Quote: Oour Abbey Visa Debit card should be ok then, not the cheapest, but not the most expensive either.
Umm... Abbey have been totally spamming me to let me know I can use their card abroad. To the point of driving me nuts. I've used it abroad for years, but got a Nationwide account in January to avoid the charges. You'd think they'd have software to tell them at least one of those facts.
Sorry if I sound a bit insane .. it's the Abbey's fault
Quote: Oour Abbey Visa Debit card should be ok then, not the cheapest, but not the most expensive either.
Umm... Abbey have been totally spamming me to let me know I can use their card abroad. To the point of driving me nuts. I've used it abroad for years, but got a Nationwide account in January to avoid the charges. You'd think they'd have software to tell them at least one of those facts.
Sorry if I sound a bit insane .. it's the Abbey's fault
Liz
OK Liz..I tell you what...I'll swap your Abbey spam for my Viagra spam?
I can't believe this. I lived in France from 88 -92 and have been there or Spain almost every year since...and always used mastercard/visa/amex.
My spam is obviously just not good enough!
------------- 'I liked freezing my n*ts off so much, I bought the company'
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With the best will in the world I can never understand the stress that people put themselves to regarding changing currency: Unless you are changing thousands it doesn't make a lot of odds, does it? I see that one of the Members got 1.445 and another got 1.4356 - that's 0.0094 as a difference! Just factor in the time taken, probably fuel used to get it, the stress induced and then say *** it!
I went to the local Post Office for my Euros. Didn't really care about the exchange rate as I only bought a couple of hundred and the saving in time and agg. was well worth it for me.
Then used my Barclays Connect card free of charge at BNP Paribas branches in France.
One thing I learnt last year though was that I paid at the Post Office for my Euros on my Connect Card and Barclays stuck their nose in the trough and charged me a commission for the transaction which I thought was a bit cheeky. So all I would say is that if you buy Euros from the Post Office make sure you pay for them in cash. I did it this way this year and cheerfully stuck two fingers up to Barclays!
Quote: Originally posted by happybonzo on 30/6/2007
With the best will in the world I can never understand the stress that people put themselves to regarding changing currency: Unless you are changing thousands it doesn't make a lot of odds, does it? I see that one of the Members got 1.445 and another got 1.4356 - that's 0.0094 as a difference! Just factor in the time taken, probably fuel used to get it, the stress induced and then say *** it!
Yes but that's not the whole story...unless you want to wander around with £3-4000 euros in your pocket for 2 weeks or so (and that's not going to happen). You need access to money via a card(s) while you are there and it is the charges for transactions that mounts up
------------- 'I liked freezing my n*ts off so much, I bought the company'
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Has anyone checked the exchange rate from Nationwide? You usually find that if they claim a "free" service, the exchange rate is not so good.
There's no such thing as a free lunch and this applies to the usage of these cards. These transactions have to be paid for somehow and they're usually recouped in some hidden way.
I certainly found that paying for purchases on my card gave me a far better exchange rate and while paying £142.00 for €200.00 here, I was only paying £138.00 for the same number of Euros at the BNP Paribas "holes in the wall".
I think it pays to find out if your high street bank has any trading affiliations with a bank in the country/countries you're visiting.
We have used Tesco at their Kingstone Park branch Newcastle. Lloyds charged us for using our card so cash transaction next time, but the rate was very good.
Tel 0191 286 3862 to check the daily rate - you actually speak to a real person in the office.
------------- Shane
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