Foreign Exchange - Winners & Losers

[Thaumaturge]

Martin Lewis (Money Saving Expert) has highlighted, in his regular weekly newsletter, the various pitfalls and potential benefits in foreign exchange strategy. The article makes very interesting reading, perhaps our "Liveaboard Community" will find it helpful?

Does anyone have any experience, good or bad, of the "FairFx" card that they might be willing to share here please? It seems to operate like the antipodean EFTPOS system and appears to be the almost perfect solution to the forign exchange problem. Am I missing something?

I hope I have the link right:

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

Vince

 

[Thaumaturge]

Re: Foreign Exchange - Winners & Losers

I ought to have added that I have absolutely no connection with any of the organisations mentioned in my post, I am simply interested in other's experiences to make sure I haven't been seduced by positive spin. (I'm easily seduced!)

Vince

 

[tennisgirl1]

Re: Foreign Exchange - Winners & Losers

I don't have any info about FairFx but we are using a Caxtonfx card in the Med. It is convenient to load with Euros online or by phone and you know what rate you have paid for your euros. You get a fairly good exchange rate too. Every cash machine withdrawal costs 2E so we tend to get about 400E out if we can, but spending in large supermarkets or chandleries costs nothing extra.
We found the card worked well in France in 2007, and also last year in Greece, but Italy was a problem. The small regional banks eg banco de Crotone or banco di Napoli would often only let you withdraw a maximum of 250E, so it cost a lot to make withdrawals and we spent a fortune on berthing in Italy!
However as I said it worked well in Greece and we shall be using it again this year.