US ($) Currency Thread 1 (closed - use thread 2)

Murphy_The_Cat

Jetpac wrote: »

long and the short is that we are essential;ly backpacking without the backpacks...ish.

We have 7/8 days accomodation in New york Free and we are staying in cheap hostels every night (we dont really care about the facilities as we wont be there and also are staying at cheap hostels with good reviews) and traveling by night on greyhound where we can.
Probably not doing alot of shopping either..

.................on £2000 you probably won't be doing a lot of anything. Please tell me that you have £2000 each to spend ?

Jetpac

Murphy_The_Cat wrote: »

.................on £2000 you probably won't be doing a lot of anything. Please tell me that you have £2000 each to spend ?

Oh yea! yea £2000 each not £2000 for 2! sorry i wasn't very clear!
we have worked out acommodation and moving around between major places will cost about £800 each i think.
we have extra money available we are just working on £2000 each as a round figure and trying to work out how best to carry it and use it out there.

Murphy_The_Cat

Jetpac wrote: »

Oh yea! yea £2000 each not £2000 for 2! sorry i wasn't very clear!
we have worked out acommodation and moving around between major places will cost about £800 each i think.
we have extra money available we are just working on £2000 each as a round figure and trying to work out how best to carry it and use it out there.

Jetpac, I don't want to spoil your holiday plans, but IMO, your way, way underestimating how much your holiday is going to cost you.

Jetpac

Murphy_The_Cat wrote: »

Jetpac, I don't want to spoil your holiday plans, but IMO, your way, way underestimating how much your holiday is going to cost you.

How much by do you reckon and in what areas? just so we can adjust things, this is our first time planning such an excursion.

Flights are all paid for and not part of this £2000 budget.

The week in NYC (staying in manhatten) is free accomodation and food pretty much and we wont be hitting the major tourist spots either.
The rest of the accomodation for the trip is booked up and is costing about £500, so leaving about £1500 for everything else. with internal travel between cities we are visiting coming to around £2-300 so around £12-1300 for everything else.

We are also prepared to walk places and eating cheap crap (with some nice stuff of course!)

So any advice on money or where our budgeting is going wrong, anything really would be appreciated., Especially how to carry the money with us!

M4RKM

NYC is expensive, it is a major city, much like Leeds, or Manchester with the cost of things...

and why go to NYC and not do any tourist attractions?
and if food and lodgings are paid for.. what are you planning on doing, that doesn't involve money... a week on the staten island ferry..

personally.. if you're in NYC, you gotta do stuff, budget at least £400 - £500 of your budget and go out, eat, do some things.

as for where else you're going you are gonna need a decent budget for major cities, unless all you're gonna go to small towns with nothing to do!

Marky

P.S ManhattAn...

Jetpac

markymoo wrote: »

NYC is expensive, it is a major city, much like Leeds, or Manchester with the cost of things...

and why go to NYC and not do any tourist attractions?
and if food and lodgings are paid for.. what are you planning on doing, that doesn't involve money... a week on the staten island ferry..

personally.. if you're in NYC, you gotta do stuff, budget at least £400 - £500 of your budget and go out, eat, do some things.

as for where else you're going you are gonna need a decent budget for major cities, unless all you're gonna go to small towns with nothing to do!

Marky

P.S ManhattAn...

What i'm saying is we have both been before so we are not going to the MAJOR tourist attractions, we are hitting museums and seeing family as well whilst we are there.

The real issue is how to carry and spend the money while we are out there to be honest. Cash, Cards, Prepaid Cards etc.. so advice on that would be good, we have more money available to us so i suppose budgeting is not too much of an issue.

Murphy_The_Cat

Jetpac wrote: »

The real issue is how to carry and spend the money while we are out there to be honest. Cash, Cards, Prepaid Cards etc.. so advice on that would be good, we have more money available to us so i suppose budgeting is not too much of an issue.

Hi Jetpac

I's say that you carry your Cards/cash in exactly the same way that you do over here, in other words, the most comfortable & convienient way possible. But, if you are going to carry an 'emergency' card, I would carry this someplace seperate to your 'main cards' & cash, that way, if you lose your wallet, you'll still have access to funds.

Normally, I'd advise people to ask their credit card provider to lifet their credit limit to make sure tahy they have adequate spending provision when they are away, but by the looks of it, all your cards are of the Debit variety which means that you are somewhat 'stuffed'. Are you able to arrange an overdraft facility for any of your cards ? If so, consider it, as I feel that your money will run out a LOT sooner than you anticipate.

Also, contact your card providers to advise them that you are in the US, roughly which States you intend to stay in and for the appropraite period of time.

Have a great time.

pcg2001

Dear all,

Our going to the US is fast approaching and I would like to ask for a quick help with currency. What is the cheapest way to buy some dollars before leaving for the US, given that we only have a UK Solo card (HSBC)?

- Cash withdrawals in the US? (I just received an email informing of the incrase to 2% per withdrawal with minimum £1.75 and max £5 commission).

- buy at the post office? or at the HSBC foreign currency counter?

- Buy at the currency sellers at the airport?

Thanks in advance.

Froggitt

Travelex pricematch to TEG, pick up at airport.

clanger69

Froggitt wrote: »

Travelex pricematch to TEG, pick up at airport.

Hi Froggitt

Are you saying order it online and collect it at the airport?

They are offering 1.97 online when i looked earlier which is probably the best i'll get if travelling on Sunday. Someone once said always buy dollars on a Friday because the rate always seems to improve at the end of the week............is there any truth to this 'saying'?

thanks in advance for any advise