You’ve found a great villa but now you need to get a good deal on your holiday cash…..the differences in rates offered by banks and foreign exchange retailers can be quite astounding so it pays to look around.

According to the Daily Telegraph, the Post office was recently offering 200 Euros for £194.70 whilst a Travelex airport bureau de change quoted £202.98. A spokesman for Travelex said this was due to high rent, stocking and staffing costs – you can apparently avoid this by pre-ordering your currency online from www.travelex.co.uk before you travel and then picking up your cash at the airport.

If you have a debit card, it can actually work out cheaper to draw your holiday money after arriving at your resort. Choose your card with care as many card providers charge extra fees for cash withdrawals and purchases abroad. The Nationwide remains one of the best value card providers for foreign travel (along with the Post Office), with no European usage fee and no cash withdrawal fees when you use its debit card, although it has just introduced a foreign debit and credit card fee for purchases made outside Europe.

Using a Nationwide debit card in a European cash machine, that same purchase of 200 Euros in mid April would have cost £188.60 – a potential saving of nearly £15 on other choices at the time. If you are using a card to make purchases abroad, it is generally safer to use a credit card as you’ll have protection under the Consumer Credit Act for any purchase between £100 and £30,000. Do remember to advise your card provider of your travel plans, however, so that their fraud department doesn’t put a very inconvenient stop on your spending!

Don’t forget to take out travel insurance in case of any emergencies. Again, it is worth looking around for the best price – comparison websites such as Moneysupermarket.com and Confused.com are useful for this. You will find online companies now offering annual family policies from as little as £39.99 for a family of four, with the option to add on cover for ski-ing or other ‘high risk’ activities if appropriate!

If you’re travelling in Europe, always remember to take your European Health Insurance card with you – apply free at www.nhs.uk/ehic or call 0845 606 2030. This should be in addition to comprehensive travel insurance but will entitle you to state-provided health care in all European Economic Area countries and Switzerland. Remember to retain any invoices for doctor’s fees etc and also to keep the barcodes on the packaging of prescribed medicines as you may also be able to claim for these on your return to England.

Filed under: Frequently Asked Questions, Travel News, Travel Tips by adam