Currency exchange

The ATM is almost always the best deal you can get. Avoid Travelex machines in the UK, they do charge fees for their "services."

Simple solution ... get a new bank. Seriously you can open an account at the Andrews Federal Credit Union. Put a chunk of money in a savings account and get an ATM card from them. Their ATM card has absolutely zero fees and the exchange rate is good. If time allows you can also get a genuine chip and pin card from them that also has no foreign transaction fees. The fees your bank is charging are absolutely outrageous, I think they are telling you to take your business elsewhere.

My bank (Chase) is rapacious but not as much as yours. However, I think you're right, as is the conventional wisdom -- ATM withdrawals are the best way to get cash. Since you'll be calling the bank to let them know you're traveling, maybe you could get your limit raised so you could have fewer of those $5 hits.

Also consider a credit union...mine charges just pennies when I use my debit card overseas. Hardly costs me anything at all per transaction.

For comparison, the sell rate at currency exchange brokers in London is currently $1.71, if you book online and collect.

It is DCC you need to watch out for at ATMs, which is by no means just Travelex - it is can be encountered at banks too. Just say no.

Well, I won't be "getting a new bank" entirely. My mortgage, auto everything is with this place and it seems like a terrible hassle to convert elsewhere, especially since I can't afford to re-close on my house again. I suppose I could just open an account somewhere. People also say Capitol One has good rates?

Lastly, a friend told me that even though Bank of Scotland notes are technically legal tender, they aren't readily accepted in England? Any truth to that? That was his experience.

Edit Update: I may have read this wrong. Here is the text:

XXXXXXXX will assess a $5 fee for ATM cash withdrawals made outside the United States and an International Purchase Transaction fee which is 3% of the transaction amount for each purchase made with your debit card in a foreign currency that has been converted into a U.S. dollar amount by a network.

I read that as being both 5 bucks AND 3% but it looks like the 3% is just on debit card purchases, correct? Duh. sigh

Scottish notes work just south of the border, not so well or not at all further down.

English banks will swap them out.

Conversely, BoE notes work all over Scotland.

Thanks Ed. I assume Scottish Banks give Scottish notes, especially with everybody gearing up for the Independence vote, right?

With a heck of a lot of time in Scotland, I wouldn't bet that I've been in a Scottish bank in years. But that's what comes out of ATMs, unless an odd English or a Northern Ireland note slips in that I don't notice.

If a bank issues its own notes, it will in general stock them exclusively in its ATMs. Other banks, building societies etc will be a mixture. I have on only one occasion received Scottish notes from an English ATM.

Much more difficult to spend notes from Northern Ireland in England or Scotland.

Well, I won't be "getting a new bank" entirely. My mortgage, auto everything is with this place and it seems like a terrible hassle to convert elsewhere, especially since I can't afford to re-close on my house again. I suppose I could just open an account somewhere.

While a lot of people here swear by opening new bank checking accounts and new credit card accounts to save a few dollars, don't feel pressured to do so for a relatively short trip. Your bank's fees are not out of line compared to many and the total of fees over a 2 week trip will probably be less than $100. Compare that to the hassles of opening new accounts and then managing them later on.

If you traveled a lot or planned an extended stay oversees, then it makes more sense for sure.

I don't think anyone is suggesting that you totally change banks to get cheaper ATM fees. But a little credit union account with NO fees is the way to go. For one thing, it avoids some people's fears about having their accounts emptied if they should lose their card or have it stolen. You just put your travel money in the new account. Since it is at a different facility it is not tied to any of your other accounts. I use a small local credit union that charges me absolutely nothing for foreign withdrawals. I also carry a second card from an online bank (Ally) who charges 1% for foreign withdrawals. The two are linked, but not directly. This gives me the ability to move money between accounts online on the fly, or use a different ATM card if the first one doesn't work for some reason. I generally split my money 70/30 starting out, with the majority of the money in my free account.

Look into a credit union, but more importantly increase your daily limit.

Three trips ago we opened a Capital One checking account with no transaction fees. I now have a % of my paycheck deposited directly into this account, which is our vacation fund. The other thing I like about having a completely separate account from our "every day" bank account where bills are set up to pay and paychecks are auto-deposited, is that if our debit/ATM card was compromised in any way, we would not run the risk of our "everyday" checking account being cleaned out and not having funds to pay bills while out of the country. The worst that would happen, is that we didn't have funds to withdraw, and then we'd just move to our backup ATM card.

We just came back from England. I obtained a no fee Travel Visa from Bank of America. So that is what we primarily used the whole trip. If I went to a Barclay's ATM it waved the $5.00 charge but still cost the 3%, so we withdrew 300 pds, which cost use $509.00 US dollars. And that is all we used for cash the whole two weeks, charging everything we possibly could for no fee and the cheapest daily rate. That cash went far, including two Taxi rides.