Travel Money Maximiser Discussion Area

CAHA

Nytehawk wrote: »

TMS is the same company as www.crowncurrencyexchange.com I have used CCE for the past three years. You order whatever currency you want and judge for yourself using either the moneymaximiser on this site or whatever means is available when is the best time to order for you. You then order the currency at the rate on that day and request a delivery date. Your currency is delivered special delivery on that date. They have provided a good service to me and there are no hidden charges. Te longer you order in advance the better the rate you get. HTH

Thanks for this comment which I found very interesting. What worries me is what happens if they go out of business after taking my payment and before issuing me with my currency. Is there any protection at all...?

PandaPants_2

Caxton pre-pay card appears to have today's best rate, at $1.98 to the £.

NickHarris

Just wanted to add my own quick review of Currency Express as couldn't find too many others after searching the boards.

Ordered US$ notes yesterday at 11 am (paying by Maestro), delivered this morning Royal Mail Special Delivery. Excellent service, can recommend.

PandaPants_2

The Caxton pre-paid Mastercard is $2 today!

cymbal1

hi im going to florida next april is it a good idea to buy us dollars now or wait till next april

vernall

how do you come off if you bring travelers cheques/foreign currency back with you unspent off holiday.....how do you go about cashing them in if you used a 'postal' service to get your cheques/currency?

dzug1

cymbal1 wrote: »

hi im going to florida next april is it a good idea to buy us dollars now or wait till next april

Yes
No
Maybe

Really no-one knows

One point to bear in mind is that if your trip is cancelled for any reason you'll lose far more changing it back than you will gain (or not, maybe) by doing it now. And it won't be covered by insurance.

dzug1

vernall wrote: »

how do you come off if you bring travelers cheques/foreign currency back with you unspent off holiday.....how do you go about cashing them in if you used a 'postal' service to get your cheques/currency?

You don't have to change them where you got them. In fact if you have to pay special delivery postage to send them back you might be a fool to anyway.

mancmum

I am having the same problem with Alliance and Leicester. When I have used my debit card to buy foreign currency the seller has warned me that I will be charged a fee for this by AandL but actually this has not happened.

I rang AandL today to check what the position would be because I want to draw out cash for a trip. AandL told me that I was always charged for this, I said this was untrue and got out my bank statement to verify what I was saying. Then the operator told me that there was a Fee charge on the back of the statement saying that this was the case - there isn't.

Then she terminated the call. Its my money, and I can't get a straight answer on what the charges will be to use my own money.

I'm in the stupid position that I could turn up at M&S buy 500 pounds worth of gift cards and swap that for currency (I haven't checked you can do this) and there will be no charge, but if I spend the money directly A and L are saying that there will be a charge. This is madness and this is how to lose customers. Take heed A and L, I'm off somewhere else.

mancmum

Dear Dan,

Yes the tool is helpful but I also want to raise the issue of visa debit cards charge. I've posted a quick reply to another forum member below. I have actually never been charged a fee when I used the debit card to buy foreign cash from the Co-op and rang A and L to check the situation. They said that I had been charged a fee and insisted that I had even when I said I had the bank statement in front of me and no fee was showing. The operator then cut me off because she said she had spent seven minutes of the call. So yes the tool would need to show the full charges for debit card users but you probably need to find out whether they actually have been charged that fee. I have never had the fee charged even when a currency seller warned me that I would be charged.