Travel Money Cards!

[simon7685]

I am going to follow the advice of a lot of you on here and bring quite a bit of sterling to change while there.  I am also looking at bringing a prepaid travel card with an amount on to draw out over there as I don't want to carry loads of cash and my bank charge a small fortune for using my debit card abroad.

Has anyone any experience of either the Fair fx card or the Caxton fx card?

Both of them seem to have equal things going for them but any advice from anyone that has used them would be appreciated.  Thanks in advance:D

[jwood]

Get a Nationwide Flexi card - no charges !

[kenkay]

Just to back up jwood's comment I changed money in Calis last week and got 2.45ytl/£. Within a half hour I drew some at the atm with my Nationwide Flex and got 2.495  .
Currently 2.40 in Calis

[simon7685]

I can't get a Nationwide account unfortunately so that is not an option, hence looking at either fair fx or caxton fx.

[Fifi]

I have the Fairfx card and have used it for Euros in the past. The advantage is that you tell them how much you want to put on your card and the amount is credited to your card at that day's exchange rate. You then need to choose an ATM that does not inflict any other charges for withdrawals and the only other charge is then a 1.25 Euro charge per withdrawal however much you withdraw - no other currency loading or extras.However my understanding is that the card is only available for Euros and Dollars at the present time.

[julesbob0303]

I've noticed the rate beginning to drop over the last week or so, so picked up some turkish lira this morning at our post office.  I never normally do this, as the rate is always so much better in Turkey.

The rate I got today was 2.36, but the way its started to come down, by the time we arrive in Calis and are able to cash money on 2nd August, it might possibly have dropped to this rate anyway.    Thought I'd take the chance.

Was it last summer that it dropped right down to 2.16, and that was in Turkey [?][?]

(No doubt, we'll run out anyway, and will need to get more when we're there!  

[simon7685]

I have been watching the exchange rate for the last ten days or so and it has nose dived in the UK!  Just over a week ago the Post Office were doing 2.41 and Thomsons were happy to match that.

I have been looking for info on the web and found an article about Turkey striking a deal with the IMF, it said when the deal goes through the £ will drop a lot further, they are predicting about a 10% drop, so 2.16 could be where it is going again.  I must admit I am tempted to buy some currency now and take a chance, it is just so difficult to know what to do for the best.

[Fifi]

I've been tracking Fairfx TL currency rate for the past 3 weeks and it has come down each day starting at 2.4550 on the 30th June to today at 2.3684. I think it is time to order some now as the trend definitely seems to be downwards..

[mikrik]

We started coming to Turkey about 15 years ago and have noticed a trend where the best rate against GBP is usually mid July dropping to the lowest around end Dec/January. There are some exceptions to this of course, but if past performance is anything to go by it's probably already heading downwards.
It's worth noting that the rate always seems to be slightly better on Mondays than later in the week.
Bring stirling by all means but make sure you've got somewhere safe to keep it.

[simon7685]

Thanks for the info about the fair fx card Fifi, it definately seems a better option to the Caxton global travel card.  I emailed Caxton and they said that with their card it costs you 2.5% on every purchase but there is no ATM charge, so £2.50 for every £100.  Still cheaper than my debit card costs but dearer than Fair fx.

I am not really surprised that the £ has gone down so much in the last week and after todays news that the economy has shrunk more than expected I think it will go down with another wallop next week.

Has anyone changed any sterling today in Calis?  If so what was the rate?