Where's the best place to transfer £ into foreign currency?

How much are you talking about? Does your bank charge you to use ATMs abroard?

Since I changed my bank account I no longer pay any fees to withdraw money aboard, ok they knock 2.5% off the exchange rate but thats off a interbank rate and the rate you get is typically as good if not better than most other places.

It also means you arent walking around with huge chunks of cash, which is never a great idea anyway.

Airports are really bad, and hotels are even worse. only reason i ever use either was to set a "Good" exchange rate for work trips so I could try and make a few extra pounds on expenses when I was younger.
 
Post Office was always been my best bet Bez. They claim that they don't charge a fee to convert the cash but they mark up the conversion rate (but only a little and make their cash that way). Basically it's extremely good when converting GBP to foreign currency but if you have any left over and need to convert it back, they got you by the nads. So just try to spend like there's no tomorrow. :D

I don't bother these days, I come to find out that using the credit card turns out to be the best option out of them all (has to be a cedit card mind, not your current account card). The rates are very good without fee to convert any excess back.

However credit cards aren't always an option (especially if you're slummin' it around India/Romania/etc) so I usually fall back on The Post Office for switching a few notes.

Money Saving Expert has excellent advise: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheap-travel-money

Where you off to you jammy git?
 
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I generally find the Post Office does the best deal but you need to order online then collect next day from your local branch, You get a lot better exchange rate doing it this way.
 
Sometimes you get better rates in the foreign country.... It was 4.3 in the UK and 4.7 in Poland when I visited there so I just took cash with me and exchanged it there.
 
Sometimes changing it out there is the best but otherwise I always book my money online (as you get a better exchange rate than in shop) and pick it up from the post office!
 
Don't use the Post Office, typical consumermist con where they give Foreign Exchange a fluffy sounding name like 'Travel Money' and bang on about 0% comission to make you feel like its a good deal. It's not - they simply give you a crap rate.

The best thing to do is to take the right plastic with you. At the moment this is either a Halifax Clarity credit card or a Satander Zero credit card. Both of these have no fee's and no foreign exchange loading and will give you the Visa base rate on forex which is much better than the Post Office. The only charge is that they both charge interest on CASH withdrawls (but not purchases) from day 1, but even this is at a sensible rate (6-12% APR depending on which card) which works out at about 1% if you pay it off after a month.

Then simply take out the cash you need at ATM's - or if its a country without many, do it at the airport which is bound to have an ATM.

Or you can rip yourself off by paying for 'travel money' at the post office or the airport. Dont forget to then buy an insurance policy for the massive wedge of cash you are then needlessly taking around the country.

You can use your current account as well, if its a Satander Zero account or it's a Nationwide account before 1st November. You'll then get the base rate + a 1% loading IIRC.
 
The additional price you used to pay in commission at the Post Office was no where near as dramatic as you seem to be making out. Little extreme there, it may have changed but I'd be surprised.

The advice of taking out cash in an ATM can be a very bad idea. You can get charged an arm and a leg for using these portable ATMs. But if you find an ATM at an actual bank (especially an affiliate international alliance bank, i.e. Barclays > Deutche Bank > Bank of America) then you should be fine. There "should" be a notification that you're about to get charged, but not always.

You need a little spare cash before you depart, to fly/travel to a country with absolutely none of their currency would be dumb.
 
[TW]Fox;17525239 said:
Don't use the Post Office, typical consumermist con where they give Foreign Exchange a fluffy sounding name like 'Travel Money' and bang on about 0% comission to make you feel like its a good deal. It's not - they simply give you a crap rate.

The best thing to do is to take the right plastic with you. At the moment this is either a Halifax Clarity credit card or a Satander Zero credit card. Both of these have no fee's and no foreign exchange loading and will give you the Visa base rate on forex which is much better than the Post Office. The only charge is that they both charge interest on CASH withdrawls (but not purchases) from day 1, but even this is at a sensible rate (6-12% APR depending on which card) which works out at about 1% if you pay it off after a month.

Then simply take out the cash you need at ATM's - or if its a country without many, do it at the airport which is bound to have an ATM.

Or you can rip yourself off by paying for 'travel money' at the post office or the airport. Dont forget to then buy an insurance policy for the massive wedge of cash you are then needlessly taking around the country.

You can use your current account as well, if its a Satander Zero account or it's a Nationwide account before 1st November. You'll then get the base rate + a 1% loading IIRC.
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Yes and most foreign countries will also charge (in some cases 2.5-3.5% or a fixed fee 2.5-3.5 euros) for withdrawals. So your advice is flawed it depends on where you are going.
 
trentlad said:
The additional price you used to pay in commission at the Post Office was no where near as dramatic as you seem to be making out. Little extreme there, it may have changed but I'd be surprised.
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There is no additional price you pay in commission at the Post Office - the biggest selling point they use is that its 0%. Instead, they adjust the rate.

Example - when I last bought currency (I always take a small amount as a backup) the proper rate was $1.56:£1 and the Post Office were selling at $1.487:$1. I ended up paying £1:£1.49 at American Express travel services. Not great but hey, it was a small amount.

The advice of taking out cash in an ATM can be a very bad idea. You can get charged an arm and a leg for using these portable ATMs. But if you find an ATM at an actual bank (especially an affiliate international alliance bank, i.e. Barclays > Deutche Bank > Bank of America) then you should be fine. There "should" be a notification that you're about to get charged, but not always.
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Sure there is sometimes a charge, especially in the US, but taking out larger amounts in one go mitigates this. A one-off charge of $3 is better than the loss incurred by swapping all the cash at the airport or the Post Office.
 
I tend to use the post office as I haven't found anywhere else in this country that gives a better rate than them usuually.
 
jas72 said:
Yes and most foreign countries will also charge (in some cases 2.5-3.5% or a fixed fee 2.5-3.5 euros) for withdrawals. So your advice is flawed it depends on where you are going.
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In those circumstances you withdraw large amounts at one - so you are paying $3 or so to withdraw $300 rather than $3 every day when you take $30.
 
I've always found that if I want to exchange cash, it has always been better to do it when I get to my location.

For example, after travelling Europe this summer the exchange rate was maybe 1.12:1 (GBP:EUR) and when I arrived at my destinations it was anywhere between 1.18:1 - 1.25:1 depending on the amount changed.
 
trentlad said:
I don't bother these days, I come to find out that using the credit card turns out to be the best option out of them all (has to be a cedit card mind, not your current account card).
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Soooo wrong

Don't use a credit card - in general they will charge you a fee and its counted as a cash transaction so charged at their cash interest rate from the day you make a withdrawal. Use a debit card!!!
 
If you order your money from the Post Office online, you might get a higher rate than at the Post Office, this is my experience anyway. You can then collect it from your local Post Office.
 
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