Cheap Travel Money Discussion Area

SewerSide

It seems as though if you buy foreign currency from Tesco online with a Tesco credit card, you pay no cash advance fee. Is this right?

Ronan88

Hey i'm going on holiday in the end of June for a week to Costa Del Sol. I was wanting to take between 300-500 pounds spending money.

What's the best way to do this? I've read the article but i'm still confused between currency, bank debit or credit card, or pre-paid card. And what about travellers cheques?

Susie1_2

SewerSide wrote: »

It seems as though if you buy foreign currency from Tesco online with a Tesco credit card, you pay no cash advance fee. Is this right?

Yes that's right. I've just called, checked and ordered! They told me that there is no cash advance fee or daily interest. So if you pay off your card at the end of the month it's just as if you've paid for something in a shop.

Interestingly, they told me that the exchange rates at the in-store bureaux vary. They looked up what my local Tesco store rate was, then told me their rate which beat it. There was no difference between the rate for ordering on the phone or online. It all went very smoothly indeed. I'll be using them again.

terryw

Ronan88 wrote: »

Hey i'm going on holiday in the end of June for a week to Costa Del Sol. I was wanting to take between 300-500 pounds spending money.

What's the best way to do this? I've read the article but i'm still confused between currency, bank debit or credit card, or pre-paid card. And what about travellers cheques?

Pre-load a Nationwide debit card before you go. No fees to withdraw and paid at the best exchange rate.

John_Pierpoint

Watch out for "dynamic currency conversion"; don't let the machine talk to you in sterling.

JuJu_3

Hello,

We're going to Bulgaria in a couple of weeks' time and I'm after some advice, please.

We have booked ski lessons/equipment/lift passes/transfers through a company who have asked us to pay in cash (either Lev of Euro) when we get there.

It's quite a lot of money (over £900 in total for four of us) and I'm not sure I want to carry that much cash.

I have a Nationwide debit card which I have used for many years on holidays to Spain and France without any problems, but it failed to work in ATMs in America a few years ago. I had other family members with me then, so could borrow from them, but we will be on our own in Bulgaria, so I don't want to get stuck without any cash!

Does anyone have any experience of using cashpoints in Bulgaria? Should I take a back-up source of cash? (If so, what's best? I really don't like using Travellers Cheques.)

Thanks for any advice!

Ju

Colinwr5

Nicky23 wrote: »

I'm so totally confused now

We're going to South Africa in June - we currently have an Abbey debit card, Lloyds TSB debit card and a Barclays debit card - from what i've read on here we should avoid using these at all??!!

I've read up about the Travelex cash passport which sounds the best option to me - does anyone have an opinion for me on this please?

Just seen your note. I am a UK resident but live in South Africa for long periods each year. I have a Nationwide Debit card for cash machine withdrawals and Nationwide Credit card that I use for everything else and both give a good rate - better than local Travelex. When Nationwide put a 1% charge on last year I took out a Santander Zero credit card. However after various trials of using both credit cards on the same day have found that the total conversion rate used by both is the same! Although there is no 1% charge with Santander they use a worse exchange rate so you are no better off with them.

Baldur

JuJu wrote: »

Does anyone have any experience of using cashpoints in Bulgaria? Should I take a back-up source of cash?

I've used my Flex a/c Debit Card in Bulgaria for many years and always receive a very good rate of exchange. I usually withdraw 400 Leva per transaction.

Always pay in Leva NOT Euro, as you will be probably be quoted €1=2 Leva, which is incorrect - the official rate is €1=1.95583 Leva, so you could end up overpaying quite a lot by paying Euro and you would also have another lot of exchange rate adjustment.

If you have to change cash, use a proper bank (e.g. Bulbank/Raffeisen/Postbank, etc.), not bureaux de change or street 'money-changers' as you will almost certainly be the victim of fraud.

ss4

I'm going to switzerland next week, I was wondering what is the best way to spend there. Looking at the article, prepaid cards look appealing but they mostly come in dollars and euros. Can you get them in swiss francs? Otherwise would cash be the best option?

dzug1

Well it depends on what you mean by best.

Prepaid cards are highly convenient, safe and fashionable, above all the last of these. They are also in general fairly expensive.

The best of them (Caxton and Fair Fx) are actually quite good costwise - but I doubt if you could get one delivered in time if you are going next week. The ones you can get over the counter (Post Office and Travelex) are on the expensive side.

You can't AFAIK get them in Swiss francs - you'd need a sterling one to avoid two sets of exchange costs.

Spend on your credit card and get cash with your debit card is the best general advice - whether it's the absolute best for you (which I'm defining as cheapest) depends on what cards you have.