Euros in Hungary

benjus

cinereus wrote: »

Thanks for your reply.

Yeah, I already checked the TravelMoneyMaximiser. It would cost me at least £15 and a few hours to collect from London so it's not worth going to an ATM there or using the bureaux there.

Looks like I'll have to collect from ASDA which is about 2.5% more than using my Clarity card.

You're not considering delivery services? That could cost you about 1% (maybe less) more than using the Clarity card.

cinereus

benjus wrote: »

You're not considering delivery services? That could cost you about 1% (maybe less) more than using the Clarity card.

I'm only getting €200 - the cheapest I can see is Best Foreign Exchange which is 3.5% more than Clarity and much more than ASDA collection. Or am I missing something?

opinions4u

Euro ATM at the UK airport?

cinereus

Is there one? I'm flying from Gatwick. I see they only have Moneycorp bureaux which are expensive. I haven't been able to find any info about one there but does anyone know anything?

cinereus

Aha.

Launched on April 12 2013, the free Moneycorp ATM is located inside the reception office - helping travellers to gain fast, easy access to currency and avoid airport foreign exchange queues.
The cash machine accepts all major credit and debit cards and issues Sterling, Euros and US dollars.

Unfortunately the rate isn't published and it's probably awful

opinions4u

cinereus wrote: »

Aha.

Unfortunately the rate isn't published and it's probably awful

Seemed like a good idea at the time. Probably isn't.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4224335

benjus

There seem to be 3 types of Euro-dispensing ATM in the UK:

• The most common type, found in airports and various other places, which will always debit the account in GBP and convert to EUR at a bad rate
• ATMs such as those run by Raphael's Bank that will debit EUR-denominated cards in EUR, but if you use a GBP-denominated card it will do the currency conversion for you at a bad rate
• The one I mentioned above in Bishopsgate which will always debit the card in EUR. I don't know of any other ATMs like this in the UK.

As for the delivery option, I guess I assumed you were getting more. For €200 Asda sounds like the best option - only about £4 worse than using the Clarity card, so not a catastrophe.

beccals

Hi

I used a cash point at Gatwick Airport a few weeks ago to get Euros. Commission free as well. There was a Bureau De Change place right next to it but their commission was crazy. I took out 100 Euros and it cost me £94, so not great but I think that's pretty much the state of the Euro these days.

benjus

beccals wrote: »

I used a cash point at Gatwick Airport a few weeks ago to get Euros. Commission free as well. There was a Bureau De Change place right next to it but their commission was crazy. I took out 100 Euros and it cost me £94, so not great but I think that's pretty much the state of the Euro these days.

Sorry, but that's a terrible deal. I don't know what the exchange rate was at the time, but if it was similar to today's rate, the ATM charged you almost 8% for the transaction - today £94 would get you almost €108 using a fee-free card in a EUR ATM abroad (or the one in Bishopsgate).

When will people realise that "Commission Free" is a totally meaningless phrase? If the exchange rate is terrible, it's still a terrible deal, regardless of whether it was "Commission Free" or not.

cinereus

opinions4u wrote: »

Seemed like a good idea at the time. Probably isn't.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4224335

Yeah, Moneycorp are crooks!

benjus wrote: »

There seem to be 3 types of Euro-dispensing ATM in the UK:

• The most common type, found in airports and various other places, which will always debit the account in GBP and convert to EUR at a bad rate
• ATMs such as those run by Raphael's Bank that will debit EUR-denominated cards in EUR, but if you use a GBP-denominated card it will do the currency conversion for you at a bad rate
• The one I mentioned above in Bishopsgate which will always debit the card in EUR. I don't know of any other ATMs like this in the UK.

As for the delivery option, I guess I assumed you were getting more. For €200 Asda sounds like the best option - only about £4 worse than using the Clarity card, so not a catastrophe.

That's what I thought. However, even if I were getting €1000(!) - Hungary is a cheap country - I would still be paying 2% more with delivery compared to Clarity. I didn't know there were _any_ methods that could beat it.

beccals wrote: »

I used a cash point at Gatwick Airport a few weeks ago to get Euros. Commission free as well. There was a Bureau De Change place right next to it but their commission was crazy. I took out 100 Euros and it cost me £94, so not great but I think that's pretty much the state of the Euro these days.

Ouch. That would have been much less than £87 from a proper ATM. Sucks to be you That was the Moneycorp ATM