Exchange Rate

[Colwyn]

excessive charges for withdrawing cash abroad

I don't pay any charges. Instead I get inter-bank rate TL rate - better than any money changer.

[Blindside]

Unless you are a bank you aren't getting interbank rates....

[Scunner]

 

[madmart]

Blindside

I have and use a Clarity Card from the Halifax and I DO get the Interbank rate!!!

[Blindside]

Halifax will charge you a minimum of 12.9% APR for any cash withdrawal you make at home or abroad using the Clarity card so add that charge to your calculations.

In addition, MasterCard (not Halifax) will create the exchange rate that you pay from a collection of sources including Bloomberg, Reuters and central banks and this will "generally reflect" wholesale rates. You can check this in the Halifax T&Cs. However, it not be interbank rates as Mastercard will be creating a margin for themselves on each transaction. Even a tiny percentage margin on the millions of transactions each day adds up to large profits. That's what MasterCard do, they either charge you or the retailer to make their money.

There are many ways to minimise the charge you pay for FOREX and huge savings can be made depending on who you go to ( and their margin) and how much you are changing. You can even hedge against the currency moving against you if you operate in multi currencies regularly.

But as this isn't the standard 2 weeks in Turkey tourists situation then my original post seems to offer a decent balance between convenience and costs.

[Blindside]

Hamlet - too late I took all they had it was that good and I now own Turkey   typo   

[Colwyn]

OK, although technically different the from interbank rate I pay the same as Visa/MC charge my bank, in practice there is very little difference between the rates, especially in relation to the difference between Visa rates and currency exchanges. I am fortunate enough not to have to use credit cards to withdraw from ATMs. (Or perhaps it's old-fashioned values about saving first then spending what you've got). Anyway, if I had withdrawn from a Turkish ATM yesterday I would have got 306.50TL to £100. Not bad.

[Blindside]

I do love an argument about technicalities/fiscal matters whilst lying by the pool in Calis !!

As I'm sure you can imagine, my wife and kids have already stopped listening to me after being away for 3 weeks with a pedant  

Now....can you lend me a few of your extra lira as I want a spicy kebab from Mangals? Their food is much better than Meeting Points....... any takers???  

Cheers

[Kevin Sowten]

Coinmill showing 3.11 today (we'll be predicting a date for 4.00 next !    )

[stoop]

A combination of Nationwide Flexi and cash is what we tend to use. We always use the Fethiye atms as well. Don't trust the Calis ones at all - too many thefts from them recently.

Flexi is now 2% of the cash withrawn plus £1..00. We can live with that I think - especially if we get we get a good rate. We managed 2.90 YTL on 17th July. Better than the change shops at the time.