M&S credit card - foreign currency rate

NoodleDoodleMan

Just for anybody who uses an M&S credit card to purchase foreign currency in their stores - but has a Debenhams with a foreign currency desk in convenient travelling distance.

Thanks to MSE Travel Money tool I'm always finding a better deal at Debenhams, even compared with the preferential rates offered to M&S credit card holders

https://travelmoney.moneysavingexpert.com/

Especially if you have a Debenhams chargecard, or better still, a Debenhams credit card.

Like the M&S card, these are charged as purchases, not as a cash advance - which would be applied to other credit cards.

I recently bought around £100 worth of Polish currency (ready for immediate needs on arrival) and saved the best part of £5 on the deal compared to M&S.

Obviously if you are looking for larger amounts of foreign currency then it's a bigger saving.

The only downside is that relatively less popular currencies can take several days to be available for collection.

PRAISETHESUN

Personally I'd just withdraw cash abroad using one of the many fee-free options such as Monzo/Starling/Revolut. You get the (basically perfect) Mastercard rate for Monzo/Starling and the interbank rate using Revolut.

But if you need to buy cash from an exchange desk, this sounds like an alright way to do it. Or an alright way to build a stooze pot if your card was 0%...

NoodleDoodleMan

I always like to have a modest amount of readies in hand when we arrive abroad, thereafter I use my "user friendly" credit and/or debit cards.

This is just a heads up for anybody who likes to access foreign currency here before travelling - at the best rates in their local area.