Seeking advice for exchanging currency

Okay, so, lucky me, my car sold for a tidy sum!   I'm gonna pay off a few bills, then take the rest as my "dowry" for the future hubs. Haha!

Here's where I am completely clueless. I'd consider myself to be an intelligent woman, yet admittedly VERY uncultured. I have changed money in airports several times, and while I was sure there were better options, I have no idea what the heck they would be.

Now it's a little more crucial. I will need to exchange a few thousand dollars into pounds, so obviously I want to lose as little in the transition as possible! The advice seems to be to just use your American ATM card in the UK for the best exhange, but it's difficult to tell if the little fees my credit union/visa debit card charges makes that true or not. What's the best way to go about this? Ideas?

I can't speak from personal experience (other than, as you said, at airports); however, my husband says that if you go to a local bank in the UK, you'll get the best rate.

If that's true or not, I can't say, but he definitely believes it is.  

ETA:  He'll only exchange his pounds and dollars at a bank - he believes anywhere else, you'll lose some of your money because of what fees other places may charge.

I can't speak from personal experience (other than, as you said, at airports); however, my husband says that if you go to a local bank in the UK, you'll get the best rate.

If that's true or not, I can't say, but he definitely believes it is.

From my understanding though, not every bank can exchange currency? Surely there would be one in Edinburgh or Glasgow I could exhange money in though.

Edit: By the way, the fiance seems to have the same mindset as your husband.

E-trade? X-trade? something like that. My DH swears by it. He would use it to go from his account in the UK to my ING account in the US and back.  Also, UK banks will allow you to deposit dollars into an account, you might need to have a chat with them to figure out the fees and etc.

I'll ask him tonight what bank(s) he uses and believes to be the best for exchange; perhaps they'll have offices around where you are.

Banks are usually best and I don't think you'll have a problem if you go to a large branch here or Edinburgh.  Banks in the US should be alright as well, but you may have to order it and I don't know if there is a fee to go along with that.  Also, my BF had to change some £'s to Euros the other day and the Post Office had the best rate (of the day) so you could try that as well.

The best rates I've seen are on xe.com or you can even transfer money via PayPal from your account to your husbands account in the UK.

Personally I would suggest transfering it via Paypal.  I transfered $5,000 from my American bank account into my hubby's UK bank account and I think the total cost was around $3 (it was also free for him to then transfer the money into his bank account...so that $3 is the total cost).  Plus then you don't have to travel with that much cash on you.

I agree with the XE/PayPal suggestions, they have quite low fees.

If you don't want to do that, though, you could check with your bank. My credit union charges a 1% fee for me to withdraw money from a foreign ATM. I don't know if the exchange rate they use is the most competitive, but it seemed to match up with that day's rate online, anyway.

My US bank allows free foreign wire transfers, and my UK bank (Lloyds) didn't charge for receiving one. Lloyds did the conversion upon receipt of the money and I didn't feel I lost out on it like I have done in the past with other foreign transactions. I had some foreign drafts made once in the US and felt like that wasn't as fair as it could have been, particularly as you have to pay a fee for them (at least I did).

My mum does accounting for an international company and often has to pay bills in Canada or France in US currency and she seems to think wire transfers are the best way to go, but that's possibly because it's the easiest thing for her to do since all her accounts are already set up! But the process was incredibly straight forward for me and fast, which was much appreciated.

Banks are usually best and I don't think you'll have a problem if you go to a large branch here or Edinburgh.  Banks in the US should be alright as well, but you may have to order it and I don't know if there is a fee to go along with that.

My experience is that banks in the US do not like to deal with actual foreign currency anymore, as least not in terms of cold hard cash. My local Bank of America acted as if British currency was play or counterfeit money and you could see the panic in their faces. I've wired money before, but you have to be careful and check for fees on both ends.

How much does your credit union charge in fees?  It still might be the best bet.  My experience is that paypal's exchange rate isn't the best, although the fees are low.  There are various US banks that have a good deal where they only charge 1% or so of the total to pull money out of an ATM. 

Hiya

When it comes to currency exchanging, the high street banks do offer 'good' rates but certainly not the 'best' rates. The best rates come from the Independant Currency Exchange specialists and they always offer better rates than the high street banks. However, for 'smaller' amounts perhaps a few thousand dollars/pounds, the difference isn't that much, so the convenience of popping into a high street bank outweighs the need to setup accounts with the currency exchange type places. It's when you talk bigger amounts can you be better off by literally thousands of pounds or dollars when you get a better exchange rate provided by them.

So far, I'd say definitley take a look at Paypal in terms of rates and the convenience factor, then compare with what you'd get from places like Thomas Cook and of course the high street banks

Cheers, DtM! West London & Slough UK!

In my experience the best exchange rate is likely to be found by withdrawing cash from a British ATM using an American debit card.

However you can also get hit with fees this way so you need to make sure you use the right card. Visa/MasterCard charge your bank 1% to do currency conversion, and most banks (quite fairly, IMO) pass this on to you. Many banks also add their own charge on top - normally 2% - for a total 3% charge. Many also charge you a separate fee for using an ATM that doesn't belong to them - these can be $1-$5 per withdrawal. If you are using one of the big banks like Citi, Chase, Bank of America, you are almost certainly getting overcharged in fees.

On the other hand, there are a few (mostly smaller) US banks out there that will actually absorb the 1% charge from the card companies so you get the "interbank" exchange rate with no further charges, which is as good as it gets.

I use Charles Schwab, which is one such bank. I've had nothing but good experiences with them the past 3 years. If you can get an account, highly recommended. They also refund any charges made by the bank who owns the ATM. There may be other banks out there that will also eat the 1% charge.

The only limit would be the amount of cash you can take out of the ATM every day (probably in the $1000-$2500 range).

In my experience the best exchange rate is likely to be found by withdrawing cash from a British ATM using an American debit card.

However you can also get hit with fees this way so you need to make sure you use the right card. Visa/MasterCard charge your bank 1% to do currency conversion, and most banks (quite fairly, IMO) pass this on to you. Many banks also add their own charge on top - normally 2% - for a total 3% charge. Many also charge you a separate fee for using an ATM that doesn't belong to them - these can be $1-$5 per withdrawal. If you are using one of the big banks like Citi, Chase, Bank of America, you are almost certainly getting overcharged in fees.

On the other hand, there are a few (mostly smaller) US banks out there that will actually absorb the 1% charge from the card companies so you get the "interbank" exchange rate with no further charges, which is as good as it gets.

I use Charles Schwab, which is one such bank. I've had nothing but good experiences with them the past 3 years. If you can get an account, highly recommended. They also refund any charges made by the bank who owns the ATM. There may be other banks out there that will also eat the 1% charge.

The only limit would be the amount of cash you can take out of the ATM every day (probably in the $1000-$2500 range).

This has been the cheapest route that I have found. I pull out £300 each time and get charged only $1 for doing it. My money is exchanged at the current rate at that moment of the day.  Since there are no ATM fees here in Scotland (don't know if there are in the rest of the UK), that's the way I go.

I've never tried taking out more than £300 pounds at a time.

Steph