going to europe soon, we're staying in london, edinburgh and dublin, so we'll have to have both pounds and euros.. is there any one place that is best to exchange, or any places to avoid? don't airports charge a higher fee? where else can you do it? do it in USA or over there?
is there any overlap of gbp and euros at all?


thanks,

Yes, there is a bad place to do it. And that would be any exchange place. Airports are worse than others, anywhere where tourists are are horrible as well.

But in general, do not exchange money.

Use an ATM when you get there. EOT. No other posts are needed.

Just be sure to tell your credit card company you're traveling overseas.

Exactly use an ATM, and you if you want to be real smart get a bank account from an online bank such as Charles Scwhab. On my trip I paid no transaction fees anywhere. Compared to some friends saved a hundred or more.

[This message has been edited by kawood82 (edited 6/2/2010 8:36p).]

Check w/your stateside bank and see if they have a partner bank in Europe. For example, Bank of America 'partners' with Deutche Bank...no transaction fees at ATMs.

Has anyone made an exchange with their bank before they've gone? Wells Fargo offers a service.

https://www.wellsfargo.com/foreignexchange/

If you feel more comfortable, get some before you go, but the best way, as said before is to use ATM machines and get the max out each time. Let your bank know where you will be and perhaps raise the daily limit you can withdraw. Sometimes that can be a problem. I also keep two checking accounts active and two atm cards - one foe me and one for the wife - and money in each, in case you have any problems.



Gig 'em Aggies!

I disagree with taking the max out each time. It depends who you bank with on how you do it. With my card, it is a percentage, not a set fee, so I withdraw enough for the day, and not much more. But if you ahve a set fee, then withdraw more.

If you have a PayPal debit card, there is no fee to withdraw money worldwide unless the ATM machine has a local fee. No $5 + 1 to 3% bullsh*t fees most US banks charge.

just got back from europe, have a few pounds and euros in my pocket (~$200 worth). what is a good place in houston/sugar land to dispose of them?

Probably your bank. Honestly, I would just keep them until your next trip or until you have a friend going.

honestly, just hold onto them till your next trip. with the way the dollar is going they might be worth more kept in their current state.

In the places you are going, defroach is dead on.

In eastern Europe, it is much better to exchange your Euros in little stands or shops, they give you better exchange rates than banks. Currently the exchange rate is 1 Euro to 24 CZK at a bank you might get 1:21 or so, but you will get 1:25 at most shops or the small money exchange places.

1/8 = 12%, that is certainly worth doing, particularly because 20oz beers in the non-touristy parts of Czech cost 1 euro

I agree with using ATM, it's worked fine in both China and Europe.

For a gauge on what you'll pay to exchange, I exchanged some Hong Kong dollars to USD a while ago that we found when cleaning out a box from college. Bank of America charged me about 6% on the deal, but I'm not planning on heading back to HK soon so I figured I'd take it. An airport would likely charge more like 10-12%

[This message has been edited by metrag06 (edited 5/19/2011 4:16p).]

AND they'll charge you a transaction fee. So, they'll have an advertised conversion rate and then charge you 5 or 10 dollars more depending on how much you're converting.

07, do you still have those EUROs?

sorry, no i don't. found out one of my coworkers was about to make a trip to uk/europe and sold them to him

quote:

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Yes, there is a bad place to do it. And that would be any exchange place. Airports are worse than others, anywhere where tourists are are horrible as well.

But in general, do not exchange money.

Use an ATM when you get there. EOT. No other posts are needed.

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+1.

Never exchange money, that went out with the Rubiks cube. Use ATM all the way. Find a foreign bank that is a partner to your U.S. bank and get a waiver on any ATM fees. Barclays (UK), BNP Paribas (France), Deutsche Bank (Germany) and BNL d'Italia (Italy) serves as such for BoA.


____________________________________
I have seen the enemy, and he is us.

I'm going to research it later, but does anyone know if Citibank has an affiliate in Paris or Rome? My quick phone search says no.

Im somewhat surprised citi does not have locations in Italy or France. I have used them all over eastern europe and south america...

With that said, you still get charged the exchange rate fee for taking money out but no atm fee.

Either way, it does not appear to be any citibanks in those 2 countries on their website either.

I still highly recommend just opening a schwab account online and getting the debit card solely for travel. Just transfer money in when you need it and you will never have an atm fee anywhere in the world. Takes 10 min to do and costs nothing...

[This message has been edited by defroach (edited 8/8/2012 12:38p).]

In places that are more developed (pretty much anywhere in Europe), I use a credit card as much as possible. I have a Chase card that has a chip and no foreign transaction fee, so it works out nicely.

Yeah, I finally got my citibank AA card to send me one with a chip. Havent had to use it yet, but I feel better that I have one now.

From what I'm reading we won't be charged a foreign transaction fee due to our specific account type. I guess I will just use any random bank ATM.

Depends on the ATM...I have found quite a few in Europe that charged nothing to withdrawal. I just like the peace of mind of not having to worry about that at all.

Sure, you may not be charged a "foreign transaction fee" but I am sure you will be charged a "foreign exchange rate fee" or something lame like that. Just a thought....but I could be mistaken.

Citi used to be my bank and I used it all the time, but I was happy when I got the schwab card just so I did not wander towns looking for a specific bank - it really does not matter now if it is in an airport or a back alley, I always get reimbursed for my ATM fees....

I understand that. But we are are going to be there for 2 weeks and we are going to be in very touristy areas. Even paying $5-$10 for an ATM is not really that big of an issue. And everything I am reading says that our specific account has zero foreign transaction fees.

I have no desire to open another account and move money around just to save $10-$20.

Understand....

Just reiterating Schwab Debit. Has saved me a few hundred dollars over the past couple years.

I guess i never updated on my own thread.

When we were there, we used combo of ATM and credit card. USAA refunds atm fees, and transaction rate was low on card. We also had about 200 euro going there, a wedding gift from family.