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Currency
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
Me and the hubby are going to New York in two weeks so we have started thinking about currency.
We have saved up £800 and the original plan was to exchange all of this for US Dollars before we go and then use the credit card only if necessary. My mum advised against this as she said that if we get robbed then that's the money gone, she said we might want to consider travellers cheques but having never used them before I don't really know whether that would be a good idea or not?
The alternatives are that we change some of the £800 so that we have money for taxi fares, snacks etc and then use our credit card for everything else, like entrance to museums etc and then when we return use the money we didn't change up to pay the credit card bill. Thing is I'm pretty sure lloyds told me there is a one off charge every time you use the credit card abroad so that will all mount up.
Another alternative is that we do as above and just exchange some money and then withdraw cash from our debit card, limiting this to no more than once a day (say we decided we would draw 100 dollars a day) but again I'm sure we will be charged for each withdrawal.
I plan to phone lloyds to establish what the fees are etc and to tell them we are going abroad so the cards don't get blocked! But just wanted some advice from anyone who wants to help!
We have saved up £800 and the original plan was to exchange all of this for US Dollars before we go and then use the credit card only if necessary. My mum advised against this as she said that if we get robbed then that's the money gone, she said we might want to consider travellers cheques but having never used them before I don't really know whether that would be a good idea or not?
The alternatives are that we change some of the £800 so that we have money for taxi fares, snacks etc and then use our credit card for everything else, like entrance to museums etc and then when we return use the money we didn't change up to pay the credit card bill. Thing is I'm pretty sure lloyds told me there is a one off charge every time you use the credit card abroad so that will all mount up.
Another alternative is that we do as above and just exchange some money and then withdraw cash from our debit card, limiting this to no more than once a day (say we decided we would draw 100 dollars a day) but again I'm sure we will be charged for each withdrawal.
I plan to phone lloyds to establish what the fees are etc and to tell them we are going abroad so the cards don't get blocked! But just wanted some advice from anyone who wants to help!
Post edited by JustV on
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Comments
all Credit/Debit cars will incur a charge, for mine it's around £1.50-2.50 depending on the card, per transaction, using debit cards imo is not the best way to go. plus you get charge the exchange rate commision as well. etc etc.
Cash, you can but it's a lot and the risk of losing it or being robbed isn't worth it imo.
Or you could put some onto a pre pay Visa/Master card.
Any shop, museum or other business in the US will accept a credit card without any problem, so don't worry about having cash for everything. And check with your bank about charges for using it in foreign currency - many will not charge commision for withdrawals (Hellfire, you're wrong - not all cards incur a surcharge).
You can use Visa Debit and Maestro cards in most places in the US but you need to say credit when asked not checking - don't ask me why - but there are a few places which won't accept them and so you'll need a proper credit card for that - but the only place i can think off the top of my head is the fresh market (big supermarket type place).
A hell of a lot of them do though. The only one's that don't are usually 'premium' cards, or where you pay for extra services, e.g. with Abbey, if you have a certain type of mortgage and have their 'One' account I think it is, you can withdraw free abroad.
Fruit Loop,
I'd suggest taking approx $200 cash for when you get there etc and applying for one of these: http://www.moneysupermarket.com/prepaidcards/
The top $ currency card has no fees and costs you nothing to use in shops etc, although there is a $2 ATM fee for withdrawals at cash points, although if you limited your cash withdrawals to say once or twice, $4 isn't that bad.
Plus it's safer than carrying the cash around, as there is a PIN associated with the card.
My preference would be the prepaid card or travellers cheques with some cash for when you arrive.
Have a good time
For example my NatWest credit card doesn't charge me as such, put it puts an extra 1% charge on each currency conversion transaction, so it doesn't show up as a charge on the credit card bill but its a cost that's there.