Many thanks to those in this NG who, in a discussion a few months ago, recommended a Nationwide Flex Account for overseas holiday spending. I thought that a bit of feedback, based on my own experience, may be useful to others.
I have just spent a month in New Zealand - armed with my NW Flex Cash/Debit card and a linked Credit Card - and they did "just what it said on the tin".
I opened these accounts *just* for holiday spending - so they are additional to my normal current account and credit card.
The beauty of the NW cards is that you get the full inter-bank exchange rate on all cash withdrawals and credit card transactions - with no fees or commision payments. Obviously, for cash, you need to have the money sitting in the Flex account so that you are simply withdrawing your own money, and not borrowing it.
Using the NW cards, I was consistently getting just over 2.7 $NZ to the compared with just over 2.5 from other banks. A rough calculation suggests that the 1300 or so which I spent in NZ would have cost me at least 1400 had I paid by any other means (buying NZ currency in the UK, changing sterling travellers cheques, using other credit cards, etc.)
The NW Visa CC was accepted everywhere I went, and there were numerous 'holes in the wall' where the cash/debit card could be used. Many of these allowed you to specify the amount in multiples of $20 (about 8) although one or two only dished out $50 (~20) notes. And they were, of course, available 7x24 - not just in banking hours.
I bought a small amount of NZ currency in the UK before travelling and also took some sterling travellers cheques as a backup - but I needn't have bothered - I brought all the cheques back!
In future, if anyone asks me how best to organise their overseas holiday spending money, there's only one answer . . .