Turkey Currency

organic_choc

Traveling to Turkey next week - and I am not sure what is the best method to carry money there.

Must I bring along Turkish money there or is it easier that I withdraw money there from my bank account (HBOS)?

I also have a Travelex Cash Passport - is it a good idea to load it up with British Pounds and withdraw local currency from cash machines once I'm in Turkey?

Many thanks!!

organic_choc

PS - what to say that I have already checked the webpage on cheap foreign currencies but want to see what's people's experiences are like.

Thanks again!!

kingston_toon

Simply use your card to withdraw money when you get there - I've been doing this for years and never had any problems. There are loads of ATMs in Turkey (except perhaps in very rural eastern areas).

organic_choc

Thanks to Kingston_toon's advice!!

organic_choc

I have decided to take half the money in cash (Turkey Lira) and half the money in a Prepaid Card in British Pounds. I have looked at all three Prepaid Cards recommended on the "Cheap Travel Money" page and as I'm traveling outwith the Euro / Dollar zones getting a Prepaid Card isn't as straightforward. The total amount I put on Prepaid Card or buy in Lira will be in absolute minimum as, as pointed out by Kingston_toon, (1) there are cash machines everywhere I can take extra money out of my HBOS account if I'm desperate; (2) inflation in Turkey has always been rampant and there is a 2% charge for loading the money on the prepaid card (see below).

FairFX only does cards in Euro and Dollar. So it's no good for me as I'm going to Turkey.

Caxton FX has three currency options: Euro, Dollar and British Pounds (Global Traveller Card). This would have been my number one choice had I planned this sooner - compared to Travelex it doesn't ask for a 2% loading charge for putting Pounds onto a card, when you take money out from a Pound card there is no fees involved (NB it only applies to Pounds, there are fees if you take Euro out of a Euro card or Dollar out of a Dollar card).

But alas the website says that it will take 7 working days / 14 days - depending on which webpage you're visiting - I only have less than a week to do this so this rule it out for me.

Travelex: It does cards in Euro, Dollar and Pounds. Loading cash on to the card in Euros and Dollars is free, but loading Pounds onto a card attracts a 2% charge. There is also a £1.50 charge per withdrawal from an ATM.

In a way the Travelex's offer is fairly similar to what I can get from my banks HBOS (£1.50 + 2.75%) or A&L (2.95% + 2% at ATM / 2.95% transactions). I won’t be saving much by just looking at the fees. But hopefully the lower exchange rates offered at Travelex is much better than HBOS and A&L and will make this ordering a Cash Passport thing all worthwhile. (It’s Sunday and I can’t check HBOS’s rate for Lira and A&L doesn’t do foreign exchange. HBOS rates have always been worse than most high street offers so I think I can safely assume that it’s going to be worse than Travelex.)


Going on and on in here mostly to straighten my head and hopefully this might be useful for someone sometime in the future. Thankyou for listening!

organic_choc

PS - apparently most hotels and tour operators deal in Euros. So if you have money remaining in your Euro prepaid cards it might be worthwhile to take those along and use them. This is what I plan to do. Hopefully it will work. I shall report back.

greenface

when and where are you going ? im off to marmaris in july and from my looking gbp is king euros good and turkish lira for easy money transactions i think access to a bit of all may be the best idea

bevvy

when we were in turkey 2006 & 2007 we found that we seemed to get better deals at markets, etc if we paid in £s they seemed to really want the £s, think they got better exchange or something at banks, also you know exactly what you are paying. Not sure if this is still the case or not anymore as that was couple of years ago but we always used £s when we were buying our market tat. lol
I personally wouldn't be happy using a cash machine as a couple of times we seen people having problems, not sure what happened but think the machines were dodgy/tampered with, but this was outside the main/tourist area.

stephb34

Thomas cook do a pre paid card it is free to obtain and free to reload, think you could use the euro 1 in turkey although im not 100% and you can def use the sterling 1. It is activated 24hrs after purchase and its free to use to spend in shops, restaurants, bars etc for purchases but there is a charge of £1.50 if you use it in the hole in the wal to withdraw turkish lira. You can have a second card on the same account in case you lose the 1st 1 free of charge, just make sure when they load it you get the best rate they offer.

organic_choc

greenface wrote: »

when and where are you going ? im off to marmaris in july and from my looking gbp is king euros good and turkish lira for easy money transactions i think access to a bit of all may be the best idea

Hi I'm back from Istanbul yesterday!:rotfl:

In the end I took 1000 lira with me in cash and gave up on the cash passport altogether. I had to take out an extra 200 lira from my bank account while I was there - and that's because I forgot to get extra money for gifts (turkish delights ). Paid for hotel using Visa card.

1000 lira was for 2 persons - me and my little sis over 7/8 days - we arrived Saturday afternoon and left next Saturday early afternoon. Eating is quite cheap. Speaking for me and my little sis we couldn't spot much difference between restaurant fare and canteen food. I mean, there are some differences, but I am no connoisseur in Turkish cooking so to me the perceptible differences are pretty small.

organic_choc

Not quite sure where to share this but since I'd been writing in here I'll stick it in here also. Excuse my enthusiasm as I'd just returned!!

Restaurants, even when recommended by guide books, can be tourist trap. Lonely Planet talks about this cheap and excellent kebab place called Konak (259 İstiklal Caddesi). We went there and ended up spending close to 60 lira - more than twice we expected to. Waiter said to us that this Special Kebab for 2 persons is 20 lira and is excellent - ended up it is 20 lira per head, so it was actually 40 liras. :mad: This Special Kebab cost twice as much as everything else on the menu. Flavour wise this special kebab is nothing special and we have eaten cheaper kebab in Aberdeen.

Another place called Haci Baba (49 İstiklal Caddesi, http://www.hacibabarest.com/index_eng.html), also recommended by LP is perfectly fine. The waiter treated us nicely and although we spent similar amount of money there was no feeling of being ripped off, the food is ottamon/turkish cuisine and mezes and we expected to pay more anyway.

Most we had spent in one meal was 155 lira (that's including tips twice over, guidebook says that you're expected to tip 10% even if a service charge has already been added to the bill). We went to the Konyali Restaurant inside the Topkapi Palace (http://www.konyalilokantasi.com/english/esaray.htm). This place is recommended in the DK Eyewitness guidebook. We didn't went there wearing the hat of a money saver, we really want to check out what Turkish Cruisine at its best is like. We weren't disappointed, it was good. But if we had spent this amount of money in a french restaurant in Aberdeen we could fit in a nice bottle of wine into the bargain too. Oh well we were eating in the palace / major tourist attraction so no wine it is then.

One more place - and we went to eat there almost every night :rotfl: - is called Bereket Halk Döner Restaurant (it has two branches in Istanbul: 20 İstiklal Caddesi, approx. 50 feet from Taksim Square; Cumhuriyet Caddesi 53, Harbiye Elmadağ, again this road leads off from Taksim Square). It's like a college canteen. You pull out a tray and point at food you want and you pay at the till when you're done choosing. We never spend more than 30 liras and that is including 2 drinks, usually 2 salads (tomatoes/cucumber, wine leaves wrap), another 2 hot dishes. You can take as much bread as you want. It's not the cheapest but I think it's good stuff. Lots of locals eat there too.

Cheapest eats had to be buying doner kebabs on the street. Cheapest I'd ever came across is just off from the Spice Bazaar. As you approach Spice Bazaar from the coast, go right and follow the main road, and you keep on going until you get to be near to the mosque on the right there is a small kebab stall which sells a doner kebab (chicken) with a small cup of aryan (salty yoghurt drink) for 1.50 lira. :T More often the same are sold at 3 to 4 lira.

The further away from the main attractions the cheaper are the kebabs. Same applies with exchange rates at money changer. Highest I saw are money changers located close to the Blue Mosque and around the swish hotels in between the Blue Mosque and the Grand Bazaar area. Just a few steps away, squeezed between the Grand Bazaar and Nuru Osmaniye Cd the rate is much better. Even better rates are on offer if you cross over to the Asian side to Kadıköy.

If you like to take in a bit of light breeze while you sit / stand around on a street, there aren't much chance to do so. Most likely someone will approach you and try to sell you something within 5 minutes. I'm no good at bargaining so I avoided these folks. The only places we managed to sit around undisturbed for extended periods were: some steps close to the Eminönü port, where lots of locals were also sitting there; when we strolled along the cost from the Western District towards Eminönü.