I’m going to be away for 3 weeks in Sth America and potentially spending a fair bit of money.

I’m going to get a bit of starting cash to take with me but wondered what’s the best option when I need to get more.

My banks seem to charge between a 2% and 2.99% fee for cash withdrawal and so on £500 I’ll be looking at £10 – £15 which seems a lot.

Currency cards can be had where the cash withdrawal charge is only £1 but then they apply their own exchange rate it seems…and non of them seem to publish their rates…so I might be incurring the same charges just by a different method.

The best I seem to have found so far is:
https://www.fairfx.com/cardselection#anywherecard

Any other advice?

(I’ve already applied for a Halifax Clarity Credit Card as that has no charges for foreign transactions)

Thanks

We’ve got Caxtonfx cards (newcastle building soc) who I think charge £1.50 for a cash withdrawal, tbh though we used it like a debit card any didn’t take cash out as a rule.

Halifax credit card working well for me the last two years. No fees, very good rate, interest on cash advances doesn’t add up to much.

The only issue is that it’s mastercard which isn’t as widely accepted as Visa but i’ve not come unstuck yet.

But debit card transactions are also charged at between 2% – 2.99% so the currency cards might still make sense if their exchange rates aren’t too unfavourable.

Just trying to avoid excessive charges as will probably be spending £2 – £3k.

But debit card transactions are also charged at between 2% – 2.99% so the currency cards might still make sense if their exchange rates aren’t too unfavourable.

Dunno if that is in response to my post but I did mention debit cards, anyway we only got charged on cash withdrawal transactions from holes in the wall rather than just using the card in a shop etc.

Dunno if that is in response to my post but I did mention debit cards, anyway we only got charged on cash withdrawal transactions from holes in the wall rather than just using the card in a shop etc.

Sorry, yes it was in response to your post.

Which bank are you with?

Mine don’t look so favourable:

Halifax = 2.75% + £1.50 (payments and withdrawals)
First Direct = 2.75% (payments and withdrawals)
Nationwide = 2% on payments and 2% + £1 for withdrawals
Barclays = 2.99% on payments and 2% withdrawal (max £4.50 charge)

Hmm, maybe I’m confused, anyway this is what we did:

1 – got one of these caxtonfx card might need to select curreny card
2 – transferred money from our bank (oneaccount) at no charge
3 – used wherever we saw Mastercard, exchange rate calculated there and then and apparently competitive
4 – withdrew money abroad, no charge from our bank or caxton
5 – withdrew the balance in the UK at a charge of £1.50 per withdrawal (only did one)

does that make sense?

FairFx rates are usually very good

currently
£1 = € EUR 1.1710
£1 = $ USD 1.5625

bellerophon – no it’s me reading itwrong. I thought you said “tbh we used our debit card” I missed the “like a”.

I understand now.

Thanks jota.

Caxton rates

EUR 1.1660
USD 1.5510

I’m cack with money dunno if that’s better or worse than above…? 😕

bellerophon:

If I said

For every £1 you have I’ll give you £1
or
For every £1 you have I’ll give you £0.50

which would you take?

Same applies to foreign currency buying.

They’ve all got to make money somewhere, even if they’re cutting their margins tighter than anyone else.

The banks and credit cards TEND to give you a very good commercial rate but then make their money by charging you a commission or transaction fee. Some charge more than others.

Halifax Clarity give a very good rate with no ‘per transaction’ charge but you pay interest on the cash withdrawals (and can’t avoid this by pre-paying and running a credit on your account)

Caxton have to make some money somewhere so presumably they shave something on the rate. Trust MoneySavingExpert or similar to do the comparisons.

doosuk – feel a bit stoopid now

The caxton rate looks less good than the fairfx rate, but on the amounts we deal with probs not enough to worry about..