US Holiday Money

Chipsmum_2

Hi all

Travelling to Florida in October and just wanted opinions/recommendations from people who have been this year or going what type of holiday money they have taken whether cash, travellers cheques, prepaid card or a mixture. Obviously you need to be aware of fees for withdrawals etc.

Think last time I went I had cash and a prepaid card from Thomsons.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Many thanks.

photome

have you read http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheap-travel-money

some good info

inmypocketnottheirs

I travel monthly to the US and here are my recommendations.

Take a mixture of cards, I use the following:

Debit: Metro Bank, fee free MasterCard inasmuch as Metro do not charge for overseas usage or load the currency. You pay at the very competitive MasterCard rate on the day of the conversion. You will still however pay for cash machine withdrawals. The majority of US ATMs charge for withdrawals unless a customer if that bank.

Debit: I also have a Citibank card for my UK based dollar account. I keep a float of a few hundred dollars for cash withdrawals from Citibank ATMs as there is no charge for customers.

Credit: Aqua card as again there are no overseas usage charges although I do not use to withdraw cash, as there would be cash advance fees and interest payable.

Emergency Back Up: CaxtonFx pre paid debit card with a couple of hundred dollars just for emergency use.

Cash: I generally have a few dollars (any thing between $10 and say $60) in my pocket from a previous trip. I will then use credit cards for taxis or transfers and then either hunt down a Citibank ATM or bite the bullet at a US ATM where charges are around $3 per withdrawal. If using the Caxton card or the Metro card there are then no additional fees.

As I travel on business I just use a mixture of the above to fund my personal expenses, but there is no reason why you can't do the same for your holiday spends.

Fortunately I work for an excellent company that allow me a corporate card that I can use for all business expenditure. However it's good to have the above emergency back ups also.

NFH

inmypocketnottheirs wrote: »

Credit: Aqua card as again there are no overseas usage charges

Beware that this applies only to Aqua's Reward and Advance cards. The Classic card charges 2.95% for non-GBP transactions.

Backbiter

I've just come back from Florida. We'd planned to take a mixture of cash and dollar travellers cheques, as we've done on several previous trips, but gave up on the cheques when we found the smallest denominations we could find were $50. It was our experience that some places wouldn't take them if they were over $20. They were ideal on past trips as they could be used like cash and were valid indefinitely, but we didn't want the hassle of being unable to use them.
Researching this site led me to the Cash Passport Globe (Mastercard) from Travelex (via Quidco), which we loaded up in pounds and spent everywhere. My wife and I had a card each for the same account (second card free), and were really impressed, as it was accepted everywhere. It's a card you can top up online, and check your balance and spending online, and is ideal if you travel abroad quite frequently.
You can withdraw cash at ATMs but watch out for any ATM fees in the USA.
Also, if you get an on-screen choice of paying in dollars or pounds, always choose dollars or you'll get charged £1 per transaction!
We ordered the card online and picked it up at Heathrow.

NFH

Backbiter wrote: »

We'd planned to take a mixture of cash and dollar travellers cheques, as we've done on several previous trips, but gave up on the cheques when we found the smallest denominations we could find were $50. It was our experience that some places wouldn't take them if they were over $20. They were ideal on past trips as they could be used like cash and were valid indefinitely, but we didn't want the hassle of being unable to use them.

I'm surprised you didn't ditch traveller's cheques much longer ago. They are a very expensive form of taking money across borders, even more so than cash. Credit cards became a suitable replacement decades ago.

photome

Dont know why i bothered

Chipsmum_2

Many thanks for all your comments. I will do my homework and see which I prefer.

Thanks again.

adriandilly

Hi. We are going to the US very soon. If you want to get a prepaid currency card try Sainsburys in-store. We got a rate of 1.54 as nectar card customers.

Backbiter

NFH wrote: »

I'm surprised you didn't ditch traveller's cheques much longer ago. They are a very expensive form of taking money across borders, even more so than cash. Credit cards became a suitable replacement decades ago.

We have in the past got a better rate for buying dollar TCs than currency, with no commission. They are of course more secure than cash and can be spent like cash in the US, with change in cash so you never to actually cash them at a bank.
The only reason we didn't take them this time was because of the unavailability of $20 cheques.
Having said all that, I think I'll be sticking with the cash passport in future.

pollypenny

We travel to the US regularly and just take some cash, then use an ATM as we would at home.

HSBC Premier has no loading, although we now have to pay $2.95 as non-customers of the US bank.