Cheap Travel Money Discussion Area

clare1angel

Hi all,

My husband and I will be off to Australia in February 2011 for just over 3 weeks and I have been looking at options of taking cash and/or a credit card.
We both have Lloyds TSB accounts so obviously won't be using our debit cards!!
So am I right in thinking that a Halifax Clarity Credit Card would be the best thing for us? Does anyone know what sort of credit limit they set?
All our flights, car hire and most of our main accommodation has all been paid.
Thanks for any advice :-)

Clare* :A

baboons

One for Northerners maybe, but you can apply online and use internet banking:

The Cumberland Building Society has a Current Account with a Debit Card that is free to use abroad:

*USING YOUR CUMBERLAND VISA DEBIT CARD ABROAD
You can use your Cumberland Visa Debit card to pay for
goods or services, or to withdraw cash at a cash machine,
wherever you see the Visa sign. We will not charge you to do
this but any charges associated with your business current
account will still apply.
Please note that when you use your Cumberland Visa Debit
card abroad to pay for goods or services, or to withdraw cash
at a cash machine, transactions will be converted into sterling
at the exchange rate on the date they are received by Visa in
the UK. We do not charge you to use our Visa debit card and
do not pass on any fees levied by Visa. The provider of an
ATM or retailer may apply a charge.

cumberland.co.uk

baboons!

Nessie23

rl1 wrote: »

Is the Metro bank debit card widely accepted by ATMs in Europe. I am also looking for an alternative to the Nationwide Card. Could this be the answer?

It is a Mastercard debit card, so in principle it should have wide acceptance within Europe.

Out of interest, anyone knows of contries where mastercard/visa coverage differs within Europe or in the rest of the world?

Baldur

clare1angel wrote: »

Does anyone know what sort of credit limit they set?

The interest rate (from 12.9% APR to 21.9% APR) and credit limit are set based on individual applicant's circumstances.

mark101

dzug1 wrote: »

correct ........

Thanks V much Will be off to Metro Bank.

Nessie23 wrote: »

Hi apologies cross-posting but this might be of use here.

Before I closed my Nationwide account I did a little experiment. In October I withdrew 10€ in a Spanish cash point with Nationwide and Metro Bank and the result was as follows:

Nationwide debit card (Visa debit): £8.69
Metrobank debit card (Mastercard debit): £8.69

Oanada also gave 0.869 for the interbank exchange rate on that day. So it would appear that with Metro Bank you also get the interbank exchange rate.

I was expecting some kind of differences between Visa and Mastercard, but as you can (on this occasion ;-) it was exactly the same.

Nessie

Thanks V much Will be off to Metro Bank.

Harveycat_2

Hi Guys.

I work for the NHS and for the first time in (my) living memory I am off for Christmas.

We have booked 10 days at Disney, Orlando 18-28 Dec.

Exchange $ rate Travelex today 57.75.

Should I buy now or should I wait a couple of weeks?

My question is really is it forecast to carry on going up or down again?

Thank you

Gaz.

jonesjw

Gazfaz wrote: »

Should I buy now or should I wait a couple of weeks?

This is a known unknown.

Accept that you & the rest of us cannot predict this.
Just ensure you get the best rate when you finally change the money, which should probably be later rather than earlier.

luci

No-one knows, otherwise we would be millionaires. I would suggest buying half now and half nearer the time to hedge your bets.

When you say Travelex, do you mean putting it onto a cash card or getting it in cash? It is cheaper to order in advance from Travelex for collection rather than walk in, same with the Post Office. Remember to use http://travelmoney.moneysavingexpert.com/ or https://www.comparetravelmoney.co.uk to check the best rates.

Congratulations on getting the time off at Xmas and have a great time.

Harveycat_2

luci wrote: »

No-one knows, otherwise we would be millionaires. I would suggest buying half now and half nearer the time to hedge your bets.

When you say Travelex, do you mean putting it onto a cash card or getting it in cash? It is cheaper to order in advance from Travelex for collection rather than walk in, same with the Post Office. Remember to use http://travelmoney.moneysavingexpert.com/ or www.comparetravelmoney.co.uk to check the best rates.

Congratulations on getting the time off at Xmas and have a great time.

Thanks Luci!

iblametheparents

Cornishsurfer wrote: »

I suppose I could use a pre-paid card, but these all seem to use their own exchange rates which I presume are not very advantageous. And will my credit card company charge me when I load the pre-paid card?

The Sterling cards (FairFX Anywhere and Caxton Global Traveller) use Mastercard's interbank rate NOT their own rates, however they do take a small percentage fee of this. FairFX have a 1.5% transaction charge and Caxton take 2.5% off the exchange rate (there's a slight difference in how these are calculated).