Has "electronic money" made us lose sight of value?

two thousand, five hundred great british pounds, on a graphics card? some people need their heads tested! just buy a ps4 and be done with it!
 
Nope, makes no difference to me. Money is money :p. I imagine 2.5k weighs a fair bit tho! Just spent 500 quid cash in Croatia (4400 croation kuna) on holiday this last week

I guess it's "faster" to complete a purchase online from your home but that's a slightly different thing.
 
I wonder how £2,500 feels to rich people like footballers. £2.50? If you're making £250,000 per week.
 
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I have to agree with [TW]Fox

Its the 21st Century and people still live like it the 19th when they go travelling.
Strapping their wealth to their legs and lining their suitcases and shirt sleeves in it..

Get one of these fee free transaction accounts and/or use pre paid cards with excellent exchange rates.
 
It is still an interesting area to think about...

My grandad scoffs at paying an extra 5p for a pint of milk, yet is quite happy to pay for bills and pointless expensive things through plastic as somehow the money seems to be devalued if it isn't physically in your fingers?!
 
I once worked in South Korea in a city where there was only one ATM that took foreign cards and it was often out of order. I used to have to take out loads of cash at a time and their biggest bank note was worth less than £5. It was weird carrying around an inch-thick wodge of money.
 
[TW]Fox;26398649 said:
Halifax Clarity. There are a few other cards offering a similar product, too.
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Turned me down, depressingly. I am guessing because I am still technically a student. Only have about £200 charge free useage on my nationwide credit card, so have had to bow and take some cash to the USA next week.

I have had zero percent cards for the past couple of years, and my credit rating is good, but apparently not enough for the clarity!. d'oh.
 
[TW]Fox;26398460 said:
I travel around the USA/Canada every year for my holiday. I never board a US bound plane with more than $10 in currency. Instead, by using the right credit card, you can buy things on card (The USA is a massive card culture, even 79c soda can be paid for by card) with zero loading, zero fees and a perfect Mastercard base rate for the exchange rate - better than any rate you'd get exchanging physical cash.
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Rubbish, there is no bank changing a better FX rate than some london shops. Give me your current rate and I guarantee to show you a specific shop at London Victoria that offers a better one, they even have a website that you can check the rate yourself.

EDIT: Interesting, I found the rates they charge here: https://www.mastercard.com/global/currencyconversion/index.html, very good but still not as good as what you can get at http://change-link.com/. Comparing them the shop is 1% cheaper. But still quite an excellent deal for the card.

All cards charge at least 1% fee on top of your purchase when buying in foreign currency. The only one that doesn't is the Post OFfice card, but their FX rates are abysmal to begin with so they hide their charges in there.

EDIT: And I stand corrected, they don't charge any fee: http://www.halifax.co.uk/creditcards/low-rate-no-fee/clarity-card/#foreign_exchange Very interesting!

And if you need actual cash, you can use it in the ATM anywhere in the USA or Canada - again, zero fee, zero loading, best possible exchange rate with only a 1% per month interest charge.
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I find this hard to believe. Which card is that? I've looked into this a lot as I travel to USA and do purchases there and couldn't find a card that doesn't have ridiculous rates and fees for withdrawing cash.

EDIT: Indeed, although that 1% per month is a bit misleading, the APR ranges from 12.9%-20.95% and that's what everyone understands, not per month charges.


Thanks for that info FOX, I'll actually apply to get one!
 
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There is a really good current episode on the bbd radio 4 comedy of the week podcast,

http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/comedy
Simon Evans Goes to Market: Gold

Talks about how money moved away from the gold standard (commodities based) to paper IOUs (banking), essentially granting a license to print money to pay for the great wars.

Recall that the bank of england, and the USA's federal reserve are private banking institutions, not state machines. Their names are a deliberate con to imply they are more public than they actually are.
 
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[TW]Fox;26398460 said:
I travel around the USA/Canada every year for my holiday. I never board a US bound plane with more than $10 in currency. Instead, by using the right credit card, you can buy things on card (The USA is a massive card culture, even 79c soda can be paid for by card) with zero loading, zero fees and a perfect Mastercard base rate for the exchange rate - better than any rate you'd get exchanging physical cash.

And if you need actual cash, you can use it in the ATM anywhere in the USA or Canada - again, zero fee, zero loading, best possible exchange rate with only a 1% per month interest charge.

It is more convenient, it is easier, it is cheaper and it is safer and more secure.

I have no idea why you'd want to take £2500 in actual cash to the USA.

Madness. You'll even find it quite difficult to do some things over there without a card - good luck renting a car without a credit card, for example. Most places simply won't serve you unless you leave a hugely impractical deposit. Those places that do are unlikely to have competitive rates.
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Just wait until your bank decide that the excessive card use in a foreign country is fraudulent so they cancel the card. This happened when I was in France, there solution was to post a new card to me - not much help. I wouldn't mind so much but I rang them before I went away to tell them I was going to be in France using my card.
 
Haircut said:
^
That change link site shows a worse exchange rate than Mastercard.
The sell rate, i.e the rate they sell dollars for is around 1.663 at the time I looked.
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The rate changes every few minutes as they follow the market rate plus some %.

So will the rate Mastercard give you. The rate on Mastercard's site is a daily indicative rate. If the rate plunges at noon Mastercard won't give you the morning rate if you happened to check their website in the morning. Mastercard will also 'round' their rate, meaning that they'll clip you a bit on the conversion.
 
BunnyKillBot said:
Recall that the bank of england, and the USA's federal reserve are private banking institutions, not state machines. Their names are a deliberate con to imply they are more public than they actually are.
Click to expand...

What? what are you own about?

The Bank of England is under the authority of the Treasury and is an independent public institution.

The Fed is independent and receives its authority by the US constitution and it is subject to congressions supervision.

ohhh i get it, you're trolling..ok.
 
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