Spending in the US

pr33tz

Hi,

First of all hope this is in the right section.

I'm off to Florida in two and a half weeks time and was after some advice on speding money in the US.

From reading the guides and using the Travel Money Maximiser tool, the rate I'd get is roughly around $1.95-$1.97 per £ (depending on day).

My questions are:

1) Am I better off sticking to these rates or should I withdraw $ using my Nationwide debit card?

2) How do I know what rate I get with Nationwide when using my debit card abroad?

3) I also want to take a credit card with me just incase I make large purchases. I have an AMEX Platinum card, would it be wise spending money on it? For some reason I have this idea that it would cheaper than using a UK credit card . I'm sure someone will prove me wrong!

Any other thoughts/suggestions welcome.

Thanks in advance.

Preets

richardw

1)Probably
2)The ATM doesn't tell you, some offer a bad rate called dynamic currency conversion, Don't accept this option.
3)Use a card with the lowest rate loading, ask AMEX what their loading percentage is and compare this to your other cards.

dzug

1 Withdraw using your Nationwide debit card

2. It will be better than the rates quoted by the loading the outfit in the maximiser uses - at a guess a 2 or 3 percent better You won't know what it actually is until afterwards

3. Most UK credit cards charge 2.75%. A few charge 3%, and a few (Nationwide, Post Office cards) nothing. The Amex rate is I think 2.73%, but check. It may vary depending on which particular Amex card you have. Why it's trivially lower than the norm I've no idea

hammy_the_hammer

it looks like today you would get $2.01 to the pound with your nationwide card in the states..it's been this for about 3/4 days

pr33tz

Thanks for the reply's everyone.

hammy_the_hammer wrote: »

it looks like today you would get $2.01 to the pound with your nationwide card in the states..it's been this for about 3/4 days

Can I ask how you found out this information? Thanks.

hammy_the_hammer

pr33tz wrote: »

Thanks for the reply's everyone.



Can I ask how you found out this information? Thanks.

http://corporate.visa.com/pd/consumer_services/consumer_ex_results.jsp?from=GBP&to=USD&rate=0.0

hth