Hi guys,
I live in the UK and my American friend is getting married in Austria. She has hired a travel agent to organise everything for her in Austria, and DH and I need to pay for our accommodation/meals for the week. The balance is due in US$$. We're the only couple coming from the UK, and everyone else has been able to write cheques to my friend, who is paying the travel agent herself (after collecting everyone's money). The thing is, it is a large chunk of cash, and we just ordered a new credit card with airmiles, so we'd like to use that instead of depleting our offset mortgage bank account!
Normally, I send small amounts of money to the US using xe.com but they won't let you pay by credit card. I looked at sending it via paypal but they will only let you pay up to £900 in one transaction and then they charge you 3.9% + .20 per transaction. I think we'll end up paying around £60 more just for the privilege of using paypal. Of course, it will go right into her bank account which is handy.
So my big money saving idea is to use the post office travel money card. Anyone ever use it? What if I just top up the card with the amount that I owe my friend, give it to her in Austria and she'll be able to withdraw the funds in dollars when she gets back to the US? Anyone see any problems with this (other than if my friend isn't happy with it, of course)? It looks like it will just put money in £s on the card, which converts it to $s, with no fee. They give you an adjusted exchange rate (£1 buys $1.565 today). To me that seems like the best way to do it so far, but I just don't know if I'm misinterpreting what this card is all about!
Any advice on the Post office card, or other ideas about how to send the money are welcome!
