Note to self

[andrewducker]

When doing something for the first time (like getting foreign money) ask for people's advice on DW/LJ _first_, not after you do it.

I suspect my problem here was that I was expecting there to be horrible charges, and awful exchange rates, if I just took out Euros while I was in Tenerife. I take it I'm still living in the second millenium?

Comments

Si!

[lsanderson.livejournal.com]

Then again, I once, quite a long time ago, flew into Mpls after living in Europe for quite some time thinking "I can just exchange cash at the airport kiosk" to find it a holiday I'd forgotten about, the currency counter closed...

Then there's Vietnam where greenbacks are preferred, or so I keep being told.

[bart-calendar.livejournal.com]

Always just take money out of a cash point when you go places. Never, ever exchange money or travellers checks or you'll get hit with insane commissions and bad exchange rates.

When you just pull cash out of a wall you get a much better deal.

[pete stevens (from livejournal.com)]

Cash from wall and credit card for as many purchase as I can works for me. I think it's about £5 more on a typically holiday which is a long way beneath my caring threshold for the effort saved.

[errolwi.livejournal.com]

Note that in Australia, it is common to charge an extra 2% for paying by credit card. With significant per-transaction forex fees, it's certainly cheaper for us kiwis to get a wodge of cash before we get to the airport.

[blearyboy.livejournal.com]

I use the Lloyds TSB travel money card:

http://www.lloydstsb.com/travel/travel_money_card.asp

The rate works out roughly the same but you get the additional security of having your Euros in an account rather than in cash. The charges are fair although there is an ATM withdrawal fee which gets excessive if you make lots of small withdrawals.

The card is free with a Lloyds silver account, which costs £7.95 and also gives stuff like travel insurance and mobile insurance. If it's a joint account, you both get seperate cards (and seperate insurance) but you still only pay £7.95 per month.

[apostle-of-eris.livejournal.com]

My current generic strategy is to check with my bank to see what the ATM charges are up to this month, and plan to hit the first one outside the security area of the destination airport.