Cheap Travel Money Discussion Area

katies_mum

We`ve just got the Saga cc, did it all on-line no hasstle. Credit limit isn`t as high as yours though! but we only want it just incase for our holiday.

ukclarkkent

quick question about the reliability of using crown currency exchange and their deliveries...

they come out tops tonight for what i want(£600 in euros) by delivery. are they reliable? do they deliver to places of work? any horror stories/good news?

thanks in advance, me.

EDIT: just read they deliver to home addresses only. cheers.

John_Pierpoint

There is a new peer to peer currency exchange service.
The objective is to cut the bank out of the system by matching deals between real people.
There is no need for a middle man to act a the bookie.
The company running the computer system supposedly has the full backing of the Irish authorities - so the deal should bed as safe as using the Post Office.

As the banking system takes several days to transfer the money, it is not suitable for the last minute holiday maker.

Here is the web site, plus those running similar "peer to peer" services in other markets.

http://www.currencyfair.com/our-story.jsp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zopa
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EBay
http://www.betfair.com/

A.Jones

Does anyone know whether Halifax charge commission if I pre-book travel money at Travelex with my visa debit card? The Martin Lewis article says no, but I phoned Halifax today and they say they will charge 2.75% if I use the card to pay for Euros, even if billed in GBP in the UK.

Has anyone used travelex in the very recent past and do they know the answer?

designerggirl

cowbagger wrote: »

Fairly basic question here - I must be missing something - hopefully you can help me?
I need some euros. This website tells me if I pre-order with say Travelex i get a better deal than just buying at the airport. But when I go to the website to pre-order, I have to pay with a debit/credit card (which will cost me as I'm with Lloyds)

I was hoping to pay with cash to avoid the load on my Lloyds account so how can I pre-order then pay with cash please? Or, if someone can do the maths (?) Am I better off just buying at the airport with cash (ie worse exchange rate) or pre-ordering and paying with debit card o internet (ie better rate but current account charges from Lloyds) I'm talking around £500.

Many thanks for any advice (perhaps it doesnt matter for this small amount?)

Hi cowbagger,
I am looking for the best euro rates too and this company has the best rate. Check them out INTERCHANGEFX. I hope this helps.

malc_b

A.Jones wrote: »

Does anyone know whether Halifax charge commission if I pre-book travel money at Travelex with my visa debit card? The Martin Lewis article says no, but I phoned Halifax today and they say they will charge 2.75% if I use the card to pay for Euros, even if billed in GBP in the UK.

Has anyone used travelex in the very recent past and do they know the answer?

I used them in Aug 2009 and there was no fee. The order from travelex said:

Buying: Cash
Currency: Euro
Amount: EUR 120.00
Rate: 1.1379
Cost: £105.46

Collected at airport, so 0 fee from Travelex. Halifax account shows a debit of £105.46. But of course, that doesn't mean Halifax haven't changed things since.

My most recent purchase of Euros was picked up at the post office (I got £3 cash back so was a slightly better deal). That was 9 April 2010. Again the post office total matched the debit from my account so there was no fee.

Slightly off topic I fail to understand why people stay with banks that charge them to pay any bills in GBP with a debit card. Just move banks!

whitedesire

In my opinion, although this site puts FairFX at the top for the best top up card, it has a charge of €1.5/$2 for each withdrawal. Whereas, there is no withdrawal fee with Caxton.

Someone on here posted 1.245 for the Euro on FairFX and 1.24 on Caxton, but remember there is a £2 charge on the FairFX, so if you withdraw, say, £100, well the rest speaks for itself. In my opinion, Caxton is far superior.

Mind you if you top up £500 with FairFX they give an extra £5, but I only generally top up about £3-400.

indiasign

Hi can anyone recommend Thomas Exchange Global - I travel to Majorca a week on Saturday and they look to have one of the better rates and can get me the currency in time, but they require payment by "Faster Payments" which I've never done before.

And is it safe, getting currency delivered?

Thanks, Peter

graemecarter

I used Thomas Exchange yesterday - ordered Euros online (for a fantastic rate) and popped into the Hammersmith Branch yesterday and collected. Very quick and efficient.

I would have them deliver to me I think - they seemed legitimate.

Regarding Faster payments :
Faster Payments Service (FPS) is a UK banking initiative to reduce payment times between different banks' customer accounts from three working days using the long-established BACS system, to near real time. CHAPS already provides limited faster-than-BACS service (by close of business that day) for 'high value' transactions, while FPS is focused on the much larger number of payments of any size up to £10,000 (£100,000 for standing orders).
Twelve banks and one building society, accounting for about 95 percent of payments traffic, initially committed to use the service. Other institutions could join later as full members (though as of June 2010 none have.) For smaller organisations such as building societies and savings institutions, a deposit-only service is available through agency arrangements with a member. There had been few announcements regarding charges for Faster Payments. It was expected to be around £1-£5 [1][2][3] for immediate payments by business users. No retail bank currently charges individual customers, nor is there currently any sign this will change.
FPS was officially launched on the 27 May 2008[4] (though testing the previous week allowed users to process very small value (1p) transactions as 'faster payments')[5]. Initially only non-scheduled, 'immediate' payments (about 5 percent of traffic) were enabled to use the service,[6] with access for future-dated payments and standing orders from 6 June. In practice the service was severely limited by the approach of individual member banks to its adoption (see Implementation). A general online Sort Code Checker [7] was made available by APACS shortly ahead of launch, which shows whether a specific sort code is able to receive Faster Payments.

snownrock

Hi all,

While the guide is excellent i'm still a little bemused after reading through a few times and wondered if anyone could offer some advice on our travel finance options.

Myself are my fiance are going to be spending 9 weeks in South Africa starting mid august (her 6 weeks then together for an additional 3 weeks). After reading the guide it is clear that using our Natwest Debit and Virgin Credit card is a big no no, which we had assumed anyway.

We were planning to get a Travelex pre paid card to use for pretty much everything as they are available in Rand so we could load it before her trip then i could add additional funds before i fly out to meet her. The exchange rate is poor (about 4% less than the best cash rates) but this would avoid having to carry large amounts of cash around or the hassle of travellers cheques.

I have seen the FairFX and CantonFX card but these are only available in dollars or euros, i imagine i would be hit if using these in SA for another conversion, would these still be better value than the Travelex card, i notice no fee for re-loading. Or would you just recommend cash over the above options?

We were also going to get a new credit card along the lines of the PO or Clarity card to have in case of an emergency, but im worried these will only give me low credit limits due to their other bonuses and the fact we are still young. Would i be better getting a 'normal' credit card that would likely give me a bigger limit if i was only planning to use it in emergencies (flights home, medical treatment etc) Obvioussly having the travel friendly card would be a bonus as we could use it if needed without fears of big fees.

What would be your suggestions to the above options?