New york trip, Visa/ Visa debit and cash

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salaried

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Hi, If anyone can advise me on this I would appreciate it, I contacted our bank regarding charges when either purchasing goods or withdrawing cash when we are in new york, To be honest I was overwhelmed with the pace of the conversation , I am now non the wiser, Is it best to use visa when purchasing goods such as clothes or would it make more sense to withdraw cash from an atm with my visa debit card and pay cash, Whether it was restaurants or shopping you used cash or cards for when you were there I would be grateful for any feedback, Regards Salaried.
 
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I think you will be caught coming and going :) The general advice is preloaded credit card is the cheapest. If you don't want to take the risk of a pre-loaded credit card.... I did a long trip in the US last year and I did a comparison between the various methods from my spend (purchased dollars in Ireland, used Visa CC, used Visa Debit card both to take money out at ATMs and to purchase stuff. Basically, because of the different charges it came down to the best mechanism was dependent on the size of the individual transaction. In general my forex transaction was, surprisingly, the cheapest but by dint of bad timing, I got the worst rate on it (verified that it wasn't just a poor forex rate by checking the ECB rate and finding that there was indeed a local minimum on their graph precisely on the date that I purchased the cash - after that date the rate improved .. much to my chagrin).
I haven't got my data to hand so I cannot give you the specific tipping points where but I will post up this evening with it.

Bring some cash - but shop around for your rate - it can vary enormously. Avoid ATMs in shops as they usually charge extra.
 
In my limited experience, local ATM withdrawals incur a usage charge, on top of which the conversion rate will not be competitive.

Credit card transactions will incur an additional charge (cross-border handling fee ?) and the conversion rate will not be competitive.

If you want the best rate, shop around and take all you need in cash and don't use a card. But that is a high risk choice so you should mitigate risk by accepting the inevitable transaction charge / FX rate annoyances and only take as much cash as you need for cash transactions; use card for the bigger value transactions.

If I were going over, I would bring enough cash for out of pocket expenses and charge all shopping, restaurants, etc. to the credit card.
 
TarfHead said:
In my limited experience, local ATM withdrawals incur a usage charge, on top of which the conversion rate will not be competitive.

Credit card transactions will incur an additional charge (cross-border handling fee ?) and the conversion rate will not be competitive.

If you want the best rate, shop around and take all you need in cash and don't use a card. But that is a high risk choice so you should mitigate risk by accepting the inevitable transaction charge / FX rate annoyances and only take as much cash as you need for cash transactions; use card for the bigger value transactions.

If I were going over, I would bring enough cash for out of pocket expenses and charge all shopping, restaurants, etc. to the credit card.
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That would be my general approach too, when travelling. For peace of mind, I prefer to not carry a lot of cash, and if a card is lost/stolen, at least it can be cancelled quickly. Bear in mind the risk of pre-loading, in the event of the card being lost/ stolen. It is probably unnecessary for a holiday, anyway.
I suggest bringing some cash for the basic day to day stuff, e.g if you need a taxi on arrival, lunches, coffees etc.
When you go in to your bank to buy your currency, ask your questions again, and for any information they have re applicable charges for using your card overseas.
Have a lovely trip.
 
Just back from NY. Purchases on the credit card were generally converted at a similar rate as ATM withdrawals, perhaps a slightly lower rate, but only by .5-1c on the Euro. Rate varied from 1.33-1.36 over the time I was there which is about 1.5-2c lower then the prevailing mid-point conversion rate at the time.

When buying on credit cards, if they offer to charge in USD or Euro, always take dollars. You'll get a better rate.

Many ATMs (almost all outside bank branches, and some within) will charge you a fee, you'll be told of that upfront. Your bank will then charge another fee on top of this (~€5.30 in my case- BOI Visa Debit)

So overall, cheaper use the credit card due to ATM withdrawal fees.
 
I took $1300 in cash for which I paid 1000 euro, I paid for everything else with my visa debit card, Eg.. $332.00 spent in macys cost me 241.00 euro, the rate was 1.377, The only thing I used my visa card for was the hotel which cost $1864.00 or 1381.00 euro, I would do the same again as 1000 euro or 1300 dollars when converted gave me a lot of breathing space before having to use the visa debit card, Also as Leo has pointed out when using your card you will be asked if you want to pay in dollars or euro, Always opt to pay in dollars.
 
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