Best place to chance currency?

i know nothing · 13 Feb 2006 at 16:04

E1mo said:
I was wondering if anyone had any advice about changing very large quantities of currency?

I'm going to spend a year at an American University next year and I'll need in the region of $15,000 throughout the year. The problem is I can't get a bank account before I get out there and HSBC require a minimum deposit for an offshore bank account, which I just can't afford.

You'll only start to get decent rates when you start changing £25k or above, your bank would be the best bet then. Places like the Post Office and travel agents are only good for amounts under £5k.

cheets64 · 13 Feb 2006 at 16:08

Is Travelex only online, the only place i have seen outlets is in the airport terminals.

daz · 13 Feb 2006 at 16:13

I got a much better rate than here when I arrived at my destination when I went on holiday before.

daz · 13 Feb 2006 at 16:15

E1mo said:
I was wondering if anyone had any advice about changing very large quantities of currency?

I'm going to spend a year at an American University next year and I'll need in the region of $15,000 throughout the year. The problem is I can't get a bank account before I get out there and HSBC require a minimum deposit for an offshore bank account, which I just can't afford.

Can't you just take your credit/debit card abroad with you? You'll get charged a small fee each time I suppose, but there's a limit on taking a certain amount of cash into and out of certain countries IIRC (might be nearer £50k?).

Amps · 13 Feb 2006 at 16:58

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?newsid1106765397,71685,

Have a read at that.

Spend abroad on plastic, in any foreign currency, and while the exchange rate changes daily, it always depends on what’s called the ‘Visa/Mastercard wholesale rate’.

This is about the best exchange rate you’ll ever get as it’s stripped of all charges and commissions and reflects the real interchange value of currencies.

.

This bit really isn’t necessary to understand and unless you’re a real MoneySaving nerd, I’d simply skip past it! There are actually, technically, two loading fees on a Visa. The Issuer Fee.

The load Visa adds itself. Its standard setting is 0% inside Europe and 1% outside.

The Optional Fee.

The load the card providers add to get their cut. This can be split into intra-regional fees for different locations.

It means, as explained below, for Nationwide to have 0% loading outside Europe, they set a 0% optional fee and choose to absorb the issuer fee within their costs.

Rotty · 13 Feb 2006 at 23:28

that site offers a very simplistic view on things dealing mainly with charges and ignoring the spread percentage which is by far the most important factor

Haylee Jayne · 13 Feb 2006 at 23:33

When I went away at new year I went went to a travel agent to change my money and they sometimes do special deals, depending on how much you want to change. I originally wanted to change £250 to Euros but she said that if i gave her £280 the rate would go up and id get more. So it depends really....shop around and get the best deal. Wouldn't advise using your debit/credit card abroad coz they charge a lot to get money out of a hole in the wall.

qwerty · 14 Feb 2006 at 00:30

Best place to chance currency? A casino!!

jhmaeng · 14 Feb 2006 at 01:06

If you're going to change on the high street, it's worth comparing a few places.

You can quite safely rule out most banks, as you can most travel agents.

The ones to compare, IMHO is the Post Office, and Marks and Spencers. Those two usually have good rates (on the high street) from my experience, and they don't charge a separate commission.