[lca2018-chat] Just a couple of weeks to go!

[Mathew Oakes]

I was at syd international departures last week and they now have a monopoly currency exchange provider whose rates were only about 80% of what they should have been and a $17 fee.


On 9 January 2018 20:46:49 GMT+11:00, Andrew Donnellan <andrew at donnellan.id.au> wrote:
>On 9 January 2018 at 18:41, Ewen McNeill <lca2018 at ewen.mcneill.gen.nz>
>wrote:
>
>> On 9/01/18 18:38, Alison Chaiken wrote:
>>
>>> 0. Where should foreign visitors change money upon arrival?  
>Perhaps at
>>> the airpoort?
>>>
>>
>> While you definitely can change money at any international airport,
>> usually the rates will be even less favourable there than at downtown
>banks
>> or downtown bureau de change.
>>
>> Typically what I do when going to a country with different currency
>is get
>> a small amount ($100-$200) of cash in that country's currency at my
>local
>> bank before leaving home, and then get the rest by taking money out
>of an
>> ATM when I'm in the country (usually again a few hundred dollars, to
>spread
>> out the transaction fees).  These days you might even be fine just
>planning
>> on getting money out in an ATM at the first airport in the country
>you
>> reach.
>>
>> You'll also find that you can use a Visa/Mastercard (and often
>> Amex/Diners, perhaps with an extra fee) most places, so you may not
>need
>> that much cash (eg, unlike the USA there's much less need to have
>cash on
>> hand to give "random" cash tips to people in NZ/Australia).
>
>
>That's my standard practice - international withdrawals at an ATM tend
>to
>result in fees around $5-10 with most banks (Australian, at least -
>YMMV
>for people who are coming *to* AU) and as such are comparable with
>getting
>cash exchanged at many banks/Travelex outlets/etc.
>
>I agree with Ewen that you absolutely can get away without much cash at
>all
>- you might want some for smaller food outlets that prefer cash to
>card,
>and for splitting bills at restaurants that don't like to split for
>you,
>but otherwise if you're happy to cop the foreign transaction fee on
>your
>card you'll be able to use at least Visa/Mastercard in most places.
>
>
>-- 
>Andrew Donnellan
>http://andrew.donnellan.id.au         andrew at donnellan.id.au

-- 
Sent from my Android device with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity.
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