GBP to EUR for holiday

CivilDrone · 26 Jul 2011 at 20:13

Evening!

I was wondering if anyone knows whats the best way to change pounds to euros? going paris friday evening, so wont have much time to shop around, maybe someone i the know and willing to share? would really apreciate the info, me missus birthday, dont want to start of by not havin euros in paris

cheers

[TW]Fox · 26 Jul 2011 at 20:15

Who do you bank with?

Jono8 · 26 Jul 2011 at 20:15

Ordering online will give you the best rates. It might be offset by any debit/credit card fees you may incur. All depends on how much you are planning to get.

I used bupa currency express for mine and got an excellent rate at the time. Free next day delivery as well but that was only because i was ordering 1000 euros.

CivilDrone · 26 Jul 2011 at 20:23

[TW]Fox;19673674 said:
Who do you bank with?

i am with Lloyds and Sandander

Jono8 said:
Ordering online will give you the best rates. It might be offset by any debit/credit card fees you may incur. All depends on how much you are planning to get.

I used bupa currency express for mine and got an excellent rate at the time. Free next day delivery as well but that was only because i was ordering 1000 euros.

Dont think id need that much, all the stuff been bought already, now i just need 200-300 euros for restaurant and pocket money sorta thing

Participant · 26 Jul 2011 at 20:24

Go with as little as possible and use whatever card you have that has the cheapest cash withdrawal rates in the ATMs.

daz · 26 Jul 2011 at 20:27

Ordering online with Travelex and picking up at the airport or withdrawing a sizeable amount of a debit card in the foreign country is usually the best I've found.

The latter tends to get the best rate, but typically has a foreign currency transaction fee which evens it out if you're not taking too much.

Post office and all the other places that advertise "zero commission" tend to have pretty poor rates when all things are considered.

CivilDrone · 26 Jul 2011 at 20:28

Robbie G said:
Go with as little as possible and use whatever card you have that has the cheapest cash withdrawal rates in the ATMs.

will probably have to do that, have always gone with converted currency, gonna have to check with banks tommorow to make sure which is cheapest

CivilDrone · 26 Jul 2011 at 20:30

daz said:
Ordering online with Travelex and picking up at the airport or withdrawing a sizeable amount of a debit card in the foreign country is usually the best I've found.

The latter tends to get the best rate, but typically has a foreign currency transaction fee which evens it out if you're not taking too much.

Post office and all the other places that advertise "zero commission" tend to have pretty poor rates when all things are considered.

Was thinking of going to post office, i think that place offers reasonable rates, will pop in tommorow and have a look

cheers for the info lads, really apreciate that

moss · 26 Jul 2011 at 20:47

daz said:
Ordering online with Travelex and picking up at the airport.

This, I got the best rate by pre-ording with Travelex and picking it up at the airport.

pmbuzz · 26 Jul 2011 at 20:49

I changed £800 a while back, the Post Office had the best rate i could find. (Excluding ordering online).

oli collett · 26 Jul 2011 at 20:58

www.moneysavingexpert.com

Use their travel money section

[TW]Fox · 26 Jul 2011 at 21:00

CivilDrone said:
i am with Lloyds and Sandander

Lets go on the assumption you want to spend 250 Euro.

With your Lloyds account, you will get one of the best possible exchange rates you can get as a tourist - the Visa base rate. Thats the good news. The bad news is that Lloyds TSB will slap you with a load of fees as well.

These are a 3% foreign exchange fee and a 1.5% withdrawl fee.

So, for your 250 Euro withdrawl, using todays rates as guide:

250 Euros = £227 and you'd be be charged £3.40 in addition. So in total, it would cost you £230.40 to withdraw 250 Euro from your debit card from a cashpoint in Paris.

If you pre-ordered from somewhere like Thomas Cook, you could expect to to pay £228.31 for 250 euro at todays rate they are offernig of 1.095 Euro to £.

To be honest, for the sake of a few quid, I'd take the convenience of a cashpoint instead and I'd just withdraw the money in one go when I got there. Looking at the MSE travel money finder thingy the best possible deal for collection is £226, not sure its worth the faff for 4 quid, just use your debit card.

And then when you get back, apply for a Halifax Clarity credit card and enjoy fee-free foreign purchases anywhere in the world at a great exchange rate, and cash withdrawls at a rate that works out to be about 1% provided you pay it back within a month.

CivilDrone · 26 Jul 2011 at 21:08

[TW]Fox;19674103 said:
Lets go on the assumption you want to spend 250 Euro.

With your Lloyds account, you will get one of the best possible exchange rates you can get as a tourist - the Visa base rate. Thats the good news. The bad news is that Lloyds TSB will slap you with a load of fees as well.

These are a 3% foreign exchange fee and a 1.5% withdrawl fee.

So, for your 250 Euro withdrawl, using todays rates as guide:

250 Euros = £227 and you'd be be charged £3.40 in addition. So in total, it would cost you £230.40 to withdraw 250 Euro from your debit card from a cashpoint in Paris.

If you pre-ordered from somewhere like Thomas Cook, you could expect to to pay £228.31 for 250 euro at todays rate they are offernig of 1.095 Euro to £.

To be honest, for the sake of a few quid, I'd take the convenience of a cashpoint instead and I'd just withdraw the money in one go when I got there. Looking at the MSE travel money finder thingy the best possible deal for collection is £226, not sure its worth the faff for 4 quid, just use your debit card.

And then when you get back, apply for a Halifax Clarity credit card and enjoy fee-free foreign purchases anywhere in the world at a great exchange rate, and cash withdrawls at a rate that works out to be about 1% provided you pay it back within a month.

Thank you VERY much, no idea where you pulled all the info, but you are the man

Moses said:
Zero current account?

Dont really know, just a current account i suppose, also got isa but thats not it

oli collett said:
www.moneysavingexpert.com

Use their travel money section

cheers!

[TW]Fox · 26 Jul 2011 at 21:13

CivilDrone said:
Thank you VERY much, no idea where you pulled all the info, but you are the man

You can get the current best deals from travelagents at http://www.moneysavingexpert.co.uk and the charges associated with your Lloyds account are on the Lloyds website hidden away in a PDF of charges. I just crunched the numbers for you

Dont really know, just a current account i suppose, also got isa but thats not it

You can only get a Zero current account if you have a mortgage, investment product or more than £10k of savings with Santander so it wont be a Zero Current account.

I couldnt find the Santander charges anywhere (Worrying given I'm with them as well) so I worked it out for Lloyds instead. I would imagine that Santanders charges are broadly similar.

For future reference, if you held a Halifax Clarity credit card, you withdrew 250 Euros in cash, and you paid it back a few days after taking it out, you'd pay about £223 for that 250 Euro.

[TW]Fox · 26 Jul 2011 at 22:01

Moses said:
He does have an ISA.

An ISA doesnt qualify as an investment product unless you've got more than £10k in it for the purposes of obtaining a Zero Current Account.

[TW]Fox · 26 Jul 2011 at 22:18

Moses said:
I know, but it could be that value.

Unlikely, as until recently Santander ISA products have been beyond dire and for transfer in, they remain totally dire

A whole 0.5% if you want transfer in and its less than £14k...

CivilDrone · 27 Jul 2011 at 07:19

[TW]Fox;19674821 said:
Unlikely, as until recently Santander ISA products have been beyond dire and for transfer in, they remain totally dire

A whole 0.5% if you want transfer in and its less than £14k...

How do you know so much? now i understand why you've got so many posts, and all of them were of use to other people, no dout about that

meghatronic · 27 Jul 2011 at 07:48

Last week, excluding fee, I got a better rate at ATMs, including fee I about broke even - and didn't have to carry hundreds of euros with me.

KaHn · 27 Jul 2011 at 08:34

I always just use my bank card for ease.

KaHn

dannyjo22 · 27 Jul 2011 at 09:15

I never bother worrying about it, not for the sake of £3 or £4. I know people that will drive into town to get an excellent rate at M&S even though it's cost them a couple of quid in petrol and town parking rates :confused: