Taking Travelling Money to America
Replies: 15 - Last Post: Nov 23, 2012 2:55 PM Last Post By: willysnoutredux
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Taking Travelling Money to America
In January I'm going travelling around North America for 3 months. I'm struggling to find a decent way of taking my across though, as I refuse to pay £1.50 to use my card (with my current bank) and don't really want to bring £10,000 in cash. I've looked at either Barclays (who are part of the Global Alliance banking group) or getting a MoneyCorp travel card to take my money, and just wanted to see if anyone has used these systems before, and if they're actually good/useful. Many thanks for all your help in advance.P.S. Apologies if their is already a thread with this info on, I don't have the time or patience to traverse the 25,000 available :).
1
If you live in London, Metro Bank is excellent, and their debit card offers free withdrawals and transactions abroad at a very good exchange rate (no loading or flat fee).Otherwise, the CaxtonFX pre-load cards are pretty good for transactions and withdrawals in US Dollars.
Good advice can be found on http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheap-travel-money
2
Be prepared for the fees the American banks whose ATM you use will charge you. Some even charge 5US$ per withdrawal.3
Banks use their own internal Telegraphic Transfer rates, on all overseas transactions involving ATM's and is supposed to be the best rate by far.You will undoubtly be charged some sort of fee in using an ATM, no matter what kind of card you carry, it is part of the modern world i'm afraid, and it is the way that banks get their money these days.
7
Use a credit card (not a debit card) as much as you cantake $500. in cash with you on departure.
You will have a history of transactions through your
statements which can be accessed online if need be.
Also make arrangments with your family to pay your
monthly statements on time and in full avoiding interest charges
Before you depart contact the card provider
and explain your going away and where you'll be
this is important because if you should go on a spending spree
the card provider won't put a stop on your card.
this will save you a lot of stress.
enjoy your trip.
9
Be prepared for the fees the American banks whose ATM you use will charge you. Some even charge 5US$ per withdrawalThose fees are charged only to American customers. Things might have changed since I wrote this exhaustive FAQ post, but at the time of writing, banks were not charging ATM fees to international customers. Not here in the U.S., or outside of the U.S.
One exception: If you're going to Vegas, don't use the ATMs inside the casinos. The surcharges are astronomical. They get away with it because they are not "bank" ATMs under the regulations.
10
I use a card from the Global Alliance (Westpac since I'm from NZ) and its the best way for me to get money in the USA. I pay no account fees of any sort, and no fees from either bank for taking money out of Bank of America ATMs (the partner bank in the USA) although there will be the 2-3% currency conversion fee which seems to be unavoidable. Bank of America ATMs seem to be fairly well distributed through the States. Having a Barclays account should work in the same way (although I don't have any ideas what fees they charge just for the privilege of having an account with them).11
willy, I was charged at every ATM in the US I used and I was using my Dutch bankcard. Most of the time it was 2 or 3$ per withdrawal, some (I think it was Chase) charged a fee of 5$.There was no way around it, I tried to find ATM's without a fee but couldn't find them.
This was in June/July/August 2011.
14
The US banks charged the fees, my Dutch card doesn't charge me a fee per withdrawal, it charges me through the conversion rate.Basically if I wanted to withdraw 200US$, the ATM would say we charge a 2$ fee, if you accept it press ok (or something similar) than they would withdraw 202$ from my account and give me 200$.
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