^^^ I usually do have some 'seed money' in £, or €, or ¥ or whatever left over from previous trips. But if I'm out then yes, some 'home' currency is handy to have.

well, i just returned. I took less cash and used credit cards. I believe this may have been the wrong way. Do to the exchange rate from pound to US everything I bought I paid 30-35% on top once my banks converted to US. So if a hotel room was 100 pounds in reality I was paying closer to $140.

I cashed in 1700 pounds before i left and received $2200 so that was a relief but between the exchange rate and foreign transaction fees I wasted alot of money.

Don't think there is a cheap way to do it. Dublin and London are the two most expensive cities I've been in.

Actually -- Credit cards are the absolute cheapest way to pay for things. At the current $/£ exchange rate £100 = $134.42. With a 1% conversion fee tacked on by your credit card that £100 would be approx $135.76. If you paid a lot more than that, then you fell for DCC. Dynamic Currency Conversion was explained up thread. Never ever have your charges calculated in your home currency. That just adds on more fees.

Plus you lost $ on the conversion from £ back to $. £1700 would equal $2285 so if you received $2200 you paid $75-$85 to sell back those GBP. (the exact dates make a difference because the exchange rate fluctuates). But no matter the date -- you paid a premium to buy those £ and you paid another premium to sell them back.

I was paying roughly 35% more in US the Pounds when i used credit cards...that was my general complaint.

the pounds i cashed in were those i won playing poker

at any rate England is crazy expensive. everyone there agreed.

35% is crazy, either your bank screwed you or...
everyone there agreed.... we are having a "cost of living crisis" which is a different thing

If you think London is expensive don't bother with Switzerland, Norway or even Amsterdam.

Perhaps you have misunderstood how currency exchange works, and you will always lose money on it unless one crashes in your favour, and with the credit card it certainly sounds like DCC was at work. Either that your bank charges a ridiculous amount, in which case look for a different credit card.

I hope you enjoyed your holiday anyway.

It's not obvious the OP has a good understanding of exchange rates......The 35% is consistent with the GBP to USD exchange rate, not fees, which is right around 1.35 to 1 right now....

Using that same math, traveling to Italy before the euro, things were incredibly cheap. For $1 is could get around 2000 Lira in exchange...

I know how exchange rates work i just didn't do research on going from US to Pounds. I, wrongly, assumed that it would be roughly the same as last summer when i was going from US to Euros, which wasn't so bad.

I don't what was happening with my banks but I always chose to use local currency when given the choice and paid for everything else in pounds or Euros, as that is what businesses used.

The exchange rate was 1 pound = 1.29 US so when i cashed out i got more in return, which is basically the opposite of what i was charged by my banks.

I spent some time in Amsterdam last summer. I stayed in hostels and ate once maybe twice a day s i didn't find it as expensive as others have.

If i decide to travel to the UK again i will do more research into what US banks will charge less fees on foreign transactions.

I enjoyed parts of it. I love long train rides, Riverdance was spectacular, the water at Weymouth beach was nice, the Bronte Parsonage Museum, walking along Hadrian's Wall, and many other smaller things like meeting people and random brief interactions, etc...however England is not what I was hoping it would be, i pay enough attention to current events to know that England isn't as "English" as it used to be . And the food is crap compared to the food in Europe.

Knowing what i know now I would have never taken the trip.

I think a lot of places are expensive to many people for different reasons. I’ve gone to a place and when looking at what I paid when getting home wondered what I did wrong. I’m going back to Iceland and have already told my travel companion, I don’t want to hear how expensive everything is. I already know.

Your posts don't make sense. Sorry, but you've either left something out or misinterpreted things -- what do you mean you paid a 35% premium??. I travel to London a few times every single year and the absolute most I've ever paid is 3.5% (i.e. $3.50 per $100 due to fees with that bank) Most of my charges are only 1% over the official exchange.

But if you think you understand how it works . . . carry on . . .

Regarding bank fees..there are lots of options so it definitely pays to do your homework.

my US credit card (from chase) charges no foreign transaction fees.
my bank debit card charges no ATM fees or foreign transaction fee. They will also reimburse me for any bank fees the owner of the ATM may tack on.

The exchange rate on electronic transactions (ATM or cc) is always going to be better than exchange paper money.

these days I’ll seek out a bank ATM upon arrival at the airport and get about $100 worth of local cash. Some trips I spend little or no cash due to the prevalence of tap and pay, for even the smallest purchases at many places.

I’m an American retiree who lives in the UK on my $ income, mostly from pensions and Social Security retirement benefits. Like janisj wrote, “Your posts don’t make sense” to me either. My US credit cards give me 1.5% cash back with no foreign transaction fees, so I use the US credit cards whenever I can, then pay the full balance online each month when I get the bank statements.

Right now the exchange rate is $1.34 to the £. Just because the £ is worth $1.34 doesn’t mean you are paying 34% more. In fact many things I buy here in the UK are actually cheaper than in the US. When you use a credit card or withdraw money from an ATM, your bank back home will determine the exchange rate unless you fall into the trap of DCC, when you are giving the vendor permission to set the rate (which will always be higher).

Both Visa and MasterCard have websites you can use to determine what you will pay in $ when you withdraw money from an ATM or make a purchase abroad. Frankly I don’t use them because I already know roughly what my bank will be charging and they are more trouble than they are worth, but here they are:

https://usa.visa.com/support/consume...alculator.html
https://www.mastercard.co.uk/en-gb/p...-currency.html

You need to find out what your bank at home will be charging, if anything, for foreign currency transaction fees. Ignore the spoiler which I can’t get rid of.

I think you've nailed it -- the OP thinks because the exchange rate is £1 : $1.34 instead of 1:1 he is paying 34% more for everything. And in the Euro zone @ €1 : $1.17 would have him paying 17% more. Nope - doesn't work that way. But I doubt anything we say will convince him.

That seemed pretty clear to me from the get-go. But since the OP appears to be so invested in the idea he’d been had it didn’t seem worth the effort to enlighten him, if in fact that was possible.

james, looks like you may be conflating exchange rate with bank fees. Exchange rates indeed are quite different than last summer, and not to our favor. Rates are highly dynamic, even from day to day, and the dollar has been losing ground against the pound and the euro. Your paying USD134 for a purchase of £100 is based on the exchange rate.

Additional fess can vary widely. Your best bet is a credit card that charges no foreign transaction fees, as is common with many cards marketed to travelers. Some ATM/debit cards also waive fees, including ATM fees - shop around. As noted, avoid the nefarious Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC) scheme at all costs. It is ALWAYS optional, and if a dishonest merchant tries to tell you otherwise let them know you are aware of that fact and absolutely decline it.

Now, as to food in UK and Ireland - boy, you sure must have eaten at a lot of poor choices! Once infamous for boiled to death meat and veg, both countries have had a culinary renaissance, Ireland even moreso than the UK. Do a bit of diligent research beforehand, and rely on advice of locals.

tommie the turtle

👍 😀

Seamus, I had the exact same thought about the "fees." Many years ago I did foreign exchange at a major bank. Some customers didn't understand about the exchange rate, and they assumed any cost over $1 USD was a fee. By the same token, they perceived that had made money buy getting a currency with a lower value than the US$. One woman came in and asked for $30 worth of Australian currency. When I gave her $40 AUS, she was delighted and said she made money. I tried to explain that she didn't, and that $30US equals $40 AUD. But in her tunnel vision, all she saw was that she gave me 30 dollars and got back 40.

When we are traveling to France, Italy or Austria (from Switzerland), we usually bring about 600 euros in cash with us, plus cards of course. We also bring about 200 or so francs.
Some places/people are really happy to be paid in cash, esp taxi drivers, others prefer cards. We've been doing the cash and card mix for nearly 3 decades of living in Europe. Works fine for us, YMMV.