The consensus here seems to be that debit cards will have fewer fees and surcharges than credit cards. I’ll look into that.
I was really hoping to be able to change dollars to pounds only once instead of suffering randomly-fluctuating exchange rates (especially given some bad experiences in Mexico where differences between exchange rates in two towns on the same day were 5% different), but it sounds like that isn’t going to happen unless I get three weeks worth of cash on the day of arrival, and I’m not going to do that.
An additional point (I don’t think it’s already been made) about the benefits of using ATMs: the amount deducted from your dollar account is calculated with the inter-bank commercial exchange rate, which will be preferable to the best over-the-counter tourist rate, in my experience over 1% better.
I don’t know who Rick Steve is, but a) he sounds like he’s exaggerating a bit, and b) he seems to be implying that you need huge sums of money on you at all times to do whatever it is you’re doing. However, if you’re just going about your daily business, and are prepared to use ATMs, you could just do it like the locals do. 99% of pubs, cafes and restaurants take cards. Even the youth hostel I mentioned upthread took cards. Nobody here really carries large amounts of cash - I rarely withdraw more than £50 at a time; usually less.
You might need a wee bit more dosh to pay “no-card” B&Bs, mind you, so perhaps the $300 daily limit may be a minor problem - can you get them to increase the withdrawal limit? My standard bank account here allows a £400 withdrawal at any one time, which at today’s exchange rates is nearly $800!
So maybe your bank => B&B idea is a good one. Re. fluctuating exchange rates - unless something catastrophic happens (which I did experience once in Japan in 1992 when the pound collapsed), over the course of a few weeks you’re talking penny fluctuations only, that shouldn’t really affect you too much. But if you’re prepared to go to a bank anyway, you can use travellers checks, so if you buy a load of TCs in sterling before you leave, that should allow you to know how much you’ve spent.
Well yeah, that’s kind of what this entire thread is debating. I guess you have to define “in the sticks”. There are few places I know of where an ATM is less than about 5 miles away. Maybe rural Wales, the Orkneys, or the highlands of Scotland are different. And I agree that some B&Bs will not take cards.
I would also recommend that the OP gets a local pay-as-you-go cellphone - you can get them for less than £20 in WH Smith or Tesco, or if you have a tri-band, unlocked phone you can buy a SIM card over the counter for even less. This would allow you to call a B&B ahead of time for pennies and assess if you’ll need cash or not.
Those are exactly the types of places I like to go. We’re spending the majority of the trip in the highlands, in fact.
Thank you for that. Is there such a prepaid cellphone that can receive calls from the U.S. without massive surcharges?
Okay. I didn’t realize things had changed so much since my last visit, and that the rural UK was so far ahead of the rural US (I can name a dozen small towns in this county that don’t have a bank, and the ones that DO have banks only have them open from 9 or 10 a.m. until about 4 p.m. Not very visitor-friendly). It’s really that much better around John O’Groates or the Isle of Lewis?
According to Yell.com, there are six bank branches in Thurso, four in Wick, and three in Stornoway. Why not try a search for banks in the towns you will visit?
Rick Steve’s full of it; with a very few exceptions, pretty much every business in England accepts debit and credit cards. I lived for about 6 weeks when I first got over here in a tiny village called Charney Basset near Wantage in Oxfordshire; the only commercial organizations in the village were the pub, a single B&B, and a farm shop attached to a local farm. All 3 took credit cards.
And a money belt is a silly thing to carry. First of all, English money only goes up to 50 pound bills; carrying enough for your whole family for 3 weeks would make you look like you had a tumor or something. Second of all, paying the commission on one big exchange is just as painful as paying for lots of little exchanges - it’s all based on a percentage of the exchanged amount; the value of the pound versus the dollar doesn’t change all that dramatically in 3 weeks.
Don’t exchange at the airport, though, whatever you do. Just use an ATM, you’ll get the best possible rates and you won’t get the variable rates you would from a currency exchange shop.
You’ll be fine; Scotland is every bit as advanced as the rest of Great Britain if not more so, and the pain of opening a local account just ain’t worth it.
Not really; pay as you go will rape you for international calls, although receiving is usually less expensive than making.
Yup, it is. The ‘rural’ countryside in the UK is a lot more advanced than towns in Central Montana, that’s for sure - I grew up in Billings, and was just back in September, and was amazed at the number of small towns that didn’t take credit cards for things like gas!
Over here, you never pay to recieve calls, unless they’re collect. The person dialing from the US will have to pay the usual overseas-to-cellphone charge. If you call the US from the cell, then there’s a hefty charge, but you can buy a callcard at any convenience store that allows you to dial a freephone number, then a PIN, then dial the US for very low prices - less than 10p a minute.
My plan is to unlock an old cellphone and pop a prepaid chip in it. I’ll just have folks from the U.S. call that and if it’s not urgent, I call them back later using Skype next time I’m somewhere with WiFi. Sounds like it’ll work well.
FTR they’re called “SIM cards” here. Make sure it’s a GSM-compatible phone!
Yeah, but just be careful - most WiFi deals are mucho expensivo. Bloody ridiculous to be quite honest. Some pubs, hotels and cafes do have free wireless, but the majority are a bunch of bloodsucking bastards. Internet cafes are much better value for money, and some of them do have wireless, but otherwise you’ll be looking at an ethernet cable surrounded by yelling children…
Highly variable, as usual. Yesterday was short-sleeve-and-sandal weather and today we’re expecting snow.
sigh Why is it that everywhere I go in Montana and Wyoming there’s free WiFi or cabled broadband, but whenever I go to centers of technology like Las Vegas or Silicon Valley, the hotels are charging for it? I had hoped the U.K. would be better.
Incidentally, back to the subject of the OP, my wife’s been calling hotels and B&B’s throughout Ireland and Scotland, and it’s just amazing to me how many say they’ll take a credit card, but they put a big surcharge on it. Three so far don’t take credit cards at all. We’re planning to stay in Doolin for a couple of nights, and the guidebook (published in 2007) says there isn’t an ATM in the entire town.
And make sure your triband GSM phone has both GSM-900 and GSM-1800 on it. Some triband phones have GSM-900 or GSM-1800, but not both (they otherwise have GSM-850 and GSM-1900 for the Americas). If you have a quadband phone, it will have both.
You’ll have great fun over here; it’s been so highly variable, it’s not even funny - beautiful sunny shorts weather two days ago, chucking it down for the last 2 days and arctic cold today. Bizzare-o world.