My first Uk visit soon, is a Credit Card good enough?

I'm making plans to visit the UK for the first time in a couple months and I've aquired an international credit card that is good in the UK. My question is, will this credit card meet all of my needs during my visit, or will I need other forms of money? If I need other forms of money, where would I go to have US dollars converted into pounds?

If your card is a Mastercard or Visa you will be fine, though it is a good idea to have cash for small purchases, pubs etc or you will have a massive bill when you get home.  You can almost certainly withdraw cash directly from your account using your ATM card in most UK ATMs, otherwise you can exchange dollars in banks, post offices or specialist currancy exchanges - which usually have a higher commission.

If you only have AmEx you will need something else, as a lot of places won't take this.

I would never bother with traveller's cheques anymore.


Vicky

For immigration you will probably need to show that you have access to money via bank statements - so that the UK immigration officer is convinced that you do actually have money to fund your trip and aren't just relying on credit.

I would suggest that it might be wise to transfer a bit of cash into UK pounds for when you first arrive. I'm not sure where you can do this in the US - maybe at a bank? (In the UK you can change money at your bank, the post office, bureau de changes, travel agents, the airports etc.). Otherwise you can just use an ATM card to withdraw money from your checking account while you are in the UK (although you may be charged for this).

ETA: x-posted with Vicky

The good news is, the charge to take money out of an ATM in the UK is only a few bucks. Also, it is a kick in the butt to put your regular old card in the wall in Sainsbury's, punch in your regular old PIN and see pounds come out. Buck Rogers, baby!

You can pick up some pounds at the exchange booth at the airport, but it's a bit more expensive.

Oh ok, thanks for the quick responses everyone. I will need to take a taxi out of the airport so I will probably need pounds? I guess that means I'll need to see if I can exchange some money at a bank here, or at the airport when I arrive.

Yes, Vicky, I have a visa credit card and a visa debit card which I use for the atm. The charge on my credit card for using it overseas is 2%.

Oh ok, thanks for the quick responses everyone. I will need to take a taxi out of the airport so I will probably need pounds? I guess that means I'll need to see if I can exchange some money at a bank here, or at the airport when I arrive.

Just a quick question: how far do you need to take the taxi from the airport? I ask because taxi is the most expensive way to travel and so you may find it much cheaper to get a bus or a train if you need to get somewhere a bit further away (say, into London, or up to Cambridgeshire, for example). A taxi from Heathrow airport into London Victoria station could cost you about $80, but if you go by train (underground system - about 30 min journey) or by National Express bus (about 50 min journey), you can get there for less than $6!

Just a quick question: how far do you need to take the taxi from the airport? I ask because taxi is the most expensive way to travel and so you may find it much cheaper to get a bus or a train if you need to get somewhere a bit further away (say, into London, or up to Cambridgeshire, for example). A taxi from Heathrow airport into London Victoria station could cost you about $80, but if you go by train (underground system - about 30 min journey) or by National Express bus (about 50 min journey), you can get there for less than $6!

Well my destination is Cambridgeshire and I don't yet know which airport I will be arriving at as I'm not sure which one is closest. So I guess a taxi could definately be expensive then... I'm not sure how I'd arrange to take a bus or train? Would I take care of that before I fly or once I land? And where could I go to set that up?

You can definitely get pounds in the US from your bank, but you have to 'order' it ahead of time.  I've done this a few times, once in Providence where I had to go down to the basement to pick it up, and the guy from Office Space gave me my pounds and was muttering about burning the building down.  Even in Florida where my mom lives, they didn't know what I was asking for at first as they didn't know there were other currencies in the world, but eventually I got connected with someone who did have a clue and I picked it up a few days later.  Hope this helps, it'll probably save you some money over using a credit card at an ATM.

Usually Heathrow and Gatwick have the best flight prices, but Heathrow is 86 miles from Cambridge (not sure where in Cambridgeshire you're going, so I'm using Cambridge itself for an estimate) and Gatwick is 93 miles from Cambridge.

Stansted Airport is only 27 miles from Cambridge and Luton is 38 miles away, but doing a quick flight search on Kayak, I can't find any flights that go from Ohio to Luton or Stansted - they are all to Heathrow or Gatwick.

To get a bus you can go here: National Express and you can either book before you go or there should be a bus station with a ticket office at the UK airport. A bus from Heathrow to Cambridge looks to be about $45 one-way (you'd be looking at over $400 for a taxi).

For trains, www.thetrainline.com is good and the trains look to cost about the same as the buses (about $40 or so, one-way). Again, you can book in advance or on the day, but especially with the trains, the longer you leave it, the more expensive the fare. You can often get cheap advance booking fares if you book early.

Awesome! Thanks for all the help. I do believe all my questions are answered.

lol at the guy from office space thing.

You can pick up some pounds at the exchange booth at the airport, but it's a bit more expensive.

My experience exchanging money at the airport booths is that it is outrageously more expensive.  They usually charge a quite large service fee (I think I ended up paying something like 20 euros in fees to get 60 euros when I was in Italy this January) on top of pretty poor exchange rates.  There are ATMs all over airports--I suggest you use one of those.

I don't think anyone has mentioned this yet, but make sure that you call your credit card companies and bank and tell them that you'll be using your card abroad.  If they don't know you'll be gone, you probably won't be able to use the cards in the UK.

It sounds like maybe you don't have a lot of experience traveling outside the US.  It might be a good idea to pick up a travel book and combing it for details--Lonely Planet and Rick Steves are both good series.  These really help you with the logistics of traveling, as well as pointing out places to go.  If you have a decent library in your town, it should have something along these lines.

Best of luck!

Definitely seconding the ATM thing--I use Washington Mutual, and they only charge me maybe $2 per transaction, so I just make a couple big transactions while I'm there and pay for everything in cash. I was also able to get a decent commission rate when I exchanged my cash, but it was only $100 and I can't remember what bank I did it with (it was somewhere in Northampton proper I believe, not that it helps ).

As for getting out of the airport, taxis are *incredibly* expensive depending on how far you have to go. I know Birmingham has light rail service of some sort, but I'm not sure if that would be reasonably close to Cambridge  *has a really bad grasp on detailed English geography*

Edit: I did some google-fu, I guess London would be your best bet  But you won't be far from Northampton, so yay 

My experience exchanging money at the airport booths is that it is outrageously more expensive.  They usually charge a quite large service fee (I think I ended up paying something like 20 euros in fees to get 60 euros when I was in Italy this January) on top of pretty poor exchange rates.  There are ATMs all over airports--I suggest you use one of those.

I don't think anyone has mentioned this yet, but make sure that you call your credit card companies and bank and tell them that you'll be using your card abroad.  If they don't know you'll be gone, you probably won't be able to use the cards in the UK.

It sounds like maybe you don't have a lot of experience traveling outside the US.  It might be a good idea to pick up a travel book and combing it for details--Lonely Planet and Rick Steves are both good series.  These really help you with the logistics of traveling, as well as pointing out places to go.  If you have a decent library in your town, it should have something along these lines.

Best of luck!

Yeah I've not done much traveling at all and have never been outside of the U.S.. To be honest I don't care much about tourist attractions and the like lol, things that people always go places to see. The only reason I want to go is to visit my SO. I've just got to get the details about which airport I'll be arriving at and exactly what her address is so I know where to go.

Yes, Kittenfish I've been talked out of taxis hehe. I guess what I'm thinking though is that a bus or a train is probably not going to go right past Lynsey's house? So I'll probably have to taxi at some point in time?

Yeah I've not done much traveling at all and have never been outside of the U.S.. To be honest I don't care much about tourist attractions and the like lol, things that people always go places to see. The only reason I want to go is to visit my SO. I've just got to get the details about which airport I'll be arriving at and exactly what her address is so I know where to go.

Yes, Kittenfish I've been talked out of taxis hehe. I guess what I'm thinking though is that a bus or a train is probably not going to go right past Lynsey's house? So I'll probably have to taxi at some point in time?

Hehe, prolly at some point yeah I was turned off of taxis when my fiance paid 100 GBP to get from Northampton to Birmingham for his flight, since it was early in the morning and it takes a bit to get there  Thankfully this time around his stepdad will drive him out there, so that's 100 quid saved I suppose. So if you were to find somewhere decent to get dropped off at in Cambridge, I suppose the taxi ride wouldn't be nearly as bad as it would be directly out of London *shudder*

I didn't go to any of the tourist bits either--I didn't even go into London. I really had no desire; that will prolly change once I go over there to live, since it'll be easier for Steve and me to just go on mini-vacations on the weekend. He won't drive in London, so we'd most likely take the train into town and stay the night, more likely than not.

I was more concerned with spending time with Steve, and meeting his folks and mates. And he showed me plenty of small spots that I prolly would of missed otherwise (I love Woburn Abbey now). I'm sure your SO will be able to give you some ideas of small, out-of-the-way things to see

I guess what I'm thinking though is that a bus or a train is probably not going to go right past Lynsey's house? So I'll probably have to taxi at some point in time?

If you're travelling all this distance to come and see her, can she not come and collect you at the station?

Or doesn't she know you're coming?