exchange USD to GBP

[rentaweek Posting Member Find all posts View Profile Close rentaweek]

Where (airport, bank, ATM) can we get the best exchange rate to exchange USD to GBP?

What is the price of gasoline in UK now? What is the formula to convert to per gallon price?

Thanks!

[Bill4728 Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Bill4728]

This advice is for all forgien countries with widespread ATMs, like Canada, England and Europe. Almost all travel experts (like Rick steves or Fordors) suggest giving some money(~$100) before leaving the US. But to get the bulk of your money by using the ATMs in the country you're traveling to.

I'm not sure about countries like Mexico, the Caribean or Asia.

Re gas. I don't know the price of gas but the rough convertion from liters to gallons is to take the price in liters and mulitply by 4.
Hope that helps

[Keitht Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Keitht]

Where (airport, bank, ATM) can we get the best exchange rate to exchange USD to GBP?

What is the price of gasoline in UK now? What is the formula to convert to per gallon price?

Thanks!

ATMs will generally give as good an exchange rate as any other, but check to see if your bank has a reciprocal arrangement with a UK bank which may reduce charges.
UK (Imperial) gallon is 4.54 litres. UK (Imperial) gallon is 20% greater than the US gallon so multiplying the litre cost by 4 will provide a rough US gallon price.
Current UK prices is around 92p per litre. Exchange rate of $1.70 to the £ sterling comes out to around the equivalent of $6 per US gallon! Before you have a heart attack do remember that most cars in the UK have better fuel consumption than similar size US vehicles. Even 'Intermediate' or 'Standard' size cars in the UK will return around 30mpg around town and 40mpg otherwise. =25 town and 35 general per US gallon.

[silly_stitcher Member Find all posts View Profile Close silly_stitcher]

World-wide banks

If you use a worldwide bank (i.e. Citibank), ATMs are definitely the way to go. We have a Citibank account, so we just looked up all the London Citibank ATMs in advance and avoided the problem of foreign bank fees.

[falmouth3 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close falmouth3]

ATMs

ATMs are the way to go. However, you will want to check with your bank to see if their cards work overseas. There are several networks, Cirrus is one, that allow you to take money from your account. You may also want to check on fees. My credit union did not charge me for any withdrawals.

One final thing - I read a couple of years ago that if your PIN number had more than 4 digits, that it may not work overseas. Not sure if that is still true. And, if you use letters instead of numbers, remember the numbers that the letters correspond to because not all ATMs have letters.

Have fun!
Sue

[Carolinian Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Carolinian]

For London, I use the exchange houses. I use plastic to get form Gatwick airport to Victoria Station by rail, then walk across the street to a couple of exchange houses with good exchange rates and no commission. Avoid the exchange houses inside the station as they have either bad rates, high commission, or both.

Avoid airport exchange generally, and also usually railway station exchange, as they are notorious for bad rates, high commission, or both. The two exceptions to that rule that I have run into are one of the concourses (but not both) at the Zurich airport, and the Mexico City airport.

With ATM's beware of extra fees tacked on for using the machine overseas that are on top of the fees your bank charges. This is unfortunately quite common with standalone ATM's which are at convenience stores, highway rest stops, etc. and not attached to a bank. Most bank ATM's I have used in the UK outside London (where finding a good exchange house is difficult, unlike in the city itself) do not add extra fees, and it usually tells you that right on the ATM screen.

In some countries, such as Greece, even the bank ATM's all seem to tack on extra fees, and the best you can do is a 1% fee if you are careful about which bank ATM to use. In other countries such as Poland, the ATM's attached to bank offices are often actually independently run and thus charge extra fees.

[Keitht Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Keitht]

One final thing - I read a couple of years ago that if your PIN number had more than 4 digits, that it may not work overseas. Not sure if that is still true. And, if you use letters instead of numbers, remember the numbers that the letters correspond to because not all ATMs have letters.

Have fun!
Sue

Yes it is true. ATMs in the UK all require 4 digit PIN codes.