exchanging money

[Allgood]

Just a quick question. Should I change my pounds over here in England for the exchange rate of 5.11ARS to a Pound or should i wait till I'm in Buenos Aires?
cheers,

Thomas

 

[Fishface]

its 5.74 here.
bring small amount and get the rest from an ATM here - tell your bank are going to do this or they may treat it as fraud.
its was 6.40 about 5 months ago.
use dollars if you have a US account

 

[diosaarenosa]

and if you have time before you leave, open an account with Halifax. they do not charge for international ATM withdrawals. handy.

 

[Conforme]

what is the exchange rate for dollars?

 

[Conforme]

i should have said the local exchange rate in BsAs

 

[Fishface]

and if you have time before you leave, open an account with Halifax. they do not charge for international ATM withdrawals. handy.

Halifax may not BUT Banelco or Link (the ATM operators) may charge and pass it on to the Halifax.
There are few threads on here that discuss this - its not that simple to extract money here as it is in the Europe or North America.

 

[elhombresinnombre]

and if you have time before you leave, open an account with Halifax. they do not charge for international ATM withdrawals. handy.

If you have been away from the UK for some time you might not know this but the Halifax now only exists as a brand. It combined with Royal Bank of Scotland a few years ago to form HBOS and the big news last week in the UK was the collapse of HBOS and the British government's intention to change the laws to permit take-over/merger with LloydsTSB (which under present legislation would not be allowed).

www.moneysavingexpert.com (a UK website) cites the Halifax card as one of the worst to use overseas in terms of charges etc.

Most British national newspapers regularly run "best buy" features on their money pages and they generally agree that at present the only UK debit card that does not load any foreign charges is the Nationwide Flexaccount card.

If you want to use a UK credit card all of them will charge for cash advances - just as they do in the UK - but at present only two of them will not load a foreign transaction fee: The Post Office Credit Card and the Nationwide Credit Card.

 

[elhombresinnombre]

[UK Banks] may not [charge foreign fees] BUT Banelco or Link (the ATM operators) may charge and pass it on to [your home bank].

Over the years I have used my Nationwide card in ATMs all over Argentina and I have never been charged a foreign fee. On the other hand, other cards I've used have stung me. It doesn't always show on the receipt slip but will show on the monthly statement.

BTW Fishface, I agree entirely with your earlier remark about bringing only a little cash and relying on your cards. Advice that might be read in guide books about bringing cash and/or travellers' cheques dates back to the financial crisis of 2001/2 when nobody could rely on getting any money out of machines.

My personal tip: always bring a spare credit/debit card in case a machine swallows your main one. You really don't want to know how I learned that lesson

 

[diosaarenosa]

silly me, I MEANT NATIONWIDE.
i know, been reading all the depressing financial news here in the UK and the various ramifications of this so called credit crunch. why do you think i'm leaving?

 

[Stanexpat]

Be forwarned that if you bring in dollars(for example) and go to an exchange house you may not be able to exchange bills that have even minor blemishs. I'm told that some of the exchange houses will in fact take these but give you only 70 or 80 cents on the dollar, what a deal.
Best to have a ATM card that works in Argentina(see threads on this topic for tips)