Currency conversion examples using various options

pin

Thought this may be of use to show the various differences in currency costs. Reason for this is a family member is off to Japan soon and wanted to know where best to get currency.

I naturally have mentioned the Nationwide debit card and credit card combo. The person has a Nationwide credit card but a Barclays debit card. Therefore the person wants to take about £300 of Yen over with them.

According to todays sport rate on XE.com the Yen rate is 194.5 to the £.

Thomas Global Exchange are offering 193.
Travelex online are offering 188.96.
Marks and Spencer are offering 187.54.
Post Office are offering 186.33.

Now if the person uses her Barclays debit card abroad the rate works out to be around 186.57. This is because Barclays add 2.75% loading and a 1.5% withdrawal fee. Also the max withdrawal limit is £300.

However if you buy currency (even in the UK) with Barclays debit card they will charge 1.5% commission, so this makes the Travelex online a bit redundant (sp?). For ther others you do an ATM withdrawal and take the cash in to change.

Therefore £300 at Thomas will get you 57,900 Yen and
£300 with Barclays ATM will get you 55,971 Yen. That's a 3.33% saving.

All of this is off course good if you can get to Thomas Global Exchange in London. Otherwise Marks and Spencer would have to be the next bet. However for convience sake the Barclays rate is better than the PO and easier to obtain.

Naturally also read the article on the subject: The cheapest way to spend overseas: save 6%

Mal27

One of the few good things about LLoydsTSB now that they charge stupid things for practically everything, is travel money. If you have a LloydsTSB credit card or a current account then you can order via the website commission-free and have it sent within 24 hours to a branch of your choice or for a fee have it delivered via Special delivery. Just checking, £301.76 would get you 56,000 Yen. Only limitation is £100 min per currency amount. I ended up getting money for a friend using this as his bank (Barclays) required 72 hours.

pin

Barclays don't charge the 1.5% if you buy currency via them either.

With Lloyds the rate comes in at 185.58, which would make it better to withdraw using an ATM when you are over there.

Just realised that Llyods charge the following for ATM withdrawals abroad: 2.75% loading PLUS 1% AND 1.5% withdrawl fee.

[Deleted User]

pin wrote:

However if you buy currency (even in the UK) with Barclays debit card they will charge 1.5% commission, so this makes the Travelex online a bit redundant (sp?). For ther others you do an ATM withdrawal and take the cash in to change.

Not all debit cards treat this transaction as a cash advance (and hence charge 1.5% commission). For example

Cahoot does.
Halifax does not.
Yorkshire Bank does not.

pin

Deleted_User wrote:

Not all debit cards treat this transaction as a cash advance (and hence charge 1.5% commission). For example

Cahoot does.
Halifax does not.
Yorkshire Bank does not.

I know not all do, for example Nationwide doesn't, but I was giving the example of Barclays as this is what I was comparing against.

Mal27

pin wrote:

Just realised that Llyods charge the following for ATM withdrawals abroad: 2.75% loading PLUS 1% AND 1.5% withdrawl fee.

Yep, as I said... they've sneaked in loads of stupid charges in the last year. They normally tell customers of their latest charges by including a small promotional leaflet with the bank statement - that most wouldn't notice. The only reason I've stuck with them is they were the only bank to offered me a credit card, others refused me because of the credit record of other members of my family.

jago25_98

Nationwide online only offered me a `cashcard`. I guess this must be because I only just registered with them?