The Cheapest Way to Spend Overseas Discussion Area

bagand96

Hi. Off to Spain soon and will be taking traveller's cheques as usual. I don't want Euro ones for two reasons:

1)You get a pretty rubbish ecxhange rate - its far better over there

2)Travel agents always spin you the line that "You get face value over there" i.e. a 100 Euro cheque = 100 Euro cash. A lot of the time this isn't the case and abroad you will get charged commission for Euro cheques.

I always take sterling cheques, as in my experience they change them commission free and as mentioned you get a better rate.

So the question is - where to get them from? Commission Free offers always exclude Sterling cheques - but wondered if anyone knew anywhere that includes them. if not, where's cheapest? I usually use Coventry Building Society, they do £1 + 1%. Thats about the best I can find, anyone know better?

gigif30

judt got some from lloyds tsb and as i have an account with them you pay no fees:beer:

u2o

Just to let you all know that highstreet retailer Thomson was offering the best currency exchange today for Euros.

They were offering 0% commission, exchange rate of 1.418 compared to 1.417 at M&S. I know its a small difference but i was chuffed as I always found M&S to be the best!

alison74

Marks and Spencers are 1%, post office are 1.5%.

I got all mine at M & S

basill

I`m surprised that noone has suggested just using Nationwide switch yet!
However I think travellers cheques are a good backup.
I always have some as I think the guarantee is worth the 1%. I usually take cash or draw money from ATMs abroad now but I have a couple of hundred pounds in travellers cheques tucked away for when the ATM is out of order or other emergencies. They are a few years old now but one day...

B

pin

eeja wrote:

You may be right Pin as mine was only an informed guess. But how many Visa card holders are there in the world and if only a small proportion used their card in a country which uses a different currency or over the internet , the daily currency turnover would be unimaginable.
Wonder if Visa publishes any figures.

Retail / consumer foreign usage is a tiny, tiny, tiny piece of the pie compared to the institiutional forex trades that go on. Retail forex is probably in the billions, while institutional (i.e. commercial) trades are in their trillions.

eeja

Thanks for that , Pin.
If you need anymore testing to establish what actually goes on with the Nationwide debit card, I am in a good position to do any empirical testing as I have a dozen ATMs within minutes and a computer nearby to check the actual rate given on N/W online banking. If a withdrawal occurs in Bangkok before 11am UK time it appears on the N/W statement the same day. If after 11am it appears the following day.By the way the VISA exchange rate day starts at 00.00 hours New York time and the rate for the day as published on the VISA website changes a few hours later.
You are not the famous PIN CHAKRAPAT are you ? ....if not check his name on Google !!!

budgetflyer

So basically.eeja, what you are saying is it isn't free withdrawals afterall. They cook the exch rate so that it looks like free. What percentage difference is there?
To be honest I suspected something like this. Buying currency online. Nationwide use Travelex ,but you get a lower rate than travelex direct

bagand96

basill wrote:

I`m surprised that noone has suggested just using Nationwide switch yet!
However I think travellers cheques are a good backup.
I always have some as I think the guarantee is worth the 1%. I usually take cash or draw money from ATMs abroad now but I have a couple of hundred pounds in travellers cheques tucked away for when the ATM is out of order or other emergencies. They are a few years old now but one day...

B

Every year I say I'm going to open a nationwide account, and every year I fail to do so! Too late now, doubt I could have it all up and running before I go.

Was funny in Zante last year one Sunday when all the cashpoints in the resort ran out of money. Luckily I could lend my friend some Euros but the amount of Brits wandering around looking very pennyless and not sure what to do was rather amusing!

Thanks for all the replies, I'll look at M&S, or just use Coventry BS...

eeja

Lloyds advertise sterling tc's commission free for everyone !
Moneyfacts confirms this in their mag and online !
UNTRUE the Edgware Rd London W2 branch refused to sell them and H.O says they cannot stop the branch making its own rules . So walked to Oxford St. No problem there .