Cheap Travel Money Discussion Area

murphydavid

TheShape wrote: »

Went June 2018. Used a fee free credit card for much of the spending and fee-free debit card for withdrawals from cash machines for the rest. Probably about 50:50 spend credit card:cash. Probably could have put far more on a card than cash as cards were widely accepted.

Edit: Hungarian Forint!

Think its OK to name things here. Which fee free debit card? Don't see martins article mentioning debit cards only credit cards.

TheShape

The debit card we use is a Santander Zero debit card. It's not available to new customers though. It's a legacy account that my partner holds.

harz99

TheShape wrote: »

The debit card we use is a Santander Zero debit card. It's not available to new customers though. It's a legacy account that my partner holds.

Same here, and I also carry a Starling Bank debit card preloading the account before I go.

RobKett

Hi all, this question has probably been asked loads but I can't quite find what I'm looking for. We are going to be travelling across France for 6 months and want to be able to get cash out but also get some stability re exchange rates for our budget. Looking at cards like the Transferwise FX, it's great for real globetrotters but it only lets you take out £200 per month from cash machines - but this is probably what we will mostly want to do, and we'll need more than £200/m. Not keen on credit cards because we'll be out in the wilds quite a lot and managing money online will be tricky (I'm not a lover of mobiles, mine is a bit of an antique and not modern-app-friendly).



Really I want a card that lets us change a whack of money into euros when we're ready to do that and then access that via cash machines while in France. We're going to be doing workaway/wwoofing so - hopefully our spending won't be too high but what with brexit etc, the thought of currency fluctuations is making us a bit nervous.



Thanks for any advice or to help us think this through.

EveryWhere

RobKett wrote: »

Hi all, this question has probably been asked loads but I can't quite find what I'm looking for. We are going to be travelling across France for 6 months and want to be able to get cash out but also get some stability re exchange rates for our budget. Looking at cards like the Transferwise FX, it's great for real globetrotters but it only lets you take out £200 per month from cash machines - but this is probably what we will mostly want to do, and we'll need more than £200/m. Not keen on credit cards because we'll be out in the wilds quite a lot and managing money online will be tricky (I'm not a lover of mobiles, mine is a bit of an antique and not modern-app-friendly).
Really I want a card that lets us change a whack of money into euros when we're ready to do that and then access that via cash machines while in France. We're going to be doing workaway/wwoofing so - hopefully our spending won't be too high but what with brexit etc, the thought of currency fluctuations is making us a bit nervous.
Thanks for any advice or to help us think this through.

https://www.metrobankonline.co.uk/bank-accounts/products/current-account/ as your first choice

https://uk.virginmoney.com/virgin/current-account/essential-current-account.jsp as a back up.

If you want to change Euros in advance of leaving, but don't have a Smartphone, your choices are limited.

schiff

I have 500 euros to cash back to £. Toured a handful of banks for rates. The current guide price for 500 is £445, though I know I could never get that! The banks gave me figures around £408; I would like to do better than that. Luckily there is a family owned pawnbrokers etc in my town which does currency as a sideline! One of the banks told me I could not get a better rate anywhere locally!

Their current offer is £430; I'm not going to do better than that am I? Unless someone knows better?

zagfles

schiff wrote: »

I have 500 euros to cash back to £. Toured a handful of banks for rates. The current guide price for 500 is £445, though I know I could never get that! The banks gave me figures around £408; I would like to do better than that. Luckily there is a family owned pawnbrokers etc in my town which does currency as a sideline! One of the banks told me I could not get a better rate anywhere locally!

Their current offer is £430; I'm not going to do better than that am I? Unless someone knows better?

Ask around friends, family, work colleagues etc, it's almost certain that you know someone who'll be visiting the Eurozone in the near future. Trade with them and get the full £445.

EveryWhere

schiff wrote: »

I have 500 euros to cash back to £. Toured a handful of banks for rates. The current guide price for 500 is £445, though I know I could never get that! The banks gave me figures around £408; I would like to do better than that. Luckily there is a family owned pawnbrokers etc in my town which does currency as a sideline! One of the banks told me I could not get a better rate anywhere locally!

Their current offer is £430; I'm not going to do better than that am I? Unless someone knows better?

£445 guide price? You've made that up.
£432 is the max you will get, unless you exchange with someone who wants them for travel.

schiff

EveryWhere wrote: »

£445 guide price? You've made that up.
£432 is the max you will get, unless you exchange with someone who wants them for travel.

https://www.xe.com/currencyconverter/convert/?Amount=500&From=EUR&To=GBP

They do point out that it's a mid price and not available at that rate to the likes of us! As I mentioned.

Where can I get £432 please other than selling them privately?

EveryWhere

schiff wrote: »

https://www.xe.com/currencyconverter/convert/?Amount=500&From=EUR&To=GBP

They do point out that it's a mid price and not available at that rate to the likes of us! As I mentioned.

Where can I get £432 please other than selling them privately?

For £2, forget about it. Take the £430 or wait for someone who wants them for a holiday.