Off to Turkey in September. What currency to take?

twisterfreak

Hi there. I'm extremely excited about returning to Turkey this year. My wife and i are taking our three children to Icmeler.
We are going self catering but have no intention of cooking or anything as its a bit of a pain.
We want to take £3000.
We have a Santander standard account so get charged for withdrawals out there.
At the end of this month i have £1000 to commit to something (if i don't it gets dwindled away)
Would you guys buy £1000 in TL, or maybe load it onto a Travalex card?
Maybe swap bank accounts to one that offers free ATM withdrawals abroad.
Any advise would be amazing, and really appreciated.
Have agreat day.
Darren
:j

paulwellerfan

i would just take stirling.
change it when your there.

NFH

paulwellerfan wrote: »

i would just take stirling.
change it when your there.

No, bad advice. Use cards for purchases and cash withdrawals, and do not change cash between currencies. An electronic form of payment is inherently cheaper than changing banknotes because extraterritorial cash is expensive to handle. When you use a card, Visa or MasterCard obtains a wholesale interbank rate and no money crosses borders. GBP is paid between UK bank accounts and the foreign currency is paid between bank accounts within the foreign country. When you change cash, either in the UK or abroad, one currency will always be extraterritorial, i.e. outside its home country. If you change cash in the UK, the foreign cash will be extraterritorial, or if you change your cash abroad, the GBP will be extraterritorial. Physical cash is inherently expensive to handle, extraterritorial cash even more so. In the wholesale banknote trading markets, cash is consequently traded at a premium or discount compared to electronic funds, and the premium or discount depends on several factors. For example the physical state of the banknotes is relevant; in Russia and other parts of Eastern Europe a pristine state is expected. The denomination is also relevant because smaller denominations are more expensive to transport. Another factor affecting some currencies is the issuer of a banknote; for example there are multiple issuers of GBP and HKD banknotes, and Scottish banknotes have a lower wholesale value than Bank of England banknotes. Added to these wholesale costs are the retail costs incurred by bureaux de change, such as employing staff and the potential movement of the wholesale interbank rate while a bureau de change holds the cash. Forget taking cash between countries unless you want to pay unnecessarily for these many costs through a worse exchange rate.

twisterfreak

Thanks for advice.
Santander will charge for withdrawls, but is it an amount worth worry about?
If i withdrew £300 each time, i'm not sure what i'm losing.
How about loading up a Travelax Pre Payment card?

Big thanks:beer:

NFH

twisterfreak wrote: »

Santander will charge for withdrawls, but is it an amount worth worry about?
If i withdrew £300 each time, i'm not sure what i'm losing.
How about loading up a Travelax Pre Payment card?

I'm not sure what Santander will charge on your card. My Santander Zero credit card charges nothing, only interest from the date of withdrawal (which can be avoided anyway). Get one of the top cards for overseas spending, for example Halifax Clarity, and you'll get a wholesale rate with no percentage markup.

de1amo

i generally take cash because the 'local' rates are far superior to what you will get in the uk.---if you are changing in the uk then timing is important because the rate often flunctuates. At the moment the pound is very strong and generally stays high through the summer but trails off in sept.

NFH

de1amo wrote: »

i generally take cash because the 'local' rates are far superior to what you will get in the uk.

Changing cash is a bad idea wherever you do it for the reasons already stated above, and is even worse in the UK as you say. Use electronic means instead.

zagfles

NFH wrote: »

Changing cash is a bad idea wherever you do it for the reasons already stated above, and is even worse in the UK as you say. Use electronic means instead.

Though I'd agree normally, when we were in Turkey many years ago you could change cash at almost interbank rates, and even buy stuff using GBP at similar rates.

Reason was their inflation was sky high (about 80%!!) so they preferred foreign currency, as it didn't depreciate nearly as fast.

Not sure what the situation is there now though - they were trying to get their house in order to get into the EU...

de1amo

they have depreciated their currency to keep competitive---about 2 years ago the rate was 2,50 to a pound but since then it has risen to 2,90,- inflation is relatively low (for turkey) at about 10pc but savings rates are low and hurting the non working expats

twisterfreak

Thanks for all the great advice.
So how exactly would you guys take £3000 to Turkey?
Prepaid card with Sterling or Euro's?
Lots of Sterling/Euro's or Turkish Lira?
A bank Debit card (which one as my Santander account is not a Zero account)
Being appalling at not spending money i'd like to commit my cash to something i can't easily get to until i go on holiday.
Thanks again

NFH

twisterfreak wrote: »

So how exactly would you guys take £3000 to Turkey?

Get one of the top cards for overseas spending, for example Halifax Clarity, and you'll get a wholesale rate with no percentage markup on both purchases and cash withdrawals. Pay off any cash withdrawals by online banking just after making them in order to avoid small interest charges. You won't find a better deal than this. Do not exchange cash between currencies.