Advise on getting British pounds, ATM's in Heathrow/London?

It's a reasonable plan; odds are you will be able to use the ATMs at the airport. If not you can use your credit card to purchase tickets for the Heathrow Express or Tube, and try the ATMs in the city center. But in case of emergency one should always bring along about $200USD stored in a money belt. If worse came to worse you can always use some of that cash at one of the exchange desks to get you going.

There are plenty of ATMs in every Heathrow terminal so you should be fine.

Isn't Travelex the only game in town at Heathrow?

Ed, I think you are correct. The last two times that I have flown into LHR (T5 and T1), the only ATMs that I could find were Travelex. There used to be a whole row of ATMs before from various banks and building societies, but they seem to have disappeared.

That's all I could spot when I went tearing through there last fall, so I just got fifty pounds or so until I could get into town.

If you use your credit/debit card to purchase Heathrow Express or Tube tickets from machines, remember to leave them in the slot for about 10 seconds more than you would here in the USA. Otherwise the machine does not read the card and will tell you that your card was not recognized and cannot be used to purchase the ticket. In the USA, we are all used to ing the card in the slot and pulling it out immediately, but while this technique works at ATM machines in the UK, it does not appear to work when you need to get train tickets. This is a tip that I got some years ago from an expat friend of mine in the UK. Penn

Whether buying $100 or so worth of currency in the US or using a Travelex cash station or even a currency exchange, the amounts of the fees/poor exchange don't add up to more than $5-10. You certainly don't want to pay that every time you need cash, but for one time it's not worth worrying about.

I take it the Travelex rates are not as good as other machines?

I was in Terminal 5 a few months ago. The only ATM's I could find were Travelex.

I went through Heathrow (can't remember which terminal) a year ago and used an American Express exchange service.

Are you a AAA member? If so, you can get small amounts of GBP through them (you buy $100 increments).

AAA charges you as well. I always get money when I'm there (wherever there is...).

AAA doesn't charge a fee as such- the rates just aren't very good. But it is a good way to get a 'small' amount of pounds (or euros, etc.) before you leave.

I checked with AAA a few weeks ago to find out about their euro packs. Here, they cost $95 and currently contain 60 euros - $1.58 each. The rate doesn't change until they buy new packs, no matter how long that takes. It's worse than a bad rate. I'm assuming the same would hold true with pounds.

Nancy, Today's exchange rate was $1.60 per Pound.

And the Euro was $1.31. Not a good exchange rate.

The ATMs at Heathrow are fine to use, even though they are operated by Travelex. You will get a question though after you enter in your PIN that will essentially ask if you want to do the transaction in Pounds or Dollars, or Local or Home currency. You want to do the transaction in Pounds or Local currency, this will let the Cirrus/Plus network do the currency conversion, choosing otherwise will let Travelex do the conversion (at a worse rate).

Here's an idea I got here that worked great for us on a recent trip to the UK. Wells Fargo international currency desks (available in select locations) gave us all the pounds we wanted for a flat fee of $5. We took the cash with us and never had to sweat the ATM issue.

Kara, when you went to the Wells Fargo International Exchange, did you use your debit card to get British pounds, or did you have cash?

We have always visited the Travelex location near our home before we leave for Europe or Australia. We get some Euros and some pounds in cash. Otherwise we get a Travelex debit/travel card. If it is lost, we are immediately reimbursed.

We have used Travelex for nine years now and have been very, very happy. You can also get funds by going on-line to Travelex. They send the money or cash debit cards directly to your home. We always go to their store which is located in Costa Mesa, Calif. Travelex is a reputable compnay with offices located in most airports that we have been in. We just like the convenience of their debit cards and their currency.

The last time I checked Travelex, I was quoted a markup of 13% over the interbank rate. Travelex would be my last choice for foreign currency. They prey on mathematically challenged Americans who know nothing about foreign exchange. My experience with Wells Fargo International Tellers is that they markup foreign currency by between 5% and 6% and charge no other fees.

Usually when I am coming in, if I dont have any pounds already, I'll get enough to have a few in my pocket when I get into town (about $100 worth). Once in London, then I'll worry about what I'll need for the rest of my stay.

Hello again, Tom from St. Louis! :) Travelex's rates are terrible. I like to have some local currency when I arrive in a country and I used to get my foreign currency from US Bank. Now, at least in St. Louis, you have to go through Travelex at US Bank and you have to pay a fee in addition to their terrible exchange rate. AAA told me that they sell their currency packs at the same rate that they bought them. Two years ago I went to them for a pack of euros. The exchange rate at the time was about $1 to .80 eurocents but AAA was selling 100-euro packs for about $65, the rate they paid for them. No thanks! Now I go to 5/3 Bank for currency. The rate isn't as good as you'll get from an ATM, but it's worth it for me not to have to worry about finding an ATM that first day at all. If you want to buy foreign currency before you leave home, do some research before you decide where to buy it. For me it's kind of fun, almost like a game. The lady at Travelex at US Bank told me smugly, "Everyone comes to us for foreign currency." Oh really? Everyone who doesn't do their homework!

I bought Euros at Wells Fargo yesterday and got an exchange rate of 1.32, plus a $5 flat fee. (No fee for Wells Fargo account holders.) Not fantastic, but I was content. I paid in cash--using a credit card incurs a massive cash advance fee.

Paying 1.32 when the exchange rate yesterday was 1.25 is not particularly a "good deal". I use a credit union debit card tied to a checking account and only pay a 1% exchange fee with nothing else. I also wait until I land at my destination airport to use an ATM machine to get local currency. Granted, I have not flown into London in years to be faced with a bunch of "one of a kind" ATMs all giving poor exchange/fees. Doing what I do has never created a problem in the last 10 years. What I do is to keep buying Lottery tickets so I do not have to worry about fees any longer. Happy travels.

Charlie, I said I was content, not that I got a "great deal." I provided my exchange rate as a data point so that others could use it to help make their decisions. The cost of this exchange was worth it to me so that I have cash on arrival in "chip happy" Amsterdam after a long trip with children in tow. If it were just me, I'd wait and get it there. But with the kids, it's totally worth the peace of mind to have some cash immediately available. Believe me, 5 Euros for a snack and drink before leaving the airport can mean the difference between war and peace. It's all about makin' it roll smoothly!