What's Going on with the Dollar rate???

[Dads_Taxi]

Today's Money Saving Expert bulletin suggested buying half your $US holiday spends now, hedging your bets with the other half.

[Katys Grandad]

Today's Money Saving Expert bulletin suggested buying half your $US holiday spends now, hedging your bets with the other half.

I think that is something it's been advising for years and I have heard Martyn Lewis himself say that it's really just a case of pot luck whether your decision on when to buy turns out to be a good one. I suppose buying a proportion of your needs early at least levels out that equaition a little. That said, anybody who did it a month or so ago would be kicking themselves today.

The other thing he consistently says is that getting yourself a exchange fee free credit card is now the better strategy against exchanging large amounts of cash because they are accepted virtually everywhere these days and offer more convenience and better rates and that has worked well for me. I usually take a couple of cards and 2 or 3 hundred pounds worth of local currency just so I have something for small initial purchases on arrival.

[Katys Grandad]

We go in 3 weeks, the exchange rate is $1.39, do I buy now or do a wait - decisions decisions

Hope you are both keeping well Diane. Have a great time (I know you will!)

[DaveL]

If you have the cash to spend then you could get one of the new Transferwise debit cards and put the cash in their account. Mines just arrived.

[Madabouttigger]

We use to use Travelx but just changed to Fairfx who seem to have a good exchange rate, plus they are giving me £20 credit.

[florida4sun]

A lot of folks raving about the Revolut card which gives the best exhcange rates I have seen. They are no fees as plan to make money from add on services.

[Madabouttigger]

Not heard of that one, Ill have a look, thanks for sharing.

[Philomena]

We take a couple of hundred in cash, a Halifax Clarity credit card which gives commercial exchange rate and no fees, and a FairFX card which I load with some dollars before we go and then reload as and when necessary when we are there. You can use the FairFX card as a charge card for purchases with no fees, or you can withdraw cash at any ATM with a $2 fee.

Works well for us.

[Madabouttigger]

Fait fx have just offered me $1.40 shame I’m not going anytime soon.

[FraserLynn]

Revolt it fantastic. We have been using it for a while now. You can hold money in your account in any currency and when you make a purchase it exchanges it for you at the full international bank transfer rate (the one you see in the daily stock market listings) with no commission and no fees. And it comes with a great App so you can control your spending. It really is that good

They do have a fair usage policy (about £5k a month) so you can't use it to purchase a villa for example. But for day to day holiday spending it is first rate. Over this limit they charge a 0.5% fee, but you still get the great exchange rate.