The Cheapest Way to Spend Overseas Discussion Area

chip85

Hi,

I'm gonna be leaving the country for this first time this summer on a Camp America placement and I really need to sort out how I'm gonna spend money over there. There are so many options available I don't even know where to start.

I was thinking of taking around $400 in cash and using a card to pay for everything else. I'm getting paid $1150 which I think will probably be straight into my bank account. At the moment I'm with HSBC and only have a Maestro Debit Card.

Do I need a credit card and if so which is the best value for money?
Will I get charged for using cards in a foreign country?
How do travellers cheques work?
Should I change my money now while the pound is strong?
Am I even taking enough? Should I change more? (I get free food and accomodation for 9 weeks and then plan to travel afterwards)

Basically I'm looking for the cheapest way to spend money (sounds silly i know:rolleyes:)

Thanks

jinkssick

Havent you read anything here.

The Nationwide Debit or cashcard has no foreign loading anywhere in the world, basically this is what you need. put all your money in there. If its possible then tell them to pay you straight into this nationwide account. its that simple.

taking money out of your HSBC bank account will incur hefty charges so just go to your nationwide branch asap.

ernie-money

Just a bit of info. I have just returned from our holiday and before we left we paid a lumpsum into our post office credit card account, and used this for spending while we were out there. As a result we have not been charged a penny interest for any of our withdrawals - bonus!

groverjoe

ernie-money wrote: »

Just a bit of info. I have just returned from our holiday and before we left we paid a lumpsum into our post office credit card account, and used this for spending while we were out there. As a result we have not been charged a penny interest for any of our withdrawals - bonus!

Thanks for the tip - I'm thinking of doing this myself. Just to be absolutely clear, if I preload my Post Office Credit Card (currently at a zero balance) before going on holiday, I should be able to withdraw as many times as I like from an overseas ATM until I reach zero again and not be charged the usual £2 or 2% minimum cash advance fee each time (or any other charges for that matter?) And once I go beyond zero, the £2/2% charges will kick in?

Does that sound about right?

dlevene

Does anyone know a student/little-credit-history credit card that doesn't load worldwide and has no fee on spending?

I finally managed to scrape together a few options for credit cards and then realised that they'd all charge me for spending in a foreign currency, the main point of me getting a credit card!

Any help would be great!

middleoftheroad

My son has a flexaccount debit card which we thought would be a great way for him to get money on a gap year trip to Canada. The idea was that he used the internet access to transfer money from his e-savings account before withdrawing from a cash machine. Unfortunately he missed out this vital step and assumed the machine would not give him cash if the funds were not in his account.
THIS WAS NOT THE CASE! He was able to withdraw money even is there was no money in his account and no agreed overdraft arrangement. The result being a £20 plus interest charge being applied. Fortunately we picked this up early and were able to cancel the card. Nationwide have not been able or willing to explain why this was possible (or how much could have been withdrawn) despite a number of phone calls and letters (although they have now refunded the charges).
Has anyone else experienced this, or been able to get an explanation from Nationwide. Their website does not help - as it implies this is not possible

Quote - Cash machines
As long as you have enough in your account you can withdraw up to £300 in any one day, 24 hours a day from over half a million cash machines in the UK and around the world displaying the VISA/Cirrus symbol. Nationwide will not charge you either at home or abroad. unquote.

geraint83

Hi, I'll be going to New York on Friday.

What's my best option for paying the hotel bill (it'll be around $1670 in all):
1) Nationwide Credit Card;
2) Travellers Cheques (bought with 0% commission and the best exchange rate currently available - from Travelex I think).

Will the Nationwide Card have a better echange rate than Travelex?

Thanks!

dzug

geraint83 wrote: »

Hi, I'll be going to New York on Friday.

What's my best option for paying the hotel bill (it'll be around $1670 in all):
1) Nationwide Credit Card;
2) Travellers Cheques (bought with 0% commission and the best exchange rate currently available - from Travelex I think).

Will the Nationwide Card have a better echange rate than Travelex?

Thanks!

Yes the Nationwide credit card will give you a significantly better exchange rate than travelex did. Travelex will have given you something based on the tourist rate less a bit of discount; Nationwide will give you something not far off the interbank rate.

OTH if you've nothing else to spend the TCs on you might as well use them - you'll lose far more changing them back than you will gain using Nationwide.

dzug

middleoftheroad wrote: »

Has anyone else experienced this, or been able to get an explanation from Nationwide. Their website does not help - as it implies this is not possible

A possible explanation is that the ATM could not get through to Nationwide to verify the account at the time of the withdrawal, and because the withdrawal was for a small amount authorised it anyway. It certainly happens in shops, though I'm a bit surprised that it could happen with a machine.

geraint83

dzug wrote: »

Yes the Nationwide credit card will give you a significantly better exchange rate than travelex did. Travelex will have given you something based on the tourist rate less a bit of discount; Nationwide will give you something not far off the interbank rate.

OTH if you've nothing else to spend the TCs on you might as well use them - you'll lose far more changing them back than you will gain using Nationwide.

Thanks for the advice.

I haven't bought the travellers cheques yet so I'll know not to order as many now.

Thanks!