Does someone know if Barclays ATM cash machines are still located in Terminal 3 at Heathrow? I know many have been replaced with other bank machines or private services. I am using a BoA card and would prefer Barclays to save some transaction fees.
Need to find GBPs before I catch my JustAirports hired car to London - good discount if I do not use my credit card.
Jim,
In the same situation, I'd probably obtain the UK Pounds before leaving home, and that way you won't have to worry about what type of ATM's are in use at Heathrow T3. If you wait until you're at LHR, you'll be stuck with whatever type of machines are there.
One other point to mention is you'll have to be vigilant to avoid Dynamic Currency Conversion. If the machine asks whether you want the withdrawal charged in your home currency or the local currency, always select "local currency".
We used a Travelex in Heathrow last year, solely as an experiment. We found that our account (I forget whether we used our Schwab or our CapOne) was charged about 0.2% over the published exchange rate, no fee, and it may not have even tried to do DCC. In other words, it charged us the same rate that other banks did on the trip. You should be fine with Trtavelex, other than what YOUR bank might charge you.
First of all, thanks to Ken, MrsEB, and Larry for the excellent (and timely) responses. Once again the RS Forum has been a good resource for travel information.
The “new” issue for this trip is the need for cash immediately on arrival at LHR. In past visits, we have used the Heathrow express which is very nice (and somewhat pricey) followed by a short taxi ride to our hotel; about 60 GBP for two people.
For this trip we are going use a hired car from www.JustAirports.com at a cash-only rate of 36 GBP to South Kensington.
Thanks for your comments; we now have a better idea have to manage the cash issue.
I was lucky enough to have enough GDPs from my last trip to pay my JustAirports driver a couple of weeks ago.
My trip in the spring of 2015 found me trying to find an ATM that didn't charge a fee. I was in terminal three and could not find a machine that did not charge a big fee. I went ahead and rented the car for my trip to Cornwall and found a good ATM in a small town outside London. My feeling was that all of the ATMs in the airport all charge fees now. I always keep about 100 GDPs on hand for my next trip. I also used a machine that was close to our flat by Paddington and got hit with a fee at a HSBC machine and didn't notice it until it was too late. They got about 10 GDP on a 300+ withdrawal. I stuck with the Lloyds ATMs after that. I was very tired when I got there and just didn't check good. I had great results with JustAirports. They were perfect on time for both trips. I will never take another train.
Thanks - Bill
