“The worst place to get your cash is at the airport or at the ferry port or anywhere like that because they have your captive custom and the rates are horrendous.”
That was Martin Lewis, the consumer finance campaigner, talking to Ben Shephard and Cat Deeley on ITV’s This Morning. His target was the airport currency desk, and his advice to holidaymakers was short: do not use it.
Travellers were already anxious this summer about higher costs and delays linked to the situation in the Middle East. Lewis said many people still want some cash in their pockets, for tips or because it helps them stick to a budget.
Compare before you fly
His fix is to check a couple of online travel-exchange comparison sites before leaving home. The thing to watch, he said, is the exchange rate and the fee taken together. “You want that all combined,” he said, and the comparison sites do that sum for you. You type in, say, £600 worth of dollars and see who gives you the most.
Those sites scan perhaps 50 or 60 outlets, according to Lewis. Someone who waits until they land is unlikely to find anything that competes. He made one exception: a traveller who goes to the same place abroad every year and knows a local exchange that beats the rates at home can carry on using it.
A specialist overseas card is another route. Put it in a cash machine abroad, Lewis said, and there are no fees and a near-perfect exchange rate.
Euros or pounds?
Lewis added a second warning for anyone paying by card in Europe, in places such as Spain, Greece or France. A machine or shop terminal will ask whether you want to be charged in euros or in pounds. Choose euros, and your own card company does the conversion. Choose pounds, and the machine does it, then bills your card.
He picks euros every time. Even an ordinary high-street card tends to beat the shop abroad, he said, where the markup on the exchange rate can reach six or 7%. Cash machines can add a fee on top. And the prompts push back: “Are you sure?” they ask, when he says he wants euros. “They are desperate to persuade you to let them do the conversion because they make a lot of money from it,” Lewis said.
His rule is to pay in the local currency. Euros in Europe, dollars in America, dong in Vietnam.
The same advice for US travellers
Yahoo Finance, which picked up Lewis’s comments from the Mirror, noted that the advice holds for Americans heading overseas. Airport booths do not always charge steep service fees, it said. The bigger hit usually comes from the rate itself, because travellers in a hurry have few alternatives once through security.
AAA advises avoiding airport exchanges where possible, and Forbes Advisor recommends getting money from a bank instead. Some US banks let customers order foreign currency before departure, and AAA offers advance ordering for dozens of currencies.
Sources
- Martin Lewis warns holidaymakers 'never' make mistake at airport
- Martin Lewis warns holidaymakers 'never' make mistake at airport
- ‘You have to be careful’: Personal finance expert warns travelers about the major mistake they're making at the airport
