Cheap Travel Money Discussion Area

WAYT

ShaunRUK wrote: »

Hi everyone, I'm posting in the hope that someone could possibly help me or perhaps offer me some advice please. I'm going away to America in late November and I saw in the news recently that the autumn budget will happen on the 22nd November and I was wondering if this would have an effect ( better or worse ) on the exchange rate as if it will I will think about getting my dollars before the budget is announced ????

Many thanks for any and all help / advice in advance, Kindest regards ShaunRUK

https://www.revolut.com

Stock it up with Pounds and change them to US$ and back to Pounds in seconds, at the full 'interbank' exchange rate, with a few taps. Though don't do the exchange at weekends.

kevin72

Hi, i used a travelex prepaid card this summer- all OK until I tried to get the money left on the card back- travelex want £6.50 to pay you back your own money!. Be careful with this. I argued the toss and threatened to make an official compliant and they agreed to void the charge after i asked to speak to someone with the authority to do this. I was not made aware of this charge. Be careful and check any charges if you may want to cash out

eDicky

kevin72 wrote: »

Hi, i used a travelex prepaid card this summer- all OK until I tried to get the money left on the card back- travelex want £6.50 to pay you back your own money!. Be careful with this. I argued the toss and threatened to make an official compliant and they agreed to void the charge after i asked to speak to someone with the authority to do this. I was not made aware of this charge. Be careful and check any charges if you may want to cash out

Be careful to avoid such a card, along with those from travel agents, supermarkets and the Post Office, when fee-free cards such as Monzo, Loot, Revolut and Starling Bank give you the MasterCard or interbank rate.

The 'cash out' fee for the Travelex Money Card is clearly given as £6. Their rate for euros on the card today is 1.1088 when the mid market rate is 1.14 ...!!!

Anthorn

ShaunRUK wrote: »

Hi everyone, I'm posting in the hope that someone could possibly help me or perhaps offer me some advice please. I'm going away to America in late November and I saw in the news recently that the autumn budget will happen on the 22nd November and I was wondering if this would have an effect ( better or worse ) on the exchange rate as if it will I will think about getting my dollars before the budget is announced ????

Many thanks for any and all help / advice in advance, Kindest regards ShaunRUK

It's a gamble. When you buy your currency by whatever method you choose you don't know at that time that if you bought a few days later you might have got more due to a better exchange rate. But that "more" is likely to be very little unless a currency crashes. As I have tried to point out albeit unsuccessfully in several posts, if you are for example taking over an international company at a cost of millions or even billions the difference matters but for holiday money it doesn't really matter at all.

ElBeanio

I've just opened a DKB current account with linked credit card account for free cash withdrawal. No banking charges. Bit of a faff to set up and it helps if you speak German, as all correspondences are in German, but staff speak good English

ElBeanio

Just to let people know: the above card as recommended by MSE does *not* actually offer the VISA rate (this was at least the impression given in the article, even though it was not quite explicit what exactly the rate was).

The VISA rate can be checked online and I got my mum to withdraw cash wth the card in Germany and checked the VISA rate that day. The result of my test: the rate includes a 2.75% fee. Thought it would be too good to be true!

However, the benefits are that there are no extra fees for withdrawing cash as such and there is no interest if you pay off the full amount.

PeacefulWaters

Are you sure you've got the right Barclaycard?

Gloomendoom

My standard Barclaycard just has a flat 2.99% fee for foreign purchases and ATM withdrawals. There is no interest on either if you pay your bill in full when due. I only use it for emergencies.

It sounds like you have one too.

dj1471

ElBeanio wrote: »

The VISA rate can be checked online and I got my mum to withdraw cash wth the card in Germany and checked the VISA rate that day.

You never get the rate on the date of the transaction, you get the rate in force on the day the transaction is "settled" which is typically a few days later. Does this explain the difference or have you got the wrong card?

zagfles

ElBeanio wrote: »

Just to let people know: the above card as recommended by MSE does *not* actually offer the VISA rate (this was at least the impression given in the article, even though it was not quite explicit what exactly the rate was).

The VISA rate can be checked online and I got my mum to withdraw cash wth the card in Germany and checked the VISA rate that day. The result of my test: the rate includes a 2.75% fee. Thought it would be too good to be true!

However, the benefits are that there are no extra fees for withdrawing cash as such and there is no interest if you pay off the full amount.

You either have the wrong card, got stung by DCC, or the transaction wasn't processed on the day you think it was.