V-Flyer

Until the 6th Feb HSBC are offering dollars (Cash and Travellers Cheques)at the rate of $1.937 to the £1, with free delivery.

With Thomas Cook the rate is only $1.86

Just thought it may be useful to anyone who is off to the USA soon, I've just ordered some for myself. You do not have to be a HSBC customer to take advantage of this.

http://www.hsbc.co.uk/1/2/personal/trav ... avel-money

Cheers,

Richard.

Thanks Richard.

I am going to buy some on Monday, so will check them out. I usually get mine from Thomas Cook, as they will beat any local price. Having said that, the rates they offer before you tell them the best local rate you have found are often pretty poor. [n]

Nick

Thanks Richard, great find![y]

I usually find that M&S are very competitive for dollars. Also, you can pay for currency with your M&S '& more' card & it is treated as a cash transaction, so no charges & nearly 2 months free credit if you get the timing right.Having said that, I will be popping into HSBC come Monday morning. Thanks for that tip.[y]

That is an excellent rate, I am gutted I bought a few hundred pounds worth from the Post Office on Saturday now [n] oh well, you win some, you lose some.

Superb, many thanks for the heads up.

Regards

John

Not sure if this will be of too much use to anyone- but if you are buying a lot of dollars (as in thousands and thousands for say a 2nd home or something)- the big City based FOreign Currency Transfer Companys, such as Torfx, will always do an excellent deal for private clients.

I now recieve a monthly phone call from them informing me of how the market is going etc and the price they can do and the price is clearly a lot lot cheaper than on the high street. They do all foreign currency but like I said only really useful if you have a 2nd home abroad or the like.

Another option is to open up a Nationwide account and withdraw your dollars from a cash machine once in the US. That way you get the bank rate without any commision

even if you use a bank card with another bank (eg hlifax) it still works out a better exchange rate just to withdraw them oney when you are in the US

opps forgot to add if you have a visa debit card, go here and add in what the bank charges you and it'll give you your exchange rate

http://corporate.visa.com/pd/consumer_s ... _rates.jsp

Originally posted by Virgin Sheep
Another option is to open up a Nationwide account and withdraw your dollars from a cash machine once in the US. That way you get the bank rate without any commision

It's worth noting that you do get charged a 2% cash advance fee with the Nationwide Credit Card, so if you want cash, use their debit card. Neither card charges commission, usually around 2.75% with other banks.

If you get money from places like Travelex, use a Maestro card, there's no cash advance fee on that. Even some debit cards in the UK will charge (about 2%) to get currency or travellers cheques.