holiday money

chris954

chris954

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I'm off on holiday on Saturday so I did my usual trip to the local shopping center to get some travellers cheques the other day. when I got to the M&S bureau de change the teller told me they don't do travellers cheques any more, I tried all the travel agents but nobody does them so I had to order them fron Eurochange to be delivered tomorrow. Apparently they reckon the best way to do it is their new plastic card that you load up with money but I cant see the point in changing money over to whatever currency you need, putting it on a card then trying to find an ATM that accepts the card abroad. The other issue I have is when you return and take the card to the travel agent to get what moneys left on the card refunded,you get stuffed with the exchange rate again. I remember a few years ago we went to Majorca and I took £550 worth of euro travellers cheques, we spent £200 (all inclusive) and when I changed my cheques back to sterling I got £220 back so it cost me £130 because of the exchange rate, now I take sterling cheques so if I bring back £200 I get £200 but this is getting harder now as its becoming more difficult to get travellers cheques.

Rant over. bags packed and ready to go. :thumbs:
 
It depends where you are going. You often get a very good rate when using a cash machine at your holiday destination.


Where are you going?
 
Traveller's Cheques. Haven't used them in years.

Time to get with the programme, Chris. Get a card (there are many out there) or take the local beer vouchers. If you only take traveller's cheques then Murphy's Law says the first place you need the money won't accept TCs, like the taxi.

I have Travelex cards (his n hers) which I add money to each month by standing order. And there's usually a minor wad of Euros in the house as I never bother changing leftovers back to £.
 
I didn't know anyone still used them.
What's wrong with a card and some Euros?
 
And what's with having your bags packed already?

If I were going on hols on Saturday, I wouldn't start packing until around bedtime on Friday.
 
We are always using our standard debit card from Loyds TSB Banks. No problems at all. Use it at normal ATM and bank charde only 1.50 for taking out money or 1.00 if You pay by card.
 
It's Hisaronu in Turkey were off to. The girl on the till at euro change told me her colleague was in Turkey at the moment and was having trouble finding somewhere that would accept their pre pay card whatever they call it. I would be worried about using one if these cards because knowing my luck the machine would eat it or I would lose it or break it in half or a dog would run off with it.
 
T he prepaid FX cards are accepted at the majority of places and atm's. We have used a Caxton one everywhere in last three years (inc Turkey). One of them and some cash is all you need. Not used travellers cheques for years.
 
I've always found my credit cards offer decent exchange rates when abroad so only take a small amount of cash with me and stick the rest on my flexible friend :)
 
Russ77 said:
I've always found my credit cards offer decent exchange rates when abroad so only take a small amount of cash with me and stick the rest on my flexible friend :)
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This is exactly what we do all the time, the charges are minimal compared to the masses you spend on a holiday, well I do anyways.
 
I'd seriously consider taking sterling cash.

Last May we went to Turkey for the first time. Kusadasi, on the coast near Izmir, and convenient for Ephesus (which was the objective). In the town centre there were several exchange offices which offered unbelievably good value. The buy/sell spreads were around +/-1% compared to the +/-10% or more which you see in the UK; no commission and no minimum quantity. It seemed almost too good to be true, but with a lot of tourists I guess their profits came from high volume rather than high margins.

But of course I used my credit card for most purchases. My Nationwide Visa charges 0% commission on foreign purchases.
 
Just back from hols. We took a load of Euros along with a fair wedge of Sterling and assorted cards. We only pay with cards at the airport shop - cash is still king in Crete! We did top up our Euro stash via an ATM - we used a bank one (although there are plenty of others at supermarkets etc. there.)

Our travel agent matched M&S's card holder rate when we did our exchange here before we left - a lot better rate than it is now! (1.145 as opposed to the 1.1 we saw at Brizzle airport!)

Chris, hope your trip is as good as ours was.
 
I normally take some local currency with me, say £100 GBP equivalent, then just top up from an ATM if needed on a debit card. Most of the time I can simply use a card for most expenses, so often can get away with just the currency I take with me initially. I make sure I take at least 2 credit cards as well as a debit card, just in case one gets lost.
 
Saw a good rate in town earlier - I think it was Debenhams who were offering it. €1.15/£1.
 
StewartR said:
Nope. 0% commission on all foreign purchases. But that's MY Nationwide Visa. Yours might be different.
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Stewart just so your aware that changed a few years back with nationwide, while there is still a large part of the world that attracts no commission there is also a significant number of countries where a small commission is now charged :) it changed I think in early 2010 or late 2009
 
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