foreign currency - change up here or wait?

beckie

Hi, am off to turkey at the end of may and am a little unsure of the money situation.
should i get my turkish lira in the uk or wait til i get there? i know i'll need sterling for the visa payment when i get there.
should i bother with travellers cheques?
any advice appreciated
thanks xx

albalad

really wouldn't bother with Travellers cheques anymore , most of Turkey has a good network of atm machines .
The best card for spending /withdrawals is nationwide debit card.
If you do decide to take travellers cheques, check ,double check and then triple that you have actually received the correct amount of currency as it is well known that they to try and short change you on fx transactions( certainly in Marmaris)

have you read this -
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?newsid1106765397,71685,

If you decide to get your currency here , then travelex are usually very competitive and convenient
http://www.travelex.co.uk/

beckie

thanks very much albalad

pin

Better still get yourself a Nationwide credit card and if you want to a Nationwide Flex account, then no extra currency charges.

If you do want to take cash out with you, buy via travelex online and pick up at the airport.

The_Lambton_Worm

Post Offices in Turkey offer the best exchange rates and they're open til about 9pm iirc.

MyUserNamesTaken

I used my Nationwide CC to take out cash in Hungary. Although I was charged £1.50 for the pleasure, the exchange rate I got was considerably better than over here. Not only that, Nationwide beat the exchange rate I could get from normal exchange centres in Budapest. (I got 360 Forins to the £ from Nationwide.) As long as you take out a large sum of money in one go, the £1.50 charge is worth it.


I'm getting a Nationwide Flexi Account now, though, as their debit card doesn't have the £1.50 fee for using cash point machines.

Fortyfoot

pin wrote:

Better still get yourself a Nationwide credit card and if you want to a Nationwide Flex account, then no extra currency charges.

The rate was 1.465e to £ last week.
Fortyfoot

pin

MyUserNamesTaken wrote:

I used my Nationwide CC to take out cash in Hungary. Although I was charged £1.50 for the pleasure, the exchange rate I got was considerably better than over here. Not only that, Nationwide beat the exchange rate I could get from normal exchange centres in Budapest. (I got 360 Forins to the £ from Nationwide.) As long as you take out a large sum of money in one go, the £1.50 charge is worth it.


I'm getting a Nationwide Flexi Account now, though, as their debit card doesn't have the £1.50 fee for using cash point machines.

Watch out with taking money out of ATM's with Nationwide's credit card. On top of the 1.50 pound charge, they also charge interest and the interest starts on the day you withdraw money.

beckie

i dont have a nationwide card or any other debit card. i have a cap.one credit card as my back up, but i dont really want to spend on it if i dont have to. Before i leave if i get say £50 worth of turkish lira, should i take the rest in just pounds or a combination of pounds & travellers cheques?
we are going h/b, so wont have food expenses, except for a bite to eat at lunchtime, drinks & ice-creams.
ive heard its quite good for shopping tho, so i could get carried away! lol

jmf

Just back from Turkey.

We changed about £50 before we went at Travelax at the airport. The rest we took in sterling and changed at the Change Offices where the rate was higher than in England. Most of the exchanges had the same rates.