Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, Radio News. Welcome to Marrin Talks Your Money, the Personal Finance edition at Merrin Talks Money. In these bonus podcasts, we talk about best strategies for making the most of your money. I'm married Sunset Web and with me senior reporter and money to stiled off.
For John Stefpacker. John, I'm John.
School's beginning to wrap up. Everyone's getting ready for the summer holidays. I've had a lot of people on holiday already. I'm not on holiday. You're not on holiday, Producer Summer not on holiday. We are all here, but we're here for our listeners. We know you're all about to go on holiday, and we are worried that you are going to commit some of the most common money mistakes out there, or should I say foreign money.
Mistakes out there.
Now we are John and I we have to admit this. We are using to talk about this. A list sent to us by the lovely people at aj Bell who've made a list of the things that you can do wrong and remind you how to do them right. And do you know what, looking at them, The very first mistake is one I made just the other day just the other day, headed for Mexico, realized I didn't have any dollars or any pesos.
And what did I do?
I went to the bureau de change at the airport.
It really is just a pain that we've felt being disorganized, and I've done it as well, Like I don't go any bit exotic, nor I'm going somewhere. This's goot euros. I know I can use the cash machine, but at the same thing, you can like yeah, but well, if you get to the airport and you need some euros and you can't use the cash machine and.
You've got it, you've got to tip the first right, You've got to tip.
The first taxi driver.
I have a terrible story about us not doing that when we didn't stop at the buid of change of the airport, didn't have any euros when we arrived somewhere, didn't tip the taxi driver. When we got out of the tax hit the hotel. Never saw that, Charles Teddy Bear Again. All I'm saying is, if you don't have any cash, go to the buriers on at the airport.
You can afford it. The spread between the actual place of the currency and what you will pee at the airport is shocking. It appols me every single time i'm sort of the air and I look at the exchange rates.
Oh it's a shocker. Anyway, listen, here's here's an example of the rates from the AJBL report. As a third of July. Well, well go now, Travelex were offering to change one thousand pounds into nine hundred and forty four euros if you rocked over there he throw airport KAOSK, so less than one for one.
Yeah, and why we know breaks it was a terrible one.
It wasn't that bad. But if you ordered online from travel x to pick the money up at the same location in the airport, you'd get one one hundred and thirty three euros. If you'd just done the admin in advance, you get an extra one hundred and eighty nine euros to spend on your holiday.
That is a huge amoon these days. I don't think you can really blame the four X people for this. It really is just you're at the airport, you forgot to do it, and so they're charging your convenience fee. That's the way that you look at it.
They're a lot of rent for those desks in the middle of the end. Why exactly, everyone has to pay for something, right, so we're not going to do that.
Sandwiches and more expensive at the airport as well, you can really blame them. So yeah, definitely if you eat the airport, is my.
Press sandwich not at the airport and a press sandwich at the airport.
I do not want to speak for a specific brand just in case, you know, but definitely catering at the airport it is more expensive than so it should.
Be limited estate, right, What are you saying, John that the second thing people shoure doing going on holiday is bring a sandwich with them.
Bring a pipe lunch exactly, two liter bottle of coconut proper money.
See if anyone drinks coke by the way, two liter bottle of water. Right. Mistake number two paying for your online money with a credit card, Now this is interesting. If you pay with a credit card, you're going to pay a cash fee to your bank. And you know that if you take money out of an ATM with a credit card, yeah, you're going to pay an extra fee on top of everything. Then no one quite understands why you pay that fee. But you do pay that fee, right, Yeah.
I think it's just the lescen from them is don't ever use your credit card for actually buying money. You're always going to get child extra for use your debit card for the anything they do, be withdrawing money or purchasing money or whatever.
Yeah, So if you're buying it online, or if you buying it online in advance to pick up at the airport, whatever it is, use your debit card, credit card, okay, right, next one, Using your standard bank cards abroad, you get non sterling transaction fees on transactions you make in foreign currencies, and that's going to be two and a half to three percent of the purchase amount. I mean that is whopping, actually, and there are some current cards that don't charge it, but an awful lot do.
Yeah. I hangway, that's when you just have to be aware because there's plenty of mainstream banks that don't do this, and also the certainly they are on lane banks to not to do this. I know it's startling. Don't do it because my kids, who's startling. I mean, I've got a nation wide card and one of the reasons that got that was because they have exchange fees were very reasonable or rather not that exchange fees, the exchange rate
you get. So I think that's just a marter looking at the cards you've got, you know, I don't think you need to get a special one for going on holiday, unless.
If you get a Revolute card or a Caxing FX card or and you can prepay it with a variety of different currencies, it might have a couple of dollars and if I'm quite useful and I remember the pin usually live from at home in the end. But in theory, in theory.
That is also useful for company who travels to a lot of different places. If you go to America and Europe a lot or whatever, and you need dollars and euros, then loading up a card with both of those before that is a kind of useful thing you do.
Yeah, there's also quite a reasonable way to control your holiday spending, isn't it. You can prepay what you expect to spend on your holiday onto that card, and then you can keep an eye.
On things as you go, and then you can panic for the last three days y at holiday when you realize that you ran out a week ago, went on.
The way through and splurge on the last two days.
This happens too.
Okay, the next one.
I'm good at this one.
I see. This is a mistake.
I never make.
Paying in sterling on a card terminal. So when you use your card overseas, everyone knows this. You'll get asked by the machine whether you want to pay in your local currency, in the local currency of the place where you are, or in sterling. And everyone thinks, well, I'm going to hit sterling because that's that's how I work, that's what my bank account is in. But that is the wrong thing you're going to do. You're going to get the worst possible exchange right there, but probably not
quite as bad as you get at the bureau. Challenge of the airport is so far pretty bad. So you really don't want to do that. And that is such a simple mistake.
That is a simple one. You know. Something I noticed though when I went I went to Athens for the first time earlier this year, and one thing un noticed was that the wheels there were often in some places, not all places. But I said fifty that we take your card, that we and they would make the decision on which button to press, and sometimes they would press their wrong ones. I don't know what's going on there?
And I know that they only relatively recently started enforcing things like receipts and stuff like that, and that part of Greece as well, So I mean sometimes that you may you might find it depending on where you are, people try to maybe slightly coin you on.
That sophisticated to think that the wait is in grace are getting kickbags based on your exchange.
Right, But I was kind of I was quite surprised. I know it's happening often enough that I thought, what's going on here?
So you were losing three percent every time? Bad?
Like, I was a shock. I was appalled. Last one was lovely still totally was it buy back options?
Last time I went and it was still the days of travelers checks.
Oh yeah remember that was yeah, it is so it is so much easier going on holiday now.
Much easier travel checks. You had to take me to banks catch them, and then they got stolen and then we had nothing.
I went to Paris at one point and I had eight e quentin sterling, right, and it was the only money that we had, and then the last day it was down to that it was but it was Royal Bank, Clydesdale Bank, notes, you know how like some of the Scottish notes look really unusual. And this was about thirty years ago. Went into an actual bank in Paris and they pulled out the big book of notes. It wasn't there.
I had to wander around me no money but eight quinn sterling and I think we'd like three francs or something. We end up buying like a bagett to last us for twenty four hours. So any kids, it's much easier these days. You should stop complaining about all this stuff.
That time I had Scottish money reproved was in Dooted.
That's because they're all racists down here, six.
Years ago, right, the last one buy back options Now the sort reason going to happen to John. Based what we've been talking about. Some people might come back from holiday with spare currency, actual physical notes in their pockets, and I might sing to himself as they go through the airport on the way back. They might think themselves, oh, I'll just go with that desk and I'll change them back into sterling. You don't want to do that. Here's
numbers again from aj Bell. You're a change will sell you one hundred and thirty seven euros for one thousand pounds out like a good deal relative to what were talked about earlier. But if you bring all those euros back and you exchange them again, you'll only get nine hundred and four pounds in return. You do not want to do that. Now, some of the people who you can get your travel money from will give you a buyback guarantee so you can take the money back and
change it back at the same rate that. Of course, there's going to be some kind of charge or commission to that. So what do you do with your foreign currency? John? If you come back you don't know about this?
Do you never any left? But let's see you next time, next time, because again, of course uros part early. You know you're probably going to be going to eurosone country in the future.
Again, this is how I ended up with a whole load of lirium.
By the way, Yeah, I mean, I don't get off gild with the ASSI dollars that I'll never go any ill. It's hard treat them back more with the physical because you're going to have to go to a bureau, even the one in the airport.
Yeah, So I said, you know what, I'm buy back options. Maybe maybe just take what you can get at the time, because otherwise there may be people who are better at admin than us. I don't know these people would be, But if you're anything like us, just take what you can get to the time, or it's going to sit in your desk until it's not with anything anyway.
Yeah, right, it does feel like I waste the time.
But in the hand, guys, but in the hand.
They spent in the duty three on the way back. Can you do that? That depends pretty hard.
I suppose you have another suggestion, John's you can put it in that charity envelope on the airplane.
Well, hypothecating your taxes. I think we disapprove of that.
I don't think there's a gift aid.
Book stealing money from the.
H Just right, I think John and I are going to leave. Thanks for listening to this week's Marin Talks to Your Money. If you like us, rate review and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. Also be sure to follow me in John on ex or Twitter at marinas w and John Underscore stepic. This episode was produced by some Mersidi tala Amidi and Moses and production spport and
sound designed by Blake Maples. Questions and comments on the show and all our shows are always welcome to our show email is marrin Money at Bloomberg dot Next