currency exchanging - here or there?

Hi all,
Does anyone know if its better to change Sterling into Euros in the UK or in Spain?
I'm travelling over there tomorrow and don't know whether to change more or less!

best thing is to shop around and see who is giving the best deal

Hi Raz

We normally find it's better to use our Nationwide card and withdraw euros when in Spain as Nationwide don't charge and you only pay the exchange rate at the time.

I normally buy currency in bulk to transfer to my BBVA account in Spain, with the rate low I have not done this in the last few months, I bank with Barclays in the UK but I drew out cash from Barclays in Sabinillas and got 1.23 which was not bad.

I have found I can get 1.26 or so on a regular contract, PM me for details.



This message was last edited by manilvajl on 7/29/2008.

Re currency transfers, I started off transferring funds to my spanish euro account on an annual contract with HiFX.  When this came to an end a few months ago I started using sterling exchange.  I have found that their rates are normally better than HiFX and the admin side is a lot less hassle.  when I last did my calculation sterling's rates were 2.2%  less than the advertised rate on each transaction and HiFX came out at about 4.2% less.

Steve

Beware of this !!!!

I checked my Visa bill from last month when it arrived today and found the following:--

I purchased 2 sun loungers from Carrefour for 59.80 euros and the Visa rate was 1.206 so I paid about £49.58

They put 4 through the till rather than 2 and the transaction went through with other things on the bill, we checked it and they did an immediate refund of the lounger amount. They were unable to void the transaction so they had to do a refund.

The refund came through of 59.80 euros and they used a Visa rate of 1.276 so we only received £46.86.

Carrefour are not to blame but Visa have made money out of me on the exchange rate and you don't see this until you check your bill.

NatWest tell me they are stuck with the rates Visa use, I have told NatWest to sort it as I am their customer.

Its only £3 pound but it could have been a much bigger transaction and therefore cost a great deal more.

PS Barclays gave me 1.23 from the ATM so I think I will use cash in future.