Foreign currency
 

I'll be spending 5 days in London, a *fave* city. In the past B/A would mail me GBpounds, $HK, etc., etc FREE, and I thus entered a foreign city flush with local coin literally "in hand." Now B/A wants to charge me an exorbitant service charge for delivering just a few hundred pounds, so:
what's your best recommendation on how to deal with foreign currency? I'll bring my credit card for large buys, natch, but what about "walking around cash"? TIA

I usually bring cash with me and go to Travellex at the airport in London. They give you miles for the transaction with some FT Programms and best of all they offer a buy back guarantee at a set rate. Depending on the length of stay this is sometimes interesting.

Another approach would be to obtain £ notes from an ATM as soon as you land in the UK. "Break" large notes by buying a newespaper or some other minor item and you're set.

magexpect - For the travelex buyback, will Travelex only buy back paper notes, or do they also take £1 (or smaller) coins?

Perhaps you will get a better response in Travelbuzz?

Also, you may want to search that forum... there have been a few discussions on this in the past.

William

There is usually a recent currency conversion thread in the Travelbuzz. I believe that the general consensus is to be aware of your credit card and ATM fees. My bank charges $3 per foreign ATM transaction and a very small (couple cents) conversion fee.... and dispenses the foriegn amount but charges my account the $US amount at the time of transaction. If I withdraw enough at one time it is the cheapest way to go for cash for me.

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Just trying to keep up with the gals in the trailer park next door.

Coins and paper. By the way, check some of the ATM's, the modern ones have a button called mixed notes or something similar. Instead of getting one or two large notes, you get one large and smaller ones.
The best is at the postomat of Switzerland.

Yep, I'm thinking TravelBuzz will get you a better response.

Note with credit cards, most banks (I have UA's & AA's cards) have started charging 1-3% "transaction fees" that are totally invisible on your statement....you might be tempted to attribute it to the exchange rate

If you're coming into Heathrow, there are ATM's along the back wall of the arrivals hall after HM Customs. Yes, do be careful what your home bank charges (mine charges $1.25 for international). I left a previous bank over that issue alone. Try to limit the amount of times you need to hit the ATM on each visit.

If you travel to the UK alot you may want to look into an HSBC account in the states.They have alot of branches but mostly on the east coast.They do not charge any fee's if you withdraw from one of there many many many atm's through out the uk.
-howie

If you're a AAA member, you can get no-fee foreign currency travelers checks at any AAA office. I don't know how good the exchange rate is.

If you're a student with an ISIC Travelex will not charge you an extra, flat commission fee during an exchange.

Aloha dcutcher,

If you have an account with either Bank of Hawaii or First Hawaiian Bank, you can buy foreign currencies without a service charge. That's what I do when I need to travel internationally. Exchange rates are usually better than the rates of the airline affiliated credit cards.

Don't know about Maui, but on Oahu they will transfer the foreign currencies to whatever branch you wish to pick it up at (after you pay first). It will take a few days for the transfer. Try calling them up and ask.