Originally Posted by
dulciusexasperis
You mention it will be your first trip to the UK and Ireland. Will it be your first trip to Europe overall as well? Do you plan to visit other parts of Europe on other trips after this? The reason I am asking is that if this is a one time, not likely to be repeated (to anywhere else in Europe) trip to Europe, then there really isn't any need for you to be looking at opening different bank accounts, getting different cards or finding out if your credit card charges currency exchange, etc.
Your point about not opening accounts for a one-off trip is valid, but not even bothering to find out if your cc charges a fee? Seriously, that takes all of 2 minutes to find on the cc company website. Given OP has bothered to post on FT asking specifically for tips on this very point, it seems rather silly to discourage them from even finding that out.