Money exchange

Leave your U.S. dollars at home. Upon arrival in England go to a bank ATM for British pounds. If you want to have some currency upon arrival, exchange some before going over. Most establishments have gone to contactless payment so you won’t need much cash.

Use an Debit/ATM card to get pounds in England. If you use your credit card, it’s a cash advance and the rates are terrible.

Go to a bank cash machine when you get to England and use your debit card just like you would at home.

I seriously doubt you will use more than 40 pounds (if that much) cash in one week. Almost everything is done by card, even pay toilets.

The amount of cash you need is so small that it really won’t matter where/how you get it.

A visa credit card would be a poor choice since you pay cash advance fees and instant interest. A visa debit card is fine.

I almost never spend cash in the UK. Just use your card to pay. I'm currently on my fourth trip to the UK this year, and I still have the same £20 note in my wallet as I had on the first trip of the year.

Do you have tap credit and/or debit cards? Take those.

Yankee dollars not needed throughout the UK.

Was in London in November. ALL tap payments: pubs, cafes, restaurants and stores.

I had left over coinage from a July visit and dropped those in museum donation boxes.

Does anyone know if some places like hotels in more remote areas of Devon and Cornwall have also gone mostly cashless? I was flipping through a 2017 rough guide Cornwall book and many small B&B's were cash only. OK, I realize it's an old book and pre covid, but just wondering as I plan to go to some small towns there for family history research.

Does anyone know if some places like hotels in more remote areas of Devon and Cornwall have also gone mostly cashless?

If you’re staying in Devon & Cornwall, you’ll be wanting to book ahead and I expect they’ll want you to pay by credit card. I’ve stayed in two recently (although admittedly not that remote) and they didn’t want cash. I’ve also paid by card in small shops and tiny ice cream kiosks in small villages in Cornwall as well as for public toilets.

I can’t speak to very remote places but I would expect them to say CASH ONLY somewhere on a website if so, as card payments are so much the usual way of doing business now in the Uk.

I know of one cafe in Devon which doesn’t take cards, but they’ve had to start accepting bank transfers as so many customers did not have cash.

The big shift from cash to cards started 2019, I feel, and then the pandemic really hastened it.

I never use my debt card for purchases, only cash withdrawl. I was in New Zealand 7 years ago and my debt card was hacked for $2,500. Took weeks to get it back. Only charge cards are really protected. The bank told me that. In addition, I made purchaes with cash with a discount instead of using cash. Like home, people would perfer cash.

So you asked for advice and people shared.

Then you state you were hacked while in NZ.

Do what you want.

US debit cards are probably much more secure with RFID technology, rather than magnetic strips these days. From what I gather chips have only fairly recently come into widespread use. Much harder to skim cards these days. The threat of fraud on my debit card never worries me, in the UK at least.

Reading through the advice so far, it aligns with your practice. Use credit cards for purchases. Use your debit card upon arrival at an ATM machine (cash withdrawal unit in the wall-I think different locations call them different things) and get a cash withdrawal in the currency of the nation you are visiting. Depends on where you are going in England, and if you sticking to populated and frequented places, there will be a limited need for cash in general, so withdraw a bit upon arrival, and then add to it if needed. Or if you can wait, just withdraw the cash once you are settled in your hotel and access an ATM machine on the streets attached to a bank.
You asked which would be better, taking US dollars with me and exchanging or using your Visa card. I think you are hearing that both are not a good idea. Instead, the advice is to use your debit card to withdraw. I will note that most debit cards have a Visa logo on them, so not sure if you are using the terms interchangeably, but if you are not, then do not use your credit card to withdraw money is the feedback.