I’m at work, so really shouldn’t spend too much time on the net, looking stuff up, but I recall that a company like Mastercard lets you buy debit cards that you put credit on. Perhaps something like that would work?
Aha! A quick google search came up trumps: http://www.maestrocard.com/uk/prepaid/index.html
Depending on the card, the machine I have will even tell you the exact amount (in USD) being debited to your account when you make a purchase… I punch in the sterling amount, and it automatically converts it into the currency of the card’s issuing country. Today’s rate is approx 2.05$ to the £. Or 1.29e for euros… There are no other charges for the customer.
Firstly, there are banks everywhere. You don’t have to go to a city to find one. Even small towns have banks, and if you’re staying in a little village that doesn’t have one, you’ll only be a couple of miles from a small town that does. Remember, the UK is a small crowded island, so you’re only ever a few miles from whatever you need. Also, Post Offices will also change money for you, and you’ll often find these even in small villages.
If you want to put your mind at rest, look at the websites of these national banks to find your nearest branch:
Lloyds TSB
NatWest
Barclays
HSBC
Abbey
Royal Bank of Scotland
Bank of Scotland
Also, ATMs that are owned by banks are, by law, free to use. The only ones that aren’t are little freestanding ones you find inside small shops and garages - and these will clearly tell you what you’ll be charged for a transaction. What YOUR bank charges, however, is for your bank to decide. I have heard that Bank of America has a deal with Barclays in the UK to not charge for ATM transactions - you may want to look into this (Barclays is one of the UK’s biggest banks, although will be less prevalent in Scotland).
Some (and only ‘some’) companies will charge for credit card transactions. Most won’t. Those that do generally DON’T charge for debit card transactions.
BTW credit and debit cards are accepted everywhere - bar the smallest operations such as B&Bs.
Forget traveller’s cheques, they went out with the ark and are by far the most awkward and expensive way to make transactions.
I’m a frequent foreign traveller, and long ago stopped getting money exchanged before my trip. I rely entirely on ATMs and credit/debit transactions, wherever I go, and have found this to be the cheapest and easiest way.
The way the OP is written makes me think that - without prejudice - InvisibleWombat isn’t a frequent foreign traveller. If my supposition is correct, then I will just assure him that it really is a lot easier - and cheaper - than he’s making it out to be.
I travelled round the world in 2005 for an entire year using just ATMs and credit cards (even in Tibet!) with a few Travellers Checks held only as an emergency backup.
If you find that hotels, B&Bs etc. want a big wedge to use a credit card, even though I find this highly unlikely, then use your credit card to hold the room, but pay in cash when you leave. As noted, ATMs are ubiquitous.
The only note of caution I’ll sound is regarding debit cards: to be acceptable, your debit card needs to be on an international standard to be recognised. Visa is usually good enough, but there are some exceptions.
Also the last I heard, the US hadn’t joined the rest of the world with chip-and-pin cards. It might be advisable to see if you can get one with a chip, rather than just a magnetic strip. Most places take the older version, but some ATMs and card readers require the chip too.
Bank ATMs are free by law?
I was wondering about this as well. ISTR that one of the UK banks tried to introduce charges a couple of years ago. (They were forced to go back to free withdrawal after a public outcry, with many people even closing their accounts.) Is this a recent law?
When I had a college semester abroad in London in late 1985, I set up a NatWest account at the nearest branch. I’m a U.S. citizen. They needed to see my passport and I opened the account with a bank check from home. I don’t remember the process being particularly difficult or cumbersome, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s become more so.
I remember there was controversy when some of the banks proposed charging for non-customers to use their ATMs. But they backed down. AFAIK the reciprocal free ATM arrangement is a voluntary agreement among the banks.
It has. It’s an astonishing pain in the arse now.
It was Barclays who wanted to charge non-customers £1 for using their ATMs. It’s worth remembering that at this time many banks also charged their own customers a “disloyalty fee” for using other bank’s machines. So, in effect, Barclays were proposing to charge people twice. Under a torrent of protest and the threat of legal action by the Nationwide they backed down.
Thankfully we’ve gone past all that silliness and now no banks charge customers for using each other’s machines. It’s not against the law to do so, but none of them are going to go back now.
As many others have pointed out, lots of ATMs at petrol stations, newsagents and pubs will charge - but if they’re members of the LINK network (which will be almost all of them) then they’re required to tell you - in great detail - about the charges.
Drug trafficking, tax evasion, money laundering, and terrorism are all the reasons they gave for putting me through the wringer. Apparently, in this post 9/11 world, only criminals want to open bank accounts in other countries.
You’re right, I stand corrected. I ‘thought’ I’d read something about it being an EU regulation, but I was getting it confused with a regulation on money transfers between eurozone states which dictates that you be charged the same for transferring money between eurozone states that you would be for domestic transactions. As most domestic transactions are free, it means most international transfers must also be, which has affected ATM withdrawals. But not in the UK.
Mea Culpa.
As jjimm says, it is much more difficult now. I am a UK citizen but not a UK resident and it is very difficult for me to open new accounts other than with organizations where I already have an account. I have also had organizations closing my accounts because they do not want to do business with someone based overseas. And Barclayshare would not even sell some of their shares that I had stored with them. I ended up giving them away to a UK relative.
Nobody has mentioned this. You could try opening an account with one of the Channel Islands Banks
Although part of the UK they do not come under the same strict rules and regs…leastways I don’t think so
Yeah, to go into more detail myself, I was a returning expat. To get anything at all - phone, water, broadband, electricity, including opening a bank account, even though I wasn’t asking for credit - I had to provide UK address/es for the previous three years. Even though me and the bank gimps tried filling in the forms with my actual, Irish address, they were rejected because of the lack of a standard UK postcode. So, I used my parents’ address and it was accepted.
Which is less secure, of course.
What blew me away was the total lack of provision for anything not UK-based in their application procedures - I guess they have enough customers already, and/or their business analysts don’t give a shit. Not only that, but I couldn’t transfer my immaculate credit rating from Ireland either. I had to start over, and in the end they gave me a retardo-account reserved for asylum seekers.
I have subsequently learned from a messageboard for American expats in the UK, that HSBC is much better at this sort of thing, and I should have gone to them in the first place.
The ‘disloyalty’ thing was probably going to disappear under EU scrutiny anyway, but the way Barclays managed to shoot not only themselves but all other banks in the foot was quite spectacular. As soon as one dropped that charge (IIRC it was the Abbey National, as it was?), the others couldn’t help but follow, and ATMs became nothing but a loss-leader, free for us all to use.
I lived in the U.K. from 1987 to 1990. I acquired an account at a British bank at that time. I was a U.S. government employee and the Americans at our establishment had an arrangement with the local branch of one of the major banks. They would accept all our local people as customers. I kept the account after moving back to the U.S. A few years later they told me to change the location of my account from their branch in the city where I lived in the U.K. to their branch in Jersey (in the Channel Islands). It was more advantageous for tax reasons somehow. In any case, I pay taxes on interest on my account only to the U.S. The account has been very convenient. I belong to a couple of British organizations and I pay for annual membership in them in pounds. I visit every few years and I can pay for everything there by check, cash, or direct withdrawal card from my British account. I watch the conversion rate carefully and move money over whenever the conversion rate seems to be favorable. If you’re going to be traveling to the U.K. frequently, getting an account there might be convenient.
Yes they do, if not stricter , these guys are paranoid about money laundering. They have some pretty strict minimun balances depending hwere you are in the world (see upthread somewhere)
I have seen a few craigslist type scams where some one is offering to pay your utilities for 3 or 4 months. These, I suspect, are so they can get utility bills with their name on it and thus open an account. The loss on paying your utility bill is offset by the gain in the money cleaning.
It sounds like a resounding “no” on opening a British or Irish bank account. I suppose what I’ll do is get a hunk of cash from a bank whenever I’m in a larger town, and then fill in with ATM withdrawals in the smaller towns.
Recently, not so much, but I’ve been to Canada, Mexico, France, Belgium, Germany, England, Scotland, Greece, Japan, Taiwan, Kenya, Tanzania, Ugunda, Ethiopia, Switzerland, and Austria over the last 20 or so years. This OP came about because Rick Steve’s Ireland and England guides specifically warned that many places in the small towns don’t take credit cards. He strongly recommends money belts.
I never said there weren’t ATMs on every corner. I said there weren’t banks. There’s a big difference:
I can only withdraw US$300 per day from an ATM. That won’t be enough on many days to cover lodging, food, and transportation for a family of three. At a bank, I can withdraw all I want.
I checked with my bank and they said there would be fees applied if I used the ATM card in the UK. I was trying to avoid that fee, but it sounds like I should just suck it up and pay it.
(NOTE TO SanVito: I understand that the U.K. bank can’t charge a fee, but that doesn’t apply to my U.S. bank. Maybe I should change banks.)
I don’t have experience with B&Bs in Britain, but most other places will take credit cards, including restaurants, coaches and railways.
You have to pay one way or another to change currencies. I suspect that using a debit card will be cheaper overall than using traveller’s cheques.