Holiday money saving tips and spending advice
By Darren Cronian on Monday, June 16th, 2008

A question I get asked a lot, and one that I ask myself, is how much money should I take on holiday? It’s a difficult question to answer because it depends where you are travelling to, the type of holiday you go for. Will you eat out and go drinking every night, is the holiday half board, or all inclusive.

Holiday money saving tips and spending advice

Here is what I do

• Research how much it will cost to eat and drink out at a reasonably priced restaurant every night
• Find out how much it will cost for entrances into tourist attractions I want to visit
• Find the general price for a taxi, or the local public transport
• Think about what activities I want to get involved in and how much it’ll cost.
• Ask questions on travel forums to find replies from holidaymakers who have visited the destination

This will give you some idea about how to take.

Money matters

It’s always a good idea to have access to some emergency funds, with a debit or credit card, or purchase a pre-paid travel card where you can load money on to it prior to leaving the country, and then use it abroad. I’ve recently signed up for a Tuxedo card.

Think about creating a holiday account, I have with the Nationwide because you can withdraw money abroad without paying any admin costs.

If you travel with family or friends then Wigadoo is an interesting idea, where you collect all the money for your trip into an online account with a virtual prepaid MasterCard. Then when you pay for hotels, eating out, you don’t have the hassle of organising the money.

Best exchange rates

From my own experience the best places to exchange currency are at the Post Office, Marks and Spencer, and I read this week that American Express are offering great rates at the moment. Thomas Cook offer a VIP card which gives you a higher rate, but check the rate they offer before mentioning you have the card! The most expensive places are airports and hotels.

I’d be interested to hear how you calculate how much money to take and where you exchange it.


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14 responses to “Holiday money saving tips and spending advice”

Adrian | 17 June, 2008 at 10:23 am

Totally agree with using the Nationwide debit card, in the last few years I have yet to find anything else to beat the no charges withdrawal they offer, and it has worked happily in cash machines the world over. I usually keep a bit of cash in GB pounds or Euros as this works well for emergencies in case banks are closed for religious holidays or during power cuts and on longer trips take American Express travellers cheques in Dollars just as a double backup, and have so far never needed them and always ended up cashing them in on the last month of travel.

Adrian.

Darren Cronian | 17 June, 2008 at 1:47 pm

@ Adrian

Good tip about taking travellers cheques as a back up. I agree its best to have a few forms of cash. Thanks for commenting.

Ken | 17 June, 2008 at 2:05 pm

These days finding ways to travel safely with money is getting more diffcult. Thanks for some good ideas for my vacation comming soon

Darren Cronian | 17 June, 2008 at 2:13 pm

@ Ken

Keep a look out for a blog post I am writing for ideas to keep your money safe whislt travelling I’ll be publishing it at the weekend.

Elizabeth | 17 June, 2008 at 4:08 pm

Yes, definitely have several options for obtaining money. I was once in a small resort town in Egypt where most places didn’t accept credit cards and there were only 2 ATMs. One was broken and the other ate my ATM card. I cannot even tell you the hassle I went through on that trip!

Nick | 17 June, 2008 at 4:52 pm

Darren

Pay in your own currency. Merchant companies (the people who own the machines that take the cards) Have started to offer customers chance to pay in there own currency. We have this on our Machine and at the moment this means an American paying us gets a rate of 2.036 compared to 1.896 at Marks and Spencer today. or euro 1.313 compared to 1.22.

Darren Cronian | 17 June, 2008 at 5:39 pm

@ Elizabeth

Ouch. That doesn’t sound like a pleasant experience.

Another tip I didn’t mention is make sure 1) where the ATM machines are and 2) your find out the bank opening and closing hours. Especially in lesser known destinations.

@ Nick

Does this apply to just debit and credit card payments or hard cash. If it’s cash, isn’t that more of an issue for travel companies converting that money back to their own currency? Not that it’s our problem, because that sounds like a great idea, but I wonder how many outlets, would let you do that.

Adrian | 17 June, 2008 at 7:16 pm

Another tip I have just remembered after reading about the ATM’s eating cards - it happened to us in Latvia. If you have the choice between using a bank based ATM or a an ATM fixed in a location like a shopping complex go for the bank every time. If the non-bank ATM eats your card you cannot get your card back as it is taken back to an anonymous central ATM servicing company, whereas the bank ATM is often accessible to senior bank staff during banking hours.

Nick | 18 June, 2008 at 11:35 pm

Darren

This applies to all cards in retail outlets. For the retailer it works to because it gives us a 50% discount on the charges we pay

Darren Cronian | 18 June, 2008 at 11:50 pm

@ Nick

Wow, why isn’t this promoted at all? I’ve never heard about this.

@ Adrian

Thanks for the tip. Good point about choosing a bank ATM over a ATM in a shop. I’ve mentioned this before, and it’s a great ponit to make, thanks.

John Shipley | 19 June, 2008 at 12:00 am

Glad you mentioned VIP card by Thomas Cook because I think that’s a marketing ploy to get people into their doors.

You had in the VIP ticket, and they give you a similar rate to someone without a ticket, but if you hadn’t checked the rate before hand you wouldn’t have known.

Check their rate before giving them the ticket so you can see how much they really give you discount.

Dee | 27 June, 2008 at 12:06 am

One good thing about having travellers cheques as back up is if they are in sterling, you can always pay them into your bank account when you get home with no charges. (Caveat - as far as I know, haven’t had any issues personally or heard of anyone who has though I haven’t tried at every single bank).

Nick | 27 June, 2008 at 10:31 am

Darren

I look into why card rate is not promoted and it seems like it being roled out at the moment. So if you get the chance take it.

Tony | 30 June, 2008 at 8:40 am

We are traveling to America, Branson, MO and Memphis. Will have some Us dollars currency not sure how much yet, but also both of us traveling already have a Nationwide Debit card,so could tip about best to use a Bank ATM rather than an instore machine. Thanks.

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