Cheap Travel Money Discussion Area

zagfles

antenna wrote: »

Ruben Exchange in Torremolinos,Benalmadena,Fuengirola,NO COMMISION of any kind either buying or selling 126.5 yesterday,
Google "rubenexchange" and you can see todays rate and the rate history they have paid over the last week.
Better than a reciept hey adindas.

Current Mastercard rate is 1.282982 so you're better off with a fee free card at a cashpoint, even one that charges interest eg the Clarity.

adindas

I did the experiment by myself (All dates used for the purpose of comparison are 09.01.2015)
http://rubenexchange.com/ £/EUR = 1.265
My previous postings are to compare it with
MasterCard/Visa card global exchange rates
https://www.mastercard.com/global/currencyconversion/ £/EUR = 1.282982
Visa global exchange rate:
http://www.visaeurope.com/making-payments/exchange-rates £/EUR = 1.28189

Visa/Mastercard global exchange rate is the rate you will get when you are using zero fee for foreign transaction debit cards such as those from Metro, Santander Zero, N&P, Cumberland BS debit card if you withdraw money from cash machine overseas. Yes Ruben Exchange might be one of the best rate among other shop front Bureau-de Change outlets on the street. It might be no fee but there is still reasonable profit margin there to be made is not it?.

Also keep in mind all of their three offices are in Spain where there are a lot of British tourists so the profit is boosted by the volume of daily exchange. It is not available in 3 out of 4 outlets in Italy and Canary island outlet as the question beeing asked by "rarrarrar" in the post #2520

Also there is another info available here
http://rubenexchange.com/offices/
"Information on website is for orientation only, exact details will be given upon purchasing product and or service"

Another experiment that I have tried from rubenexchnage website.
You could even exchange the amount of as low as £1 (no minimum amount) and they will give you EUR 1.265 ???. There must be any inaccuracy here as it is highly unlikely they will allow people to exchange as low as £1 with no minimum amount to get those rate.

You will never know the trick they will be using. It might be no fee apply but there is a minimum amount to exchange before you could get that advertised rate. But as I previously mention even with the current exchange rate they give there is still reasonable profit margin there to be made if the volume of exchange is right. However it is highly unlikely they will allow people to exchange as low as £1.
[FONT=&quot]
Various tricks could be used and [FONT=&quot]y[/FONT]ou will only know this when you actually do the exchange and see what condition, fee[FONT=&quot]/c[/FONT]ost or whatever they [FONT=&quot]call it [/FONT]will apply [FONT=&quot]on [/FONT]your receipt.
[/FONT]

antenna wrote: »

Ruben Exchange in Torremolinos,Benalmadena,Fuengirola,NO COMMISION of any kind either buying or selling 126.5 yesterday,
Google "rubenexchange" and you can see todays rate and the rate history they have paid over the last week.
Better than a reciept hey adindas.

stephencce

Hi Guys

I'm going to Argentina next week and was wondering what was the best way to take 2000GBP?

Any help would be welcome TA

beehappy

NiftyDigits wrote: »

No, it's just that you don't understand what has been written.
In addition, there is no 'short visa' in your case. It is a Visa Waiver.
Either way, the airline will not let you fly without a Tourist Visa, regardless of how you interpret what you have read.
You don't need to talk to anyone. I have already told you, so now you know. Tell your friend too. No Visa, no go. You don't want tears at the airport.
The only way to get around this is to buy a fully flexible ticket leaving Thailand within 30 days on the spot and then refund it once you are in Thailand. All a load of hassle.
If you think a sob story of what you were told by the embassy will help you in the airline queue, you'll be quite wrong.
Don't waste your time. Just get the thing done.

You can use the Visa Waiver if you have a confirmed flight out of Thailand within 30 days. You can then pop back into Thailand and get another 30 days and then out again and in again etc.. as longer as you are a proven tourist.
You cannot apply for a Tourist Visa inside Thailand. You can extend an existing Tourist Visa whilst inside the country by thirty days, at the cost of 1900 baht.
Don't get Visa mixed with Visa Waiver.

As to the Prepaid cards, top them up with a nominal amount, say £50 each, until they have been fully activated. Setting the Kalixa Pay up for alerts will inform you of your transactions and cost/balance each time.
Do it now, rather than to waste time thinking that you can find better.

Once done, you can explore getting a Cumberland Plus account if you are from their catchment area.
Second best would be the Gold Classic Current Account from the Norwich & Peterborough Building Society.

But have the Prepaid cards in place in the case of failure. You don't want to be flapping around at the last minute.

Aren't you glad that you posted?

Hey, thanks for the heads up on the cards, they arrived after Xmas and I am all ready to top them up with the larger amounts of money before I leave. I think these will be very useful indeed.

I just had another question about the Thai visa, my friend and I have booked travel as follows -

27th Jan fly from London to Bangkok (arrive 28th)
21st Feb fly to Vietnam from Bangkok - return on 3rd March
2nd April he flies back to the UK and I will also be leaving Thailand to head to Australia but I have yet to book my flight.

Doing it this way he will get 2 visa waivers, am I correct that the cut off date for the visa waiver after our return from Vietnam would be 2nd April? Therefore if I booked a flight later than the 2nd, would I be able to get an extension or not?

Thanks again for all your help.

NiftyDigits

beehappy wrote: »

Hey, thanks for the heads up on the cards, they arrived after Xmas and I am all ready to top them up with the larger amounts of money before I leave. I think these will be very useful indeed.

I just had another question about the Thai visa, my friend and I have booked travel as follows -

27th Jan fly from London to Bangkok (arrive 28th)
21st Feb fly to Vietnam from Bangkok - return on 3rd March
2nd April he flies back to the UK and I will also be leaving Thailand to head to Australia but I have yet to book my flight.

Doing it this way he will get 2 visa waivers, am I correct that the cut off date for the visa waiver after our return from Vietnam would be 2nd April? Therefore if I booked a flight later than the 2nd, would I be able to get an extension or not?

Thanks again for all your help.

You get 30 days, including the day that you enter.
You can extend it for 30 day, at a cost of 1900 baht(£38).

As a told you..... get a Visa if you can. Double Entry if necessary. £25 per entry and no hassle once done.

imper

OK i'm thick skinned enough that I can stand people calling me dumb. For years I've had a Nationwide debit card that gave me free overseas withdrawls, and since they started charging I've only suffered on a couple of trips; but I don't want to suffer no more! I'm going to Portugal for a while next week, and although I get a good exchange rate, I now have to pay 2% + £1 for ATM withdrawls= about £6 on £250 withdrawl. I was going to get a Travelex Cash Passport, which is recommended, but whilst its free to withdraw, the initial exchange rate is lousy if I want to put £ into Euros on the card. The wonderful Halifax Clarity (which I can't get right now) offers 1.347 today, whilst Travelex is down at 1.303, but surely the Halifax rate is the pure Mastercard rate, so wouldn't I be able to get the same rate on a Virgin money prepaid card, and then only have to pay 1.50 Euro per withdrawl ?

murphydavid

imper wrote: »

OK i'm thick skinned enough that I can stand people calling me dumb. For years I've had a Nationwide debit card that gave me free overseas withdrawls, and since they started charging I've only suffered on a couple of trips; but I don't want to suffer no more! I'm going to Portugal for a while next week, and although I get a good exchange rate, I now have to pay 2% + £1 for ATM withdrawls= about £6 on £250 withdrawl. I was going to get a Travelex Cash Passport, which is recommended, but whilst its free to withdraw, the initial exchange rate is lousy if I want to put £ into Euros on the card. The wonderful Halifax Clarity (which I can't get right now) offers 1.347 today, whilst Travelex is down at 1.303, but surely the Halifax rate is the pure Mastercard rate, so wouldn't I be able to get the same rate on a Virgin money prepaid card, and then only have to pay 1.50 Euro per withdrawl ?

Of the ones you quote I only have the Halifax and it is the pure Mastercard rate.
The pros are
1 Its free to use the card directly in restraunts, bars shops etc provided you pay in Euros and don't let the retailer use his bank to exchange curency which they sometimes try to sneakily do this saves you handling cash.
2 Its free to make cash withdrawls from many ATM's (keep an eye out for ones that say they charge)
3 You can pay off the credit on line any time and before you get the bill to minimise interest charges.
4 You can advise your trip details in advance to save it being cancelled due to unusual overseas activity.
The only two cons I know is the longer you leave the credit on your card the more interest you pay. There is a daily ATM cash withdrawl limit (500 I think)

As a guide. Last time I used mine I withdrew about 750 euro cash and paid about 1000 to shops etc directly and paid it off about 1.5 weeks later and was charged about £1.70 in interest.

Hope thats useful to you

imper

Thanks murphydavid, but unfortunately I don't have much chance of being able to get a Clarity card right now, MSE's eligibility check gives me a so-so 60%, so its on my wishlist. Right now I need a pre-paid card next week, which is why I was wondering what exchange rate I'd get putting Euro's on a Virgin card.

zagfles

imper wrote: »

Thanks murphydavid, but unfortunately I don't have much chance of being able to get a Clarity card right now, MSE's eligibility check gives me a so-so 60%, so its on my wishlist. Right now I need a pre-paid card next week, which is why I was wondering what exchange rate I'd get putting Euro's on a Virgin card.

Best to get a pre-paid card in GBP, the currency will get converted when you use it so if you have any left over you won't have wasted money converting more than you need. I think Kalixa is the best value as they don't mark up the exchange rate, though they do have some other fees inc cash withdrawal fees. Loads of info about it in this thread.

NiftyDigits

imper wrote: »

Thanks murphydavid, but unfortunately I don't have much chance of being able to get a Clarity card right now, MSE's eligibility check gives me a so-so 60%, so its on my wishlist. Right now I need a pre-paid card next week, which is why I was wondering what exchange rate I'd get putting Euro's on a Virgin card.

If you live in or near London, pop into a Metro Bank and get their debit card on the spot.

Oh....I see that you've been down that road. So Kalixa Pay, as above. Top up with a nominal amount until you have received and activated the card.

If someone refers you, you'll get £5 credited to the account. But you probably don't have time for that.