Crown Currency Exchange collapses

[JAzz]

Guys I am unsure what rates you banks effectively offer.
I am with Ulster Bank, they are a subdiv of natwest, thus RBS, thus govt/taxpayer.

Current XE rate on £:$ is 1.58
Current Ulster Bank rate is 1.53, then they hit you with the 2.75% (just checked) fee per transaction.

Recently I went to indonesia, one of the hotels (as many western hotels there do, advertise their rate in dollars, meaning you can pay in dollars) I paid in dollars. I knew how much this was going to cost so i brought exactly the amount of dollars i required for that hotel, and the $25 needed for the visa on arrival.
I used crown currency and I got an exchange rate of 1.58, as I had ordered 3 weeks before I needed the money I actually got a rate equivalent to the XE rate.

So $1025 cost me £648 or so.
If I'd used my credit card, I'd have been paying £688, basically wasting £40.
I was really happy to have heard and used crown, and its a damn shame they have went bust.

What annoys me most about cards abroad, is even if you use types which avoid the fee, the interbank rate you get sucks donkey balls, you get nailed in currency rate for between 3 and 4%, this is the bit I resent.

Look at the Halifax Clarity Card, it doesn't charge you any fee and the rate is from what I've heard is pretty much the same as xe. https://www.mastercard.com/us/personal/en/cardholderservices/currencyconversion/index.html That will work out the currency rate and I think that is what you pay. Right now on xe the rate is 1.58071 on the mastercard link it is 1.5849. If you look at the dollar rate today it has 1.57513 and 1.58679 today so am guessing whenever that mastercard rate was set it seems pretty much the xe rate. I think the Santander Zero card is the same but supposedly from reading about the Clarity card offers better rates.