Holiday Money: Musings

[ChillDoubt]

Off to France in a little over 3 weeks(as long as their Air Traffic Controllers aren't on strike!) and am torn between taking a mixture of cash Euro's, one of those pre-paid credit cards or just taking my Visa debit card and using that alone.
Is there any one alone/combination that will get me the maximum that I can?

All recommendations/tips/advice gratefully received.

[237SJ]

When I go away I just take a wad of local money and when that runs out, I resort to the credit card. Not debit card - there are hidden loading charges if you use those. I`d be gutted if I realised I`d taken out my Lloyds debit to pay for something instead of the Zero card.

[jno]

if you've got time, get a credit card that doesn't load the foreign exchange rates.

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheap-travel-money

I take local money for smaller purchases and use the credit card for dinners, supermarkets etc.

[dzug2]

Trouble is it's a minefield - you can't say that a prepaid card is good value for example - some are, some are awful. Same with taking cash - the cost varies a lot according to where you get it.

Have a look through that MSE link that jno has given

I personally would take my debit and credit cards - neither of which charge - and a bit of cash. Getting the latter based on convenience as much as cost.

If your visa debit card is with the right bank then that's as good a way as any.

[boxtops]

We do what duzg does, take cards which charge less (or nothing) on foreign transactions. Nationwide is particularly good on this. We just take money out of the ATMs when we get there, and take the transaction in euros not GBP. Seems to work for us!

[ChillDoubt]

Thanks for the answers guys. A quick check at my local branch confirmed my suspicions i.e. they will charge for transactions so I've gone for the bulk in cash.

This company had the best rate and had rave reviews on Trustpilot so I went with them:

http://www.coventgardenfx.com/

Thanks again to all for the input/advice.