Scotland - nuts & bolts
 

One week left until I leave for Scotland!!! Luckily, I have managed to surface from the haze of exitement in time to remember that I cannot do business with my US dollar in Scotland. So...my question is it best to bring traveller's checks, pounds stirling or will my little plastic card suffice? (Visiting the Highlands, Skye, Argyll, Edinburgh - not sure if the answer is different depending on the region)

Little plastic card, with a little emergency back up. I like US cash for the back up, a few people still like traveler's checks.

Be sure and inform yout credit card/debt card company that you will be using it in the UK, make sure you have a 4 number passcode, and get the phone number to call the bank from outside the US.

Looking forward to your trip report, I will be going over there next summer.

Keith

There's a lot of posts about this. I personally believe that travelers checks are virtually obsolete. ATM's are everywhere, they give you a better exchange rate and you can just take out what you need. Check with your bank about fees--I use citibank, and they told me that there is no per transaction fee for foreign ATM use as long as you have a certain balance in your account ($6000 I believe). If you have an ATM card that is also a debit card, as most are now, you should call your bank right away, let them know you are going and there's something they have to do to the card. I believe they activate it for foreign use, or some other security feature, but Citibank told me to call their debit card division to let them know when I would be in Europe.
Have a great trip--I love Scotland.

I've been to Europe (including Scotland)several times, and have always used my combo ATM/debit card (w/ a 4-digit PIN)for cash with no problems whatsoever. I've never called my bank in advance, either, for what it's worth...

Plastic and a few pounds sterling for back up would be my vote. Don't please use dollars here, except in extremis.

There are a few places in the remote west where you may be as far as 40 miles from an ATM. But everyone takes credit cards.

We were in Scotland in June/July and had absolutely no problem using our ATM cards to get cash. Sounds like you are covering a lot of the same territory we did, and the only town where we looked for an ATM and couldn't find one was Uig (pop. 100) on the Isle of Skye (but Portree and Broadford both have ATMs). And no problems with credit cards, either. I do call our credit card companies in advance, just as a precaution.

Have a great trip!

Ditto to Sheila and Ms_Go: ATM and a few pounds will do nicely.