Taking English notes abroad?

PompeyPete

littlereddevil wrote: »

I always take English notes with me. If I don't use them I take them home and keep them for the next trip

Ditto.
£50 and £20. Always in v.good condition, no tears, creases or pen marks.
In Thailand at present. Changed £50 into baht before we left UK, enough to pay for a taxi from the airport, and buy a meal.

peachyprice

benjus wrote: »

There used to be one in the City, but it's gone now. I don't know of any others.

They are at most mainline stations now. You can choose £ or €. I've always been too scared to use them in case it's a rip off.

zagfles

peachyprice wrote: »

They are at most mainline stations now. You can choose £ or €. I've always been too scared to use them in case it's a rip off.

UK airports, too, and yes they are a rip-off. Last one I looked at (had the rate on screen) was 1.03 for EUR when the interbank/mastercard rate was around 1.25 :eek:.

It's like compulsory DCC, but which doesn't break the VISA/Mastercard rules because you're getting charged in local currency ie GBP.

The one mentioned by benjus actually charged in EUR rather than converting, so it was like using a cashpoint abroad.

benjus

peachyprice wrote: »

They are at most mainline stations now. You can choose £ or €. I've always been too scared to use them in case it's a rip off.

They are everywhere in London. But they are not the same - they convert to GBP at a bad rate and charge your card in GBP. The one that used to be in the City was different - it worked just like an ATM in a Eurozone country.

bap98189

Depends where we are going. If we're going to France, Germany or somewhere similar then there's no point as ATM's are everywhere, just as they are here. When we went to places like Mozambique or Madagascar, we just took a pile of English notes as there are about 10 ATM's in the whole country.

eDicky

Apart from those mentioned, another reason to carry cash to certain countries is when the free market exchange rate for cash is significantly better than the official rate obtained in banks and ATMs. Not so common these days, but still an important factor in some destinations, an extreme example being Venezuela.

zagfles

benjus wrote: »

They are everywhere in London. But they are not the same - they convert to GBP at a bad rate and charge your card in GBP. The one that used to be in the City was different - it worked just like an ATM in a Eurozone country.

Breaking news ... https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5213984

lle

zagfles wrote: »

The irony is I bet most people who insist on getting foreign cash in advance when flying to a major international destination wouldn't even think about getting cash out in advance when flying to a minor UK destination which is far less likely to have cashpoints.

My OH did for our holiday in North Wales last year! We were in self catering cottage on a remote farm. Nearest shop - small village store a mile and a half away, nearest eating place - pub in same village. Neither took cards and nearest ATM about ten miles away. So lucky he had the foresight to get the cash out before we left home.