (or countries) which you are visiting. In the olden days people carried travellers cheques and many advice websites still show this as a good method of getting hold of your cash around the world. But that all seems a bit fiddly and old fashioned to me.

1. As of late 2013 in the UK the Halifax was offering a credit card which allowed purchases and ATM withdrawals for free anywhere in the world. This was my favoured option but I can’t comment further as the Halifax screwed up my application and kept demanding I visit a branch with ID. After this happened 3 times they rejected my application as they claimed I never verified my ID.
2. I trawled the British banks for credit cards without fees for overseas usage. I finally decided upon the Post Office credit card. Free purchases anywhere in the world at a good rate but it costs to use at ATMs.
3. I found a company called Caxton who have a card called the Global Traveller Card. This offers free ATM withdrawal anywhere in the world.

I use a combination of option 2 & 3. The credit card is used for in store purchases, hotel bookings and online payments. The Caxton card is used for ATMs so I can get cash in the local currency. Both options give an OK exchange rate.