First visit!

[Jimbo]

Much as it always pains me to disagree with Waspman, the following applies:

* The rates for cards are rubbish. Post Office today is 1.1800 - Halifax is 1.1580 - TravelFX is 1.1950 - so if you bought £1,000 worth of Euros you would lose €15 with Post Office and €37 with Halifax.
* Ever tried paying for a beach-bed with a card?
* Want a G&T in Bar38? Would you really pay with a card?
* Not all places take cards.
* Lose a €20 note and you lose €20 - lose a card and you're stuffed.
* The doughnut man does take cards, but you don't get them back.

San Stef Travel's rates are frequently not much less than the base rate - roughly comparable to TravelFX - so even allowing for the 2% charge, the difference is minimal, and the advantage of taking a few GBPs with you is that you may spend any left-overs when you get home. Just call it emergency money.

We monitor the € rate over the year and buy when it's high. Yes - it's a small advantage, but if it's a few extra beers that's great.

[Gavlah1973]

We were talking to a couple last year Jim who'd lost their pre paid Visa.
Card replaced and back with them inside 24hrs apparently.

Great service

[Gavlah1973]

Also free ATM withdrawals

[Gavlah1973]

Also...... even though some restaurants are happy to accept cards but we always still try to pay cash.
Saves them waiting for the money and also saves them a handling fee.

We just go to the Atm about every 3/4 days and get about €300 out. Very safe to carry money in San Stefanos

[Waspman]

Absolute rubbish Jimbo, you're getting it completely wrong, you're suggesting buying euros with a "no commission" credit card BEFORE you go abroad, which is obviously not the thing to do. Clearly the rates will be rubbish as you say.
I'm saying simply pay by a " no commission" credit card when you make a purchase abroad,  that's the whole idea of them!
Check the independent financial websites, they'll all tell you the same.

Much as it pleases me to disagree with Jimbo, the following applies:
1 Loose all your euros and they're all gone, loose your card or pre-paid card and you can get it stopped and replaced quickly (see Gav's posting)
2 Almost all taverna's take cards, the exceptions are well known
3 Of course you wouldn't expect to pay by card for a couple of beers, I carry euros for many small purchases and for taverna's that don't take cards, but for larger bills the no commission cards come into their own.
4 Take sterling and exchange it in Ag Stef and you're going to be a loser (see below)
5 I don't know who the "doughnut" man is but I'm getting a good idea!

In June 2013 the exchange rate at San Stefanos Travel was 1.15 before commission, so 1.127 after commission.
Paying by Halifax Clarity no commission credit card in June 2013 gave a rate of 1.18 to 1.19 over a period of two weeks.

If, at that time, you had exchanged £1000 worth of euros in resort (San Stef Travel or others) as you have suggested, compared to using a Halifax Clarity "no commission" credit card in resort you'd have lost between 53-63 euros.

Need I say more?

You take your sterling Jim and I'll take my "no commission" credit cards, it's clear who'll be the winner.

Do your homework Jim!!

[debra]

Thanks Waspman - clearly spelt out

[Jimbo]

Totally ignoring the very clear data I posted above seems a little strange.

I am talking about the rates this morning. That's a fact. I was not talking about taking loads of UK dosh - just enough to cover emergencies.

Our travel insurance covers up to £2000 of lost or stolen cash.

My "home work" suggests that we got a better rate on the Euros we bought at 1.21 earlier this year than we would get gambling on the rate in July.

[johny rebel]

Buy loads of cash before you go change into euros at £1.20'at fair fx all greek restaurants and tavernas love euros result everybody happy

[Waspman]

Jimbo, If we're talking about "rates this morning" your homework could well be flawed, At this moment in time your rate of 1.21 will be beaten by the "no commission" credit cards as the current exchange rate today in Agios Stefanos is 119.05 before commission, (116.66 after commission), so pro-rata to the June 2013 rate the Halifax Clarity (and others) would be expected to be around  about 1.22/1.23 euros.

If you're saying that you only take "enough UK dosh to cover emergencies" I would be very interested to know what other methods of payments you would use other than "sterling converted to euros in resort" as you appear to be opposed to cards.

It will be very interesting for us to compare our methods of payment and who gets the best deal when we both go in July this year, are you up for that?

[Jimbo]

I'm was and am talking about taking Euros. We have plenty of Euros bought at the highest available rate. If you can get over 1.2 on your card in the summer I'll buy you supper!

As a professional programmer I think my grasp of maths is reasonably adequate. 1.195 is generally considered to be greater than 1.177, or am I missing some strange inversion in the number system that happens if you take a credit card? Those are the realities today. I happen to bank with Halifax and the exchange rates are ludicrous.

Let's be quite clear - using a credit card means that you are vulnerable to the rate on the day that you use it. This is known as gambling. Currently the pound is strong against the $ and the €, but there is no guarantee that that will last. Given that the GBP base rate is at an unusually high rate (1.2134) at the moment the chances of it going higher are slender.

For plastic, if you insist on it, a pre-loaded card with €s bought at a favourable rate would be a good option.

Taking a few GBPs is just in case you run out of Euros. No other reason.

Waspman is skewing the argument to the exchange of £s in AS. The simple unassailable fact is that taking € notes bought at at a good rate is the best way to maximise your spending money.

[Jimbo]

Just to add another note:

You can see that Waspman's grasp of maths is flaky because he's suggesting that using a card today would get you above base rate. This is, baldly put, utter rubbish!

[debra]

Oh dear

[CHRIS NO 2]

At the end of the day you don't need money in San steph you just pay later even maria will let you have fags for us smokers and pay when ever  will report back in 10 days

[Waspman]

Jimbo, You may well be a professional programmer (as well as a BBC news producer, reader, evaluator, presenter, writer, playwrite, novelist, escape artist and goodness knows what else), clever boy! but you're never going to be a financial wizard.

You may well bank with Halifax but I'm extremely surprised that you have little or no knowledge of their widely publicised "no commission" credit card (the best on the market) I expect you may well be tempted now, but no, you're a cash sort of guy.

I will take you on regarding your challenge, I am confident that I will travel to Ag Stef with euros at a better rate than yours (1.21) bought within the next 3 weeks, (evidence will be supplied) and you can buy supper, but I prefer dinner as it will cost you more? Are you up for that??

Whether I get more than 1.20 on my credit cards depends very much on the exchange rate mechanism between now and then.

[Rover]

I must admit that I adopt a simple approach to Euro purchase. I use my Post Office card, collect Euros from my local Post Office, get four weeks interest free credit, enjoy my stay in SS, and take some Sterling and credit cards in case of unforeseen problems.
I know the rate is not the best, but it is very convenient.
As an aside, I used to write software to control oil and gas pipelines, but this does not mean that my advice is better because of this.