Spending money for Florida
Discussion
Finally doing our family trip to Florida this October. It was initially booked to celebrate my son beating leukemia back in 2019 but COVID, school etc has pushed it back.
Anyway. We're not worldly travellers so normally just take a pile of cash when we go for the odd week in Europe. This trip is obviously going to require a decent chunk of spending money so what the safest and most efficient way to do this?
I'll probably take $1000 in pocket money then would prefer to use a card or app with minimal or no charges for everything else.
Anyway. We're not worldly travellers so normally just take a pile of cash when we go for the odd week in Europe. This trip is obviously going to require a decent chunk of spending money so what the safest and most efficient way to do this?
I'll probably take $1000 in pocket money then would prefer to use a card or app with minimal or no charges for everything else.
Halifax Clarity Card does everything I need on holiday.
No fees and a good exchange rate.
Only think to watch - If you use it to withdraw cash, interest starts charging immediately, but this is offset by the no fees and good exchange rate.
You can eliminate it by paying some money across to the card if you've taken a lot of cash out.
I didn't and it cost me 38p on 100 Euros.
(That would have been around £4.00 difference had I bought the Euros in the UK and taken them with me).
No fees and a good exchange rate.
Only think to watch - If you use it to withdraw cash, interest starts charging immediately, but this is offset by the no fees and good exchange rate.
You can eliminate it by paying some money across to the card if you've taken a lot of cash out.
I didn't and it cost me 38p on 100 Euros.
(That would have been around £4.00 difference had I bought the Euros in the UK and taken them with me).
+1 for Halifax Clarity. I also use a Barclaycard Rewards card. Same as Halifax, but for cash withdrawals it doesn't charge interest immediately and gives a small cashback.
Also have a Starling debit card, very good too.
Haven't been to the US for a while, but from memory there are quite high charges for cash withdrawals imposed by the ATM operators, so probably best to take any cash required from here.
Also have a Starling debit card, very good too.
Haven't been to the US for a while, but from memory there are quite high charges for cash withdrawals imposed by the ATM operators, so probably best to take any cash required from here.
Starling Debit (or Monzo / Chase / etc - theyre all much of a muchness) and a credit card of choice.
The only occasion you may need actual cash for is if you are choosing to use a valet car service (which there arent loads of in/around tourist Orlando anyways). Speaking from experience, I havent been used cash in the US for at least the past 2yrs (being there approaching 50% of the time) and use exclusively cards and havent had a single issue with paying or tipping at all.
Just be prepared for the tipping norm now being 20%
The only occasion you may need actual cash for is if you are choosing to use a valet car service (which there arent loads of in/around tourist Orlando anyways). Speaking from experience, I havent been used cash in the US for at least the past 2yrs (being there approaching 50% of the time) and use exclusively cards and havent had a single issue with paying or tipping at all.
Just be prepared for the tipping norm now being 20%
also re valet parking check your rental agreement most dont cover you using the service
cash is only really needed for small tips and some times drink vending machines but most of them are card now
there is very little need for cash especially in the tourist areas we do still use it but dont need to
also on the tipping front there is no such thing as an expected amount, the companies are just getting greedy and they are the options they are putting on the receipt and on the screens when you pay but the amount is totally up to you and you can change it. i wont tip more than 15% and refuse in alot of places that are quick service like fast food places where you order on a screen are asking for tips now! also take gideons cookies they display the screen for tips and all they do is hand you a f
king cookie!
cash is only really needed for small tips and some times drink vending machines but most of them are card now
there is very little need for cash especially in the tourist areas we do still use it but dont need to
also on the tipping front there is no such thing as an expected amount, the companies are just getting greedy and they are the options they are putting on the receipt and on the screens when you pay but the amount is totally up to you and you can change it. i wont tip more than 15% and refuse in alot of places that are quick service like fast food places where you order on a screen are asking for tips now! also take gideons cookies they display the screen for tips and all they do is hand you a f
king cookie! I am going to the Florida Alabama border area in a few weeks and have been told by friends there that places are starting to charge fees on card purchases. The bar that is hosting the mini festival we are attending charges 3% on card purchases. I also believe Florida just decided that the law banning fees on card purchases is unconstitutional so expect these to start creeping in.
Took about £250 of dollars when we went last year for 2-and-a-half weeks. In our last few days we started paying cash for things just to use it up, we'd barely spent any of it. Everything/everywhere takes a card. In fact the last $75 or so was used pre-paying for fuel in the hire car before we returned it. It was the simplest way we could think of using an exact amount of change.
We both bank with Monzo which is free to use abroad (and a small number of cash withdrawals are allowed per year without a fee).
We both bank with Monzo which is free to use abroad (and a small number of cash withdrawals are allowed per year without a fee).
I returned from 9 days in Florida and Nashville this week and I can tell you now, I didn't once pay with cash anywhere, apart from taking out $10 in Nashville to tip the band playing in the bar - which charged me $3 for the privilege . Raymond James Stadium in Tampa is cash free, though I would assume that's like most stadiums now. You can tip by card, tell them you're paying your bill by card and just put the tip amount on the receipt.
USA is the same as most of Europe, everything is paid on cards, you only need cash for tips and the occasional small snack (and maybe a few coins for shopping/airport trolleys in Europe etc).
Whilst cards do often charge 3% for FX, the charge is at least 2% on the FX rate for cash conversion (assuming you order online in the UK before you go) and the 1-2% difference is made up by the value of Air Miles for me (I have Amex and Mastercard that both generate Avios).
It's also safer not carrying around a big bunch of cash and pulling out a stack of dollars when paying.
Whilst cards do often charge 3% for FX, the charge is at least 2% on the FX rate for cash conversion (assuming you order online in the UK before you go) and the 1-2% difference is made up by the value of Air Miles for me (I have Amex and Mastercard that both generate Avios).
It's also safer not carrying around a big bunch of cash and pulling out a stack of dollars when paying.
I have both Halifax Clarity and an HSBC Global Money card (you need an HSBC current account to link the Global Money card to).
Both have their uses: Clarity as a fee-free credit card with the expected interest-free period, and Global Money for fee-free ATM withdrawals in any currency you have pre-loaded into the account. Between them you never need to pay a penny in currency or foreign transaction charges - although you do still need to choose your ATM carefully as the local banks might add on charges themselves.
Both have their uses: Clarity as a fee-free credit card with the expected interest-free period, and Global Money for fee-free ATM withdrawals in any currency you have pre-loaded into the account. Between them you never need to pay a penny in currency or foreign transaction charges - although you do still need to choose your ATM carefully as the local banks might add on charges themselves.
Chase debit card current account. Free US transactions and free cash withdrawals should you need cash. The App is very user friendly and just drip feed the account by transferring money from your main account. The cash back benefits are also pretty good and I now use the account for my daily spend in the UK. Just be aware, its a normal bank account and not a Credit card. I had to use by CC once out there for the hire car but I only got charged a few quid.
And another voice saying dont bother with any cash.......
We spent 3 weeks in California earlier in the year and covered the whole spectrum from excess to bargain bucket
Everything and everybody takes cards - although contactless was patchy - even street vendors selling hotdogs. Certainly anything from a backstreet bar or sandwich shop and upwards had a card reader along with the "lovely" tip screen varying from 20-30% but thats another thread
One thing which had changed since we were last there in 2019 was a noticeable lack of bell boys which was pretty much the only reason we took some dollars, most of which we brought back. On our last day we left our bags in the hotel left luggage and were very well looked after so handed some cash over
I used my Monzo account which gives commission free transactions at decent rates although you need to build up some favour with them before eligible for that so you should look elsewhere as you wont have time
And have a good holiday
Cheers
Echo the above statements
We took some cash last month, California.
I mostly used a Global Money card from HSBC which I could load up easily with dollars.
Linked this to Google Pay and used that quite often. Although more than a few times they said they didn't take Apple Pay - i.e. no phone payments. Which is fine by me as I had the actual card as well anyway.
The exchange rate is rubbish at the moment - but you can't really change that, but you may well notice that even 'normal' stuff costs quite a bit, especially once taxes and tips are added on top.
We took some cash last month, California.
I mostly used a Global Money card from HSBC which I could load up easily with dollars.
Linked this to Google Pay and used that quite often. Although more than a few times they said they didn't take Apple Pay - i.e. no phone payments. Which is fine by me as I had the actual card as well anyway.
The exchange rate is rubbish at the moment - but you can't really change that, but you may well notice that even 'normal' stuff costs quite a bit, especially once taxes and tips are added on top.
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