Euro Question

The euro rate today is quite good. My cheapest source of euros in our local town is Thomsons travel agents, and today they are quoting 1.093 euros to the pound, and no extra commission or anything.

I think I will get 100 euros, and possibly pay for our lift passes on-line today as well, even though we're not going for a month. The rate may improve, but on the other hand, it may go down again!

Edit,
I have just phoned Visa (on my free phone line!) to ask them where they hide their exchange rates on their website. It's on visaeurope.com, and then you have to click on the corporate site bit (don't click on which country you want instead), and on the home page they have the exchange rates.
Anyway, their exchange rate just now when I phoned was 1.13 euros to the pound, before deducting the 2.99% or whatever it is that Lloyds will charge me for using my Visa debit card. So, in theory anyone using their Visa card right now through a bank that doesn't charge them will get 1.13 euros to the pound (unless I've forgotten about some other charge), which is quite a good rate :D

Ally

Buy one of your passes online today and hold out on the other ;)

Pablo Escobar wrote:Buy one of your passes online today and hold out on the other ;)

Thanks,
That's not a bad idea Pablo, but actually I've got to buy 3, because one of my husband's relatives is coming with us, so I've got to pay about 600 euros in total :shock:.

I might just buy them now, before I forget about it. My memory is appalling now, and I want to get them posted out to us well ahead of time :roll:.

Ally

Hi,

When travelling to france for my hols i find it better as the other replies to take a small amount of currency to get by with for a few days and then just use my normal debit card to get money fron the hole in thr wall.

jon.

The pound has improved a bit more against the euro. Today (19th Jan) at 8 a.m. Visa was quoting an exchange rate of 113.5899 euros for £100.

I dont worry about it. The rate is the rate at the time you go, you cant control it.
I take about 100 euros in cash, buy lift passes on my credit card so I can pay for it next month, and dont worry about a few pence being charged on a card transaction of cash withdrawal.
I think some people worry far too much about things outside of their control.

Tony_H wrote:I dont worry about it. The rate is the rate at the time you go, you cant control it.
I take about 100 euros in cash, buy lift passes on my credit card so I can pay for it next month, and dont worry about a few pence being charged on a card transaction of cash withdrawal.
I think some people worry far too much about things outside of their control.

I think it depends which bank you are with. Lloyds TSB charge a minimum of £2-00 for cash withdrawals abroad, plus the 2.99% currency conversion fee. So if one was foolish enough to withdraw only £10 worth of euros it would cost £2-30, or 23%. The best thing to do with a Lloyds debit card, if one needs more cash abroad, is to take it out in a lump sum, because then they only charge 1.5% plus the 2.99%, i.e. a total of 4.49%

Because I book our holidays myself, the change in the euro makes a big difference to me, as I'm paying for everything except the eurostar train journey in euros. Between the 3 of us we will probably pay about £3000 in euros, so a 10% improvement in the euro (which it has achieved) means a saving of £300 :D

Ally

When using the Visa Europe website I discovered that they'd made an error in the way they calculate the euro/pound rates. And in fact when I phoned them to ask them what rate I'd get after paying the 2.99% Lloyds charge they added it instead of subtracting it and said I'd get 1.16 euros per pound not 1.0. It was only when I queried it that they realized their mistake.

They have also done the calculations the wrong way around, so if you want to know how many euros you would get for your pound, you have to say that your card is in euros and you are purchasing in pounds (because they don't expect you to check it before you go on holiday).

So, I sent them an e-mail as well. This is what they said, and after reading it I'm not at all surprised that the banking industry has been in so much trouble recently.

Dear (deleted)


Thank you for contacting Visa Europe.



The purpose of the calculator is to verify that the amount shown on the cardholder's statement is correct for a particular purchase so the calculations are working correctly as this is the way it was designed. It was not designed to show the converted amount for a specified amount in the cardholder's home currency.



We are aware however that the conversion rate (the first rate displayed on the results page) is being displayed the wrong way round and that is something we are going to fix. In your particular case, this should allow you to see the amount of Euros that you would get for £1 then multiply that by 100.



Currently you can only do this by inverting the rate shown. For example if the rate shown (including the 2.99% fee) is 1 Euro = 0.909329 British Pound then to get the amount in Pounds, take the inverse of this i.e. 1 ÷ 0.909329 = 1.099712. The amount of Euros for £100 would therefore be €109.9712 (this is using the rate shown for the 18th January).



Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any further questions.



Kind regards

Oliver



Customer Service Representative I Visa Europe I T +44 (0)20 7 795 5777 I F +44 (0)20 7795 5577 I www.visaeurope.com <<http://www.visaeurope.com/>>



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