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Changing £'s for €'s


Den

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Hi.

I tend to take mostly €'s in cash during our trips in France and Spain.

Has anyone used a French or Spanish bank or an exchange bureau and done better than using a U.K. Company.

Thanks

Den

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Have to agree with John. We use nationwide debit card for cash, and credit card for fuel , sites in Spain and France You get the commercial rate of exchange. We do take some euros with us as well.

 

Not sure if you will get the same benefits as we do , as been a customer for 50 years plus , and I believe some benefits are not offered to new customers now.

 

PJay

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Halifax Clarity credit Card, no rate change charges, always the best rate and no cash withdrawal fee.

If you pre load it with some money before you draw out the cash then there is nothing to pay.

 

See money saving expert web site for more info on cheap foreign money solutions.

 

Andy

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PJay - 2017-07-04 10:28 AM

 

Have to agree with John. We use nationwide debit card for cash, and credit card for fuel , sites in Spain and France You get the commercial rate of exchange. We do take some euros with us as well.

 

Not sure if you will get the same benefits as we do , as been a customer for 50 years plus , and I believe some benefits are not offered to new customers now.

 

PJay

Same here though not been with N/wide quite as long! They used to not make any charge on foreign currency cash withdrawals at ATM but i think they do now. Still find them a good service though and i use my cards same way......CC for all purchases (fuel etc) and Debit for withdrawals.

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Use the Currency Club to buy cash online before leaving. Seems generally a better rate than using a card in a hole in the wall.

 

Use Nationwide (Visa) credit card for purchases wherever and whenever possible. The Visa credit cards are so widely accepted that the need for cash is limited to sundries and odd places that don't accept cards.

 

Card acceptance is still lower in Germany/Holland than in most other western European countries, so it is worth finding out in advance how card friendly local businesses are in countries you intend visiting. However, France, Belgium, Luxemburg, Italy, Spain and Portugal are widely card friendly.

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We use our Nationwide card for diesel and No1 currency for buying €'s.

Picking up £1500's worth tomorrow and I've fixed the rate at 1.1210.

But I sometimes wonder if some long termers are receiving better rates abroad using real cash.

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we use n&p but that is coming to an end on 31 aug. i do have nationwide but i believe there is currently a deal (ongoing til 2022) with barclay platinum where for foreign cash withdrawals there are no charges,and if you pay it off in full each month then there are no interest charges, easier to do now that data roaming charges have ceased. according to martins money the best current deals are with santander and halifax.
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Sorry, I just can't be bothered with all that. On our annual 3 month Euro tour I just usse my debit card to draw Euros whenever I need it, generally from cash machines, but only when the machine is in the foyer or inside the bank, never in the street. Unless you are using thousands of £s, the few pence saved by other methods is just not worth the hassle, imo..
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Brian Kirby - 2017-07-04 5:51 PM

 

Use the Currency Club to buy cash online before leaving.

 

I'm wary of leaving cash with a limited company, especially after reading of the collapsed ponzi scheme at Crown Currency / Mayfair & Grant. Others may be perfectly sound - particularly if they are holding your money for shorter periods. But I don't change enough money to justify researching them. Easier and safer to draw cash with the debit card when needed.

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A couple of years ago, we tried a Tesco pre paid card, but found that it was more trouble than it was worth, not always accepted by some machines, and we never new how much money was left on the card. Tesco did stop issuing card, Don't know if they replaced it with something different, but Nationwide does it for me Everytime! Credit card is fine as long as you can repay it while away, either by DD, or as I do on line, that way you can check it

PJay

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I use a Post Office CC for general purchases and a Nationwide CCfor fuel, both of which are supposed to be free of charges and the currency conversion is done at the interbank rate (i.e. better than you can get when buying Euros) on the day of the transaction.  Using two CCs hedges my bets in case one of them gets blocked.  I always tell the CC companies that I will be abroad too, to minimise the risk of this happening.

 

I usually buy Euro notes before we leave at the best rate I can get on line, which usually turn out to be the Post Office.  I only take about £500 in cash because I use the CCs ffor most purchases.  It works in France.

 

I did run low on cash on one trip and, without really thinking, used my Barclays Debit Card to get 300€ from a machine - and Barclays added about £15 to the cost as their fee, the equivalent of about 5 or more years of interest at the rate I can get it!  Never again, I'll use my Nationwide Debit Card if I need to withdraw cash abroad again.

 

Last time I tried to notify Nationwide that I was going abroad they said they no longer require notification.

 

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John52 - 2017-07-05 9:07 AM

 

Brian Kirby - 2017-07-04 5:51 PM

 

Use the Currency Club to buy cash online before leaving.

 

I'm wary of leaving cash with a limited company, especially after reading of the collapsed ponzi scheme at Crown Currency / Mayfair & Grant. Others may be perfectly sound - particularly if they are holding your money for shorter periods. But I don't change enough money to justify researching them. Easier and safer to draw cash with the debit card when needed.

I think I may have caused a misunderstanding, John. No cash is left with the Currency Club. One buys one's currency on the day (before noon) using a debit card, and the currency is dispatched the same day via the Post Office on a next day delivery. I can't claim extended experience of this service, but it has worked flawlessly for us over the past three years or so.

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John52 - 2017-07-03 9:52 PM

 

I don't know of anything that beats my Nationwide Debit Card for cash machine withdrawals, and Credit Card for purchases, in France & Spain. For security, convenience and exchange rate.

 

When it comes to making cash withdrawals outside the UK, the competitiveness of a Nationwide debit-card will directly depend on the type of Nationwide current account one holds.

 

This should be evident from the following link

 

http://www.nationwide.co.uk/support/travel/fees-charges#xtab:foreignCash

 

where ONLY the debit-card linked to a Nationwide “FlexPlus” account (that costs £10 per month) has no fees for withdrawing cash abroad.

 

Using any credit-card to obtain cash will (to the best of my knowledge) always attract interest on the ‘loan’. This interest can be avoided, either by paying off the ‘debt’ very soon after the cash has been obtained or (as Andy mentions) by pre-loading the credit-card prior to withdrawing the cash. I was under the impression that deliberately putting a credit-card into credit broke some sort of financial regulation, but I’ve done it accidentally and the credit-card provider (Santander) did not seem to care.

 

 

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Brian Kirby - 2017-07-05 12:10 PM

 

John52 - 2017-07-05 9:07 AM

 

Brian Kirby - 2017-07-04 5:51 PM

 

Use the Currency Club to buy cash online before leaving.

 

I'm wary of leaving cash with a limited company, especially after reading of the collapsed ponzi scheme at Crown Currency / Mayfair & Grant. Others may be perfectly sound - particularly if they are holding your money for shorter periods. But I don't change enough money to justify researching them. Easier and safer to draw cash with the debit card when needed.

I think I may have caused a misunderstanding, John. No cash is left with the Currency Club. One buys one's currency on the day (before noon) using a debit card, and the currency is dispatched the same day via the Post Office on a next day delivery. I can't claim extended experience of this service, but it has worked flawlessly for us over the past three years or so.

 

Crown Currency worked flawlessly for years, giving great exchange rates, and receiving great recommendations, right up to the day it went bust owing customers £20 million. But they were holding customer's money for up to a year with the exchange rates fixed in advance.

I'm probably being over cautious.

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John52 - 2017-07-05 5:00 PM.................I'm probably being over cautious.

Can't comment! :-D We all do what we are comfortable doing. I don't but large amounts at a time, to spread the exchange rate risk over several months. So even if they did go pop the potential loss, though a handy sum, wouldn't be crippling.

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I wonder if when brexit happens. Will one be able to "buy" euros with cash sterling?(while abroad )

I know that when we used to go to Tenerife for winter hols. There always places where they would be happy to exchange £ for goods. (usually brits who lived there , but came back to Uk for holidays)

Not sure it was legal, Also there used to be a Brit run cafe in Calpe that would take £ for goods!

I have also been asked when using a CC to pay for camp sites, whether I want to pay in Euros or £.As i used nationwide I plump for euros, I guess this will come to a halt ?

 

i am sure they will still want our money, when we become "free" from Brussels .

Personally I think I will be too old to care what happens , as i doubt we will bother to travel outside UK. Still lots of places to see north of Luton Airport!!

PJay

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PJay - 2017-07-05 6:12 PM

 

I wonder if when brexit happens. Will one be able to "buy" euros with cash sterling?(while abroad )

I know that when we used to go to Tenerife for winter hols. There always places where they would be happy to exchange £ for goods. (usually brits who lived there , but came back to Uk for holidays)

Not sure it was legal, Also there used to be a Brit run cafe in Calpe that would take £ for goods!

I have also been asked when using a CC to pay for camp sites, whether I want to pay in Euros or £.As i used nationwide I plump for euros, I guess this will come to a halt ?

 

i am sure they will still want our money, when we become "free" from Brussels .

Personally I think I will be too old to care what happens , as i doubt we will bother to travel outside UK. Still lots of places to see north of Luton Airport!!

PJay

You'll still need your passport to go anywhere north of the Watford gap, and you will have to practice the Yorkshire battle cry!.....How Much!!! :D
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Brian Kirby - 2017-07-05 7:38 PM

 

I thought you were in favour of Brexit, Pauline? Nothing can go wrong, can it? Bregrets? :-D

 

I am Brian. Never voted to join in the first place.

The original idea was for TRADE , not total domination.

Germany did not win 2 world wars, so is trying to take over by stealth! and the french give in !

Look what has happened to Russia, all the states have broken away, and are better for it

 

just my views, I am not really that interested in politics . In the end they all turn things to there own advantage an gain

P

 

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