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Traveling to the UK Exhange Dollar for GBP or Euros

Traveling to the UK Exhange Dollar for GBP or Euros

Old Aug 13th, 2013, 02:27 AM
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Traveling to the UK Exhange Dollar for GBP or Euros

Checking out the exchange rates I noticed that the British pound is walloping the dollar even more than the Euro. Do most retailers accept Euros in London and what currency is dispensed from the ATMs over there? Trying to figure out what makes the most sense with purchasing and the different currencies/exchange rates. Thanks.
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Old Aug 13th, 2013, 02:30 AM
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The currency in UK ATMs is NOT the Euro, it is the British Pound. You have work to do
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Old Aug 13th, 2013, 02:49 AM
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For my forthcoming trip to the USA I would like to use exclusively the Bolivian Boliviano. Will retailers be delighted with this approach?
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Old Aug 13th, 2013, 02:50 AM
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Exchanging $ for € and then into £ would mean paying currency exchange fees twice. If you can find a retailer in London who accepts either $ or €, you would be guaranteed to receive the very worst exchange rate.
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Old Aug 13th, 2013, 02:51 AM
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If you find shops taking dollars or Euros you will normally get ripped off, in the core of London's tourist town you may find a bunch of high end shops willing to take anything.

The ATMs give £ and you use £ to buy stuff
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Old Aug 13th, 2013, 03:02 AM
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Use your debit/ATM card to withdraw pounds from a ATM.


For my forthcoming trip to the USA I would like to use exclusively the Bolivian Boliviano. Will retailers be delighted with this approach?

Perfectly acceptable, my Good Sir. They will be so delighted that you might actually mistake their happiness with rage.
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Old Aug 13th, 2013, 03:15 AM
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Unless you are in a country with worthless currency - where any hard currency is often acceptable - you must use the legal local currency. A few places (tourist shops, airport duty free) will take other currency - but at a shockingly bad rate (20% too high?) and most places will take only local currency.

Agree - what do you think would happen if you tried to pay a New York cabbie or waitress with euros or pounds?

Use CC for everything possible and pull walking around money from checking account with you ATM card.
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Old Aug 13th, 2013, 03:18 AM
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I had to read this post. You need to use the currency of the country you're visiting. You can't simply decide to use some other currency.

Have you looked at the exchange rate for the Euro to GBP?
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Old Aug 13th, 2013, 03:27 AM
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When withdrawing £ from an ATM with a US debit card sometimes you are given a choice of being charged in $ or £. ALWAYS opt to be charged in £. Choosing to be charged in $ (dynamic currency conversion or DCC) results in a poorer exchange rate.
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Old Aug 13th, 2013, 03:36 AM
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First-time poster. Perhaps long-time troller?
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Old Aug 13th, 2013, 03:41 AM
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Dukey1 - I think this person is serious. Many people do not understand the countries they will visit and do not understand exchange rates and how that is only one part of the value of their money. Sometimes it's looked at as I get more xyz for my own currency without considering what you can buy for a dollar or a euro or a pound.
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Old Aug 13th, 2013, 03:48 AM
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It blows my mind why England and Europe won't accept my dollars because the dollar is supposed to be worth than everyone else's monopoly money. My dollars are happily accepted in Cancun and Niagra Falls, so why not Europe?!?!?
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Old Aug 13th, 2013, 03:52 AM
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Hi R2daO2daZee (that's a cool user name, btw), welcome to Fodors. Read, learn, and read lots more to get ready for your trip. Lots of information available on Fodors!
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Old Aug 13th, 2013, 04:18 AM
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I think the op is simply naïve about currencies and things like that...he or she picks up a paper seeing the £ is worth $1.55 (approximately) and the € is worth $1.33 and thinks he or she will be better off because he or she will get more euro than sterling and thinks in London, the currencies are interchangeable. Let's not be too harsh...the person might be somebody who has never travelled west of the Hudson River and has no idea the US dollar is the currency of the USA and while some countries use the US dollar as their currency (Panama and Ecuador and Liberia come to mind), in other countries, they use their own currency. Believe me, it happens

Also wonder how he or she will feel when they step off the plane and hear it is 10 degrees and wonder where their winter coat is.

(Just to show this isn't so isolated, on my recent trip home from London as the plane was getting ready to land at JFK, the co-pilot got on the horn with the usual spiel we'll be landing in 20 minutes and the weather at JFK is nice with a temperature of 68 degrees and the young lady sitting next to me turned to her other neighbor and said you have to be kidding...her companion told her it was Farenheit not Celsius!

These things happen.
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Old Aug 13th, 2013, 06:35 AM
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First time post.

Ridiculous question.

Too lazy to do a search in the search function of this website that would net 100s of hits.

No replies to responses.

T R O L L
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Old Aug 13th, 2013, 09:48 AM
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It is people like sparkchaser that give Americans such a bad name. He lives in a country with several trillions of dollars debt and he thinks every body else's currency is monopoly money!! Time to waken up to the real world
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Old Aug 13th, 2013, 09:55 AM
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I think (hope) sparkchaser was kidding . . .

>>Checking out the exchange rates I noticed that the British pound is walloping the dollar even more than the Euro.
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Old Aug 13th, 2013, 10:04 AM
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It is people like sparkchaser that give Americans such a bad name. He lives in a country with several trillions of dollars debt and he thinks every body else's currency is monopoly money!! Time to waken up to the real world

Easy there, old timer. I was kidding.
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Old Aug 13th, 2013, 10:09 AM
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I was able to buy far more with my dollar when the £ was worth $2.80! Imagine buying a Porsche 911 today for £2, 600! Oh, and those £12 cashmere pullovers were a real steal! ;-)
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Old Aug 13th, 2013, 10:19 AM
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Was that back when the US was still on the silver standard?
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