Latest / Merryn Talks Money / Hot Tips for Saving Money on Summer Vacation (Re-run)

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Hot Tips for Saving Money on Summer Vacation (Re-run) · Merryn Talks Money

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  Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio news.
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  Speaker 2: I'm joined Stevick, senior reporter and author of the Money
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  Speaker 2: Distilled newsletter. Today we'll be playing you a much loved
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  Speaker 2: episode we made last summer and how to make the
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  Speaker 2: most of your money when going away on holiday. Top
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  Speaker 2: tips that could end up saving you a decent amount
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  Speaker 2: so you can spend more of your time we had
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  Speaker 2: read in the book and less time we had hands
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  Speaker 2: in your wallet. Hope you enjoy.
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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Merrinchooks Your Money, the puzzon on Finance edition
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  Speaker 1: at Merritchooks Money. In these bonus podcasts, we talk about
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  Speaker 1: best strategies for making the most of your money. I'm
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  Speaker 1: married sumset web and with me senior reporter and Money
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  Speaker 1: to Stilled off with John steppecka John.
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  Speaker 2: I'm John.
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  Speaker 1: School's beginning to wrap up. Everyone's getting ready for this
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  Speaker 1: on the holidays. If I had luck people on holiday already.
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  Speaker 1: I'm not on holiday. You're not on holiday, Producer Summer
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  Speaker 1: not on holiday. We are all here, but we're here,
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  Speaker 1: all our listeners. We know you're all about to go
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  Speaker 1: on holiday, and we are worried that you are going
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  Speaker 1: to commit some of the most common money mistakes out there,
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  Speaker 1: or should I say foreign money mistakes out now we
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  Speaker 1: are John and I we have to admit this. We
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  Speaker 1: are using to talk about this a list sent to
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  Speaker 1: us by the lovely people at aj BELL who've made
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  Speaker 1: a list of the things that you can do wrong
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  Speaker 1: and remind you how to do them right. And do
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  Speaker 1: you know what looking at them. The very first mistake
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  Speaker 1: is one I made just the other day. Just the
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  Speaker 1: other day, headed for Mexico, realized I didn't have any
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  Speaker 1: dollars or any pays and what did I do? I
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  Speaker 1: went to the Bureau de change at the airport.
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  Speaker 2: It really is just a pain that we've felt being disorganized,
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  Speaker 2: and I've done it as well, Like I don't go
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  Speaker 2: any bit exotic, nor I'm going somewhere that's got euros.
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  Speaker 2: I know I can use the cash machine. But at
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  Speaker 2: the same thing, you can like yeah, but well, if
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  Speaker 2: you get to the airport and you need some euros
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  Speaker 2: and you can't use the cash machine, and you've got.
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  Speaker 1: It, you've got a tip. The first you've got to
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  Speaker 1: tip the first taxi driver. I have a terrible story
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  Speaker 1: about us not doing that when we didn't stop at
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  Speaker 1: the buider Shans of the airport, didn't have any euros
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  Speaker 1: when we arrived somewhere, didn't tip the taxi driver when
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  Speaker 1: we got out of the taxi at the hotel. Never
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  Speaker 1: saw that, Charles Teddy Bear Again, all I'm saying is,
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  Speaker 1: if you don't have any cash, go to the burage
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  Speaker 1: on at the airport. You can afford it.
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  Speaker 2: The spread between the actual place of the curdency and
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  Speaker 2: what you will pee at the airport is shocking. It
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  Speaker 2: appols me every single team. I'm sort of the and
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  Speaker 2: I look at the exchange rates.
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  Speaker 1: Oh it's a shocker. Anyway, listen here here's an example
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  Speaker 1: of the rates from the aj Bell report. As a
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  Speaker 1: third of July, well, well go now, Travelex were offering
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  Speaker 1: to change one thousand pounds into nine hundred and forty
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  Speaker 1: four euros if you rocked over there. He threw airport Kiosk,
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  Speaker 1: so less than one for one.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and may we know, pregus it was a terrible.
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  Speaker 1: It wasn't that bad. But if you ordered online from
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  Speaker 1: travel x to pick the money up at the same
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  Speaker 1: location in the airport, you'd get one one hundred and
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  Speaker 1: thirty three euros. If you've just done the admin in advance,
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  Speaker 1: you get an extra one hundred and eighty nine euros
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  Speaker 1: to spend on your holiday.
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  Speaker 2: That is a huge amount these days. I don't think
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  Speaker 2: you can really blame the four X people for this.
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  Speaker 2: It really is just you're at the airport. You forgot
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  Speaker 2: to do it, and so they're charging your convenience fee.
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  Speaker 2: That's the way that you look at it.
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  Speaker 1: They're a lot of rent for those desks in the
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  Speaker 1: middle of the end.
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  Speaker 2: Why exactly, everyone has.
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  Speaker 1: To have heard for something. Yeah, right, so we're not
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  Speaker 1: going to do that.
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  Speaker 2: Ll sandwiches and more expensive at the airport as well,
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  Speaker 2: you can't really blame them. So yeah, definitely if he
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  Speaker 2: is the airport, is my.
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  Speaker 1: Press sandwich not at the airport and a prent sanwich
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  Speaker 1: at the airport.
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  Speaker 2: I do not want to speak for a specific brand
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  Speaker 2: just in case, you know, but definitely catering at the
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  Speaker 2: airport is more expensive than so it.
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  Speaker 1: Should be limited re estate, right And what do you
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  Speaker 1: think John that the second thing people shoure doing the
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  Speaker 1: going on holidays, bring a sandwich with them, bring a
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  Speaker 1: pipe lunch exactly, it's a two liter bottle of coconut
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  Speaker 1: proper money. See if anyone drinks coke by the way,
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  Speaker 1: two liter bottle of water. Right. Mistake number two paying
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  Speaker 1: for your online money with a credit card, Now, this
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  Speaker 1: is interesting. If you pay with a credit card, you're
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  Speaker 1: going to pay a cash fee to your bank. And
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  Speaker 1: you know that if you take money out of an
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  Speaker 1: ATM with a credit card, you're going to pay an
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  Speaker 1: extra fee on top of everything. Then no one quite
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  Speaker 1: understands why you pay that fee, but you do pay that.
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  Speaker 2: Fee, right, Yeah, I think it's just the license m is.
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  Speaker 2: Don't ever use your credit card for actually buying money.
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  Speaker 2: You're always going to get child's extra for Use your
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  Speaker 2: debit card for the anything to do withdrawing money or
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  Speaker 2: popches in money or whatever.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, if you're buying it online, or if you buying
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  Speaker 1: it online in advance to pick up at the airport,
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  Speaker 1: whatever it is, use your debit card, credit card, okay, right,
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  Speaker 1: next one, Using your standard bank cards abroad, you get
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  Speaker 1: non sterling transaction fees on transactions you make in foreign currencies.
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  Speaker 1: And that's going to be and off to three percent
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  Speaker 1: of the purchase amount. I mean, that is whopping. And
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  Speaker 1: there are some current counts that don't charge it, but
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  Speaker 1: an awful lot do.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's when you just have to be aware because
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  Speaker 2: there's plenty of mainstream banks that don't do this, and
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  Speaker 2: also the certainly they own line banks tend not to
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  Speaker 2: do it. I know it's startling. Don't do it because
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  Speaker 2: my kids, who's startling. We have got a nationwide card
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  Speaker 2: and one of the reasons that got that was because
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  Speaker 2: they have exchange fees were very reasonable, or rather not
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  Speaker 2: the exchange fees, the exchange rate you get. So I
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  Speaker 2: think that's just a matter of looking at the cards
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  Speaker 2: you've got. You know, I don't think you need to
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  Speaker 2: get a special ones for going on holiday unless attached.
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  Speaker 1: If you get a revolute card or a Caxing FX
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  Speaker 1: card or and you can prepay it with a variety
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  Speaker 1: of different currencies, it might have a couple of dollars
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  Speaker 1: and if I'm quite useful, can I remember the pin
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  Speaker 1: usually live from at home in the end, But in theory,
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  Speaker 1: in theory.
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  Speaker 2: Useful company who travels to a lot of different places.
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  Speaker 2: If you go to America and Europe a lot or
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  Speaker 2: what about and you need dollars and yours, then loading
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  Speaker 2: up a card to be both of those before that
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  Speaker 2: is a kind of useful thing you do.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, there's also quite a reason more way to control
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  Speaker 1: your holiday spending, isn't it. You can prepay what you
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  Speaker 1: expect to spend on your holiday onto that card, and
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  Speaker 1: then you can keep an eye on things as.
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  Speaker 2: You go, and then you can panic for the last
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  Speaker 2: three days yet holiday when you realize that you ran
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  Speaker 2: out about a week ago or.
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  Speaker 1: On the way through, and splurge on the last two days.
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  Speaker 1: This happens to Okay, the next one. I'm good at
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  Speaker 1: this one. I see this is a mistake. I never
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  Speaker 1: make paying in sterling on a card terminal. So when
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  Speaker 1: you use your card overseas, everyone knows this. You'll get
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  Speaker 1: asked by the machine whether you want to pay in
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  Speaker 1: your local currency, in the local currency of the place
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  Speaker 1: where you are, or in sterling. And everyone thinks, well,
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  Speaker 1: I'm going to get sterling, because that's that's how I work,
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  Speaker 1: that's what my bank account is in. But that is
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  Speaker 1: the wrong thing you're going to do. You're going to
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  Speaker 1: get the worst possible exchange right ever, probably not quite
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  Speaker 1: as bad as you get at the bureau. Challenge of
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  Speaker 1: the airport is far pretty bad, So you really don't
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  Speaker 1: want to do that. And that is such a simple mistake.
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  Speaker 2: That is a simple one. You know. Something I noticed
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  Speaker 2: though when I went. I went to Athens for the
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  Speaker 2: first time earlier this year, and one thing I noticed
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  Speaker 2: was that the whales there would often, in some places,
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  Speaker 2: not all places, but fifty percent of the time, they
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  Speaker 2: would take your card away and they would make the
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  Speaker 2: decision on which button to press, and sometimes they would
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  Speaker 2: press the wrong ones. I don't know what's going on there,
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  Speaker 2: and I know that the only relatively recently started enforcing
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  Speaker 2: things like receipts and stuff like that, and that part
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  Speaker 2: of Greece as well, So I mean sometimes that you
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  Speaker 2: may you might find it depending where you are, people
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  Speaker 2: try to maybe slightly coin you on.
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  Speaker 1: That sophisticated to think that the weight is in grace
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  Speaker 1: are getting kickbags based on your exchange? Right?
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  Speaker 2: Oh, I was kind of. I was quite surprised. Was
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  Speaker 2: noticed happening often enough that I thought, what's going on here?
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  Speaker 1: So and you were losing three percent every time? Bad? Like,
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  Speaker 1: I was a shock.
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  Speaker 2: I was appalled.
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  Speaker 1: Last one was lovely still totally was it buy back options?
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  Speaker 1: Last time I went, and it was still the days
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  Speaker 1: of travelers checks?
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  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, remember that was? Yeah, it is so it
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  Speaker 2: is so much easier going on holiday.
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  Speaker 1: Now, much easier travelers checks You had to take me
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  Speaker 1: to the bank and cash them, and then they got
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  Speaker 1: stolen and they had nothing.
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  Speaker 2: I went to Paris at one point and I had
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  Speaker 2: eight e quentin sterling, right, but it was the only
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  Speaker 2: money that we had, and then the last day it
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  Speaker 2: was down to that. It was but it was Royal
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  Speaker 2: Bank Clydesdale bank notes, you know how like some of
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  Speaker 2: the Scottish notes looked really unusual. And this was about
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  Speaker 2: thirty years ago. Went into an actual bank in Paris
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  Speaker 2: and they pulled out the big book of notes. It
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  Speaker 2: wasn't there.
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  Speaker 1: I had.
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  Speaker 2: He wandered around me, no money but eight quentin sterling
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  Speaker 2: and I think we'd like three francs or something ends
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  Speaker 2: up buying like a bagett to lasts for twenty four hours.
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  Speaker 2: So maybe kids, it's much eesier these days. You should
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  Speaker 2: stop complaining about all of this stuff.
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  Speaker 1: Last time I had Scottish money approved was endorse.
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  Speaker 2: It's because that'll racist in here six.
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  Speaker 1: Years ago, right, the last one buy back options. Now,
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  Speaker 1: this also isn't gonna happen to John based on we've
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  Speaker 1: been talking about so far. But some people might come
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  Speaker 1: back from holiday with spare currency, actual physical notes in
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  Speaker 1: their pockets, and they might sing to themselves as they
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  Speaker 1: go through the airport on their way back. They might
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  Speaker 1: think for themselves, Oh, I'll just walk go with that
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  Speaker 1: desk and I'll change them back into sterling. You don't
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  Speaker 1: want to do that. Here's numbers again from aj Bell.
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  Speaker 1: You're a change will sell you one hundred and thirty
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  Speaker 1: seven euros for one thousand pounds out like a good
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  Speaker 1: deal relative to what we talked about earlier. But if
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  Speaker 1: you bring all those euros back, can you exchange them again?
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  Speaker 1: You'll only get nine hundred and four pounds in return.
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  Speaker 1: You do not want to do that. Now, some of
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  Speaker 1: the people who you can get your travel money from
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  Speaker 1: will give you a buy back guarantee so you can
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  Speaker 1: take the money back and change it back at the
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  Speaker 1: same rate. Of course, there's going to be some kind
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  Speaker 1: of charge or commission to that. So what do you
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  Speaker 1: do with your foreign currency? John? If you come back
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  Speaker 1: you don't know about this, do you never any left?
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  Speaker 1: But let's see it.
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  Speaker 2: For next time. Next time, because again, of course uros particlarly,
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  Speaker 2: you know you're probably going to be going to euros
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  Speaker 2: own country in the future.
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  Speaker 1: Again, this is how I ended up with a whole
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  Speaker 1: load of liror and pasatus.
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  Speaker 2: By the way, Yeah, I mean, I don't get off
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  Speaker 2: girl with the dollars that I'll never go anys how,
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  Speaker 2: don't treat them back more with the physical because you're
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  Speaker 2: going to have to go up with even the one
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  Speaker 2: in the airport.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, so I said, you know what, I'm buy back options.
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  Speaker 1: Maybe maybe just take what you can get at the time,
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  Speaker 1: because otherwise there may be people who are better at
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  Speaker 1: admin than us. I don't know these people would be,
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  Speaker 1: but if you're anything like us, just take what you
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  Speaker 1: can get to the time, or it's going to sit
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  Speaker 1: in your jour it's not worth anything anywhere.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah right, it does feel like I waste the time.
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  Speaker 1: Bird in the hand, Guys, bird in the hand.
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  Speaker 2: They spent in the duty three in the way back.
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  Speaker 1: Can you do that?
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  Speaker 2: That depends on really hard I suppose do you.
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  Speaker 1: I have another suggestion, John's you can put it in
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  Speaker 1: that charity envelope on the aeroplane.
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  Speaker 2: Well, hypothecating your taxes. I think we disapprove of that.
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  Speaker 1: I don't think there's a gift aid book.
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  Speaker 2: Still in money from.
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  Speaker 1: H h just right. I think John and I are
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  Speaker 1: going to leave. Thanks for listening to this week's Mary
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: Talks to Your Money. If you like, rate, review, and
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  Speaker 1: subscribe whereever you listen to podcasts. Also be sure to
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  Speaker 1: follow me in John on ex or Twitter at marinas
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  Speaker 1: w and John Underscore Stepic. This episode was produced by
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  Speaker 1: some Asadi tyala Amdi and is production sport and sound
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  Speaker 1: designed by Blake Maples. Questions and cons on this show
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  Speaker 1: and all our shows are always welcome to our show
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  Speaker 1: email is Mirror Money at Bloomberg dot net