Foreign Currency: How to get the cheapest article discussion area

dzug

bankersmug wrote: »

Great minds think alike!

I too have the CapitalOne 4% cashback card, and a Nationwide Credit card. It sounds as if you may be correct on the 1.25 cashback - but like you, would like to ask - can anyone confirm this?!

Nationwide cashback credit cards (they do exist though they are no longer issued) do not give cashback on overseas transactions.

Others may - you'd need to trawl through the small print to see what their rules are. You may be in luck.

gooismeid

Does anyone have any experience of the Caxton FX card? From what I gather it's prepaid card which you load up with sterling, you get a reasonable exchange rate and then you can use it like a normal debit card to get Euros from cash machines, with a 2 Euro fee per cash transaction but no fees for spending. It sounds almost too good to be true for someone who doesn't have a Nationwide debit card - can someone prove me wrong?

dzug

gooismeid wrote: »

Does anyone have any experience of the Caxton FX card? From what I gather it's prepaid card which you load up with sterling, you get a reasonable exchange rate and then you can use it like a normal debit card to get Euros from cash machines, with a 2 Euro fee per cash transaction but no fees for spending. It sounds almost too good to be true for someone who doesn't have a Nationwide debit card - can someone prove me wrong?

You HAVE to put £500 on it to start off, and it's £4.99 to get your money back at the end at I'm not sure what exchange rate. And your bank may charge you a fee to load it as it can only be done by debit or credit card.

As prepaid cards go it's good though. Those aren't particulaly big downsides.

gardner1

hxxp://www.caxtonfxcard.com/

2 euro for using atm
no other charges/free to load with debit card

katepnlo

Can anyone help with clarifying something for me.
I have applied for the nationwide flex accout and also their credit card (they wanted to give it to me so i figure it would be handy just incase a card was stolen)
Anyway, we leave for Crete in August.
So i put money into the flexi account before we go.
if i put £2000.00 in the account how do i know what exchange rate i will get?? how much better is it than buying euros before we go?
I cant seem to find about exchange rate conversion.
Should i still buy some euros before i go or will everywhere take debit card (i know once i am there i can withdraw euros) Also when we went away last i remember that youcould buy euros in local shops and remember thinking last time what good exchange rate was, is this likely to be as good as nationwide flexi account one?

will the flexi account exchange rate be the same for actualy using my debit card to spend and withdrawing cash to spend?

If this is all writte somewhere already could someone poit me in the right direction, i just need to get it all straight in my mind!

Thank you in advance
kate

dzug

katepnlo wrote: »

Can anyone help with clarifying something for me.
I have applied for the nationwide flex accout and also their credit card (they wanted to give it to me so i figure it would be handy just incase a card was stolen)
Anyway, we leave for Crete in August.
So i put money into the flexi account before we go.
if i put £2000.00 in the account how do i know what exchange rate i will get?? how much better is it than buying euros before we go?
I cant seem to find about exchange rate conversion.
Should i still buy some euros before i go or will everywhere take debit card (i know once i am there i can withdraw euros) Also when we went away last i remember that youcould buy euros in local shops and remember thinking last time what good exchange rate was, is this likely to be as good as nationwide flexi account one?

will the flexi account exchange rate be the same for actualy using my debit card to spend and withdrawing cash to spend?

If this is all writte somewhere already could someone poit me in the right direction, i just need to get it all straight in my mind!

Thank you in advance
kate

You don't know what the specific exchange rate will be, other than that it will be very close to the interbank rate. That rate will be 5 or 6% better than buying €€ cash or TCs in the average UK High Street outlet.

The flexicard rate will be the same for either cash or spending

As to getting cash locally, I don't know specifically about Crete but I doubt you can better NW. If you can get a better rate than that there then the shopkeeper is making a loss when he converts it himself - makes you wonder why he would do it if that is the case.

It's not a high inflation economy, so he won't want to hang onto the ££ to change later, and I wouldn't have thought there was a black market where he can get a better rate. Money laundering maybe?

No need to take any €€ but if you are worried about arriving without any and having to find an ATM in a hurry get a few for comfort.

katepnlo

Thank you ever so much dzug:beer: i feel alot happier now
kate
x

yzcn

To whom it may concern,

I have a cheque in US dollars, but found out that my bank charges me for GBP10 for one cheque, and a commission charge of 2.2%.....

is there a way i can save more in paying-in the cheque please?

i look forward to hear from you. Thanks.

regards,
yzcn.

dzug

yzcn wrote: »

To whom it may concern,

I have a cheque in US dollars, but found out that my bank charges me for GBP10 for one cheque, and a commission charge of 2.2%.....

is there a way i can save more in paying-in the cheque please?

i look forward to hear from you. Thanks.

regards,
yzcn.

I've heard good reports of this outfit - 95p charge plus some sort of hit on the exchange rate:

http://www.auctionpix.co.uk/misc/money.html

moob_2

gavinski101 wrote: »

I go on holidays abroad about 5 times a year, every year i have been i have allways checked who has the best rate around for the EURO, every single time i have checked all the high street banks and travelshops, travelex online has won numerous amounts of times, go to travelex.co.uk and pay for your currency online then pick it up at the airport, do NOT go to the airport and pay the exchange rate they have got at the airport, its the worst by far,but simply paying for it online and you will get the bestest rate around, also another thing i have done is got an NationWide cash car, its just used for withdrawin money out of ATM's, but nationwide give you free cash withdrawels abroad, so just top it up before you go abroad for emergency funds and remember if given the choice pay local currency as the exchange rate for the pound sterling is not favourable over in over countries e.g resturants will put what ever exchange rate they want to use, as if it is done in local curreny the conversion rate is done by your bank and will not rip you off (well not as much as a resturant with a made up exchange rate)
hope this helps some people ..... feel free to correct me if i have told somehting you dont think is right

The retailer (in your example, a restaurant) doesn't set the exchange rate you get when making a purchase at all. The rate of exchange is set by the card issuer, in your case Nationwide, and is the interbank rate - i.e. the best a consumer can get.

I would also use my Nationwide card almost exclusively for accessing my money abroad, not as a source of emergency funds.