Cheap travel money and exchange rates

hsupeda

Hi

Ive been reading the thread below, which explains whats the best cards to use abroad for withdrawing money and credit cards:

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheap-travel-money

Ive thought about taking a abbey zero credit card and opening a nationwide account for cash withdrawels. As then I wont have any charges on credit card charges or withdrawing money.

The only thing im stuck on is, if these banks are offering no charges for their use, then are their exchange rates no good? does anyone know what they are, compared to best ones?

All help much appreciated.

many thanks

benjus

Hi hsupeda,

Basically the banks issuing these cards don't have any control over the raw exchange rates - they are set by Visa/Mastercard. However, the banks do have the option to add their cut, which is the "loading" discussed in the article you mentioned.

Visa publishes rates for the major currencies here: http://corporate.visa.com/pd/consumer_services/consumer_ex_rates.jsp (put 0 in the "bank fee" box for Nationwide/Abbey Zero cards). MasterCard don't publish their rates AFAIK.

These exchange rates are generally the same as the wholesale exchange rates used to trade between banks, so you can't possibly get a better rate. The only exception I can think of would be a country like Venezuela where money can be exchanged on the black market at much better rates than the official rate.

hsupeda

thanks, sounds like a good option to take money abroad then!

McKneff

just a thought but maybe you know this already although the Abbey card doesnt charge for withdrawal of cash it does attract interest from the date of the withdrawal.