AudiMan

Calling all you financial guru's out there, I'm off to Visit the Big Mouse in October, just wondering whats the best way of paying for stuff while I'm out there (meals, drinks, the odd pressie etc), without paying stupid commision.
Cash ?
Travellers Cheques ?
Visa card
Visa Debit card.
Combination of the above ??
I'll happily get an American Express card if that would make a difference.

Thanks

Ian

boxst

Hello

I always found Credit Card to be quite reasonable. And I certainly get a better rate of exchange than at the exchange places at Heathrow/Gatwick.

Steve

carl

Nationwide credit card has no foreign currency charges. Most of the others charge around 2.75%.

We tend to take a small amount of cash (~$100), a larger amount of traveller's cheques (useful if you need more cash -- you can just use them to pay for stuff and get the change in greenbacks) and some credit cards. Take at least 2 credit cards -- for some reason my Egg card stopped working and Egg were at a loss to explain why. Started to get a bit suspicious when my Intelligent Finance card started getting rejected the next day, too...

Freak

All my cards worked fine- even my delta/visa debit card which i expected to have problems with worked fine.

Find a cirrus cash point and you can get any more cash you need out there anyway.

Take lots of cash- you will need it for tipping

Markus

US Dollars and CC will be more than adequate.

I've been using a UK CC in Canada for the past 2 1/2 years with no problem at all, and I frequently use it in the US when on business, again, no problems.

Having a bit of cash is always handy as well.

One thing I will say about CC's, I'd phone the bank before you leave to tell them where you're going and how long for as they might stop the card. About 2 months after being here I tried to make two large transactions withing around 2 hours of each other. The first went through no problem, the second, well, the card was stopped. About 10 seconds later the mobile rang, was Barclaycard wanting to alert me to some odd transactions. I explained it was me, I was in Canada, they removed the stop from the card, wham, no problems at all.

Kiwi

We also use Nationwide Credit card in the USA.

No charges & better exchange rate than for cash or travellers cheques.

We just pay for everything on it when we are away & try to limit the cash !

AudiMan

Thanks everyone,
a bit of cash and a Nationwide CC look like the way to go, (I'll take a couple of othe CC's just in case).

Ian