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WTD: Cheap Dollars

I'm going to New York in about 60 days time.

I need to buy £1000 worth of American dollars, what is the best way to do this? Do I buy them in the UK whilst they are cheap, do I buy them before I travel bearing in mind the exchange could go up or down or do I buy them when I am over there in the country??

Also for security, would like travellers cheques unless there is another way

HSBC quoted me 2% commission and exchange rate of 1.733

So for £1000 it would be £1000 x 1.733 = $1733 plus a fee of £20

A couple of months ago, the rate was 1.80 and yesterday it was 1.76 and today it is 1.75.

Reply to
An eye for a bargain
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So at that rate it will be 1.00 in 75 days time then?

Get them out of an ATM whilst there. No one knows what the rate will be in a couple of days time let alone 2 months so its your gamble to take. FWIW when I was getting some cash a few months back Marks and Spencers were the best place to buy, they beat all the banks and BDC I looked at

Reply to
Tumbleweed

I have some cheap dollars you can buy. The presidents head is a bit smudged and no watermarks but they are fine for spending in dimly-lit redneck bars ;-)

Reply to
steeler

Best to use the ATM machines whilst there. I did that when in NYC in June and found it cheaper to do that (and less hastle ) than exchanging travellers cheques etc.

Norman

Reply to
Norman

Just draw cash from an ATM when you are there - you'll get a good rate and no commission charges AFAIK.

Reply to
adm

When I went to NY in August I used

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to order a couple of hundred pounds worth to put me on (their rate today is 1.7435 no commision) and picked them up at Heathrow on my way out. You can pick up from most airports. Whilst out there I used ATM's but there is a small charge for this which First Direct (part of HSBC) charge 1.75% or 2 whichever is the greater if I remember correctly.

HTH

John

Reply to
John

marks and spencers online usualy have the best rate, and free delivery if over 500 worth. The snag being (i think) you have to pay with their store card or &more credit card.....but I could be wrong there.

Reply to
Tron[ADS]

Be careful of this. We went to Malta and I got some money out of of a HSBC cash machine with my HSBC card. My wife bought some jewlery on her Barclays connect card. I happened to note the exchange rate at the local currency exchange place the day we went shopping. It turned out HSBC gave me a worse rate than I could have got from the currency shop, and my wife got a better rate than the currency shop. Go figure.

I've also had some bad experiences with Egypt, with two identical transactions, made on the same day, with two credit cards, being some 50 or so difference when it came to getting the credit card bill on two amounts of around 600 each. I noticed my Tesco's card has a hidden 2.5% commission charge, which never gets shown as a seperate charge.

Does any card not charge a foreign currency commission rate and provide a good exchange rate? I'm off to Europe for the next few months, so I'm interested in finding a good card to use.

Kind Regards, Shane Cook.

Reply to
Shane Cook

nationwide

Reply to
Zax

But if you`d walked into the currency shop, would you have got the advertised rate? I know in Prague they where advertising a great rate, but offered you a much worse one when you went in. The best rate I saw was still worse than using my card in an ATM, including the charges they tack on.

Reply to
Simon Finnigan

And also Liverpool Victoria.

Reply to
Walt Davidson

Saga if you are gaga Nationwide if you have not yet reached gagga-dom

Reply to
Michael Mause

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