Travellers Cheques or FairFX Card - Turkey

Stretlow

Hi,

I'm really confused as to how to go about this so a little advice from the forum is greatly welcomed.

I'm going to Turkey in July and am weighing up the options for currency, I dont want to take just cash as im scared to death of losing it or it being stolen leaving me and my family stranded.

I can see that I can load a fairfx prepay cash card with funds and just get charged 1.5 euros per withdrawal whilst getting their current exchange rate, from what I read on the site they will replace a lost card (im presuming they would post one to turkey)

Obviously the other option is travellers cheques, again can be replaced if lost or stolen but im not sure of the rates.

Can someone please advise me of the best way to go about this (or give me a better opition if their is one)

Thanks In advance

Stret

Phil_GT

i know you dont like the idea of taking cash, but i took uk pounds to turkey and if you pay with normal uk money you get stuff a lot cheaper

we went on boat trips that were like 20 euro's but was only 12quid in uk cash.

just be careful which exchange places you go to as one i went befor ei got a good rate the second time they tried to rip me off.

stilltheone

Phil_GT wrote: »

i know you dont like the idea of taking cash, but i took uk pounds to turkey and if you pay with normal uk money you get stuff a lot cheaper

we went on boat trips that were like 20 euro's but was only 12 quid in uk cash.

just be careful which exchange places you go to as one i went befor ei got a good rate the second time they tried to rip me off.

Turkey uses Lira. If the price is in Euro or Pounds, you are in a tourist trap.

tom717

Stretlow wrote: »

I can see that I can load a fairfx prepay cash card with funds and just get charged 1.5 euros per withdrawal whilst getting their current exchange rate, from what I read on the site they will replace a lost card (im presuming they would post one to turkey)

I doubt very much that they would send a card to Turkey. Even if they did, you would be without it for a while.

I found I could get a better exchange rate in Turkey than in England. When I went, I got 2.1 lira to the pound at the Post Office before I left and about 2.4 from an ING branch in Turkey. If you wanted to buy something in pounds most places would convert the price at about 2:1.

stilltheone

Stretlow wrote: »

Hi,

I'm really confused as to how to go about this so a little advice from the forum is greatly welcomed.

I'm going to Turkey in July and am weighing up the options for currency, I dont want to take just cash as im scared to death of losing it or it being stolen leaving me and my family stranded.

I can see that I can load a fairfx prepay cash card with funds and just get charged 1.5 euros per withdrawal whilst getting their current exchange rate, from what I read on the site they will replace a lost card (im presuming they would post one to turkey)

Obviously the other option is travellers cheques, again can be replaced if lost or stolen but im not sure of the rates.

Can someone please advise me of the best way to go about this (or give me a better opition if their is one)

Thanks In advance

Stret

You are confused with regards to the way the cards work. Use the search function. There are a plethora of recent threads.

Doshwaster

I don't know about FairFX but Caxton do a free partner card which accesses the same account. If you have one and your "significant other" has the other one then it would be highly unlikely that both would be lost or stolen at the same time.

I'm amazed anyone still uses travellers cheques. They seem so 20th Century and far too much hassle to use. Most people under 30 wouldn't know what a TC was if they saw it.

Stretlow

Thank you for the responses.


So if i get Sterling travellers cheques I could shop about over there for a better rate. If i get a prepay card the exchange rate will be the companies and will carry a withdrawl charge?

Would the withdrawl charge be more than to change a travellers cheque?

@ Doshwasher - ive just looked at the caxtonfx global card and it says

"The exchange rate applied is fixed at 2.5% from the prevailing interbank rate."

Can someone explain to me what this means?

Thanks again

Stret

brian_723

Phil_GT wrote: »

i know you dont like the idea of taking cash, but i took uk pounds to turkey and if you pay with normal uk money you get stuff a lot cheaper

we went on boat trips that were like 20 euro's but was only 12quid in uk cash.

just be careful which exchange places you go to as one i went befor ei got a good rate the second time they tried to rip me off.

They must be very stupid accepting 12 pound for 20 Euros ,I doubt many of the euro customers would knowingly would tolerate this rip off .

Doshwaster

Stretlow wrote: »

@ Doshwasher - ive just looked at the caxtonfx global card and it says

"The exchange rate applied is fixed at 2.5% from the prevailing interbank rate."

It means that whatever the official (interbank) rate is that day you get 2.5% less (or 97.5% of the value). This may sounds a lot but it is still much better than you would get at a bureau de change.

According to http://www.x-rates.com/d/TRY/GBP/graph120.html the X rate is 2.59485. On Caxton you would get 2.59485 * .975 = 2.52997

According to the Post Office website, they are selling Turkish Lira at 2.4863 which is over 4% (their margin) off the interbank rate. Buy at an airport and the rate will be even worse.

I'm sure stilltheone will be along shortly to tell you that the Travelex Cash Passport Globe card is even cheaper with only a 1.49% loading.

Stretlow

Doshwaster wrote: »

It means that whatever the official (interbank) rate is that day you get 2.5% less (or 97.5% of the value). This may sounds a lot but it is still much better than you would get at a bureau de change.

According to http://www.x-rates.com/d/TRY/GBP/graph120.html the X rate is 2.59485. On Caxton you would get 2.59485 * .975 = 2.52997

According to the Post Office website, they are selling Turkish Lira at 2.4863 which is over 4% (their margin) off the interbank rate. Buy at an airport and the rate will be even worse.

I'm sure stilltheone will be along shortly to tell you that the Travelex Cash Passport Globe card is even cheaper with only a 1.49% loading.

Invaluble info pal, so basically if i go to an ATM and withdraw £100 worth of lira id get 259.48L minus 1.5% and £1 from fairfx

is that right?

Doshwaster

Stretlow wrote: »

Invaluble info pal, so basically if i go to an ATM and withdraw £100 worth of lira id get 259.48L minus 1.5% and £1 from fairfx

is that right?

Plus any charge the ATM operator may impose. I've never been to Turkey so I don't know what the standard is.