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Hot Tips for Saving Money on Summer Vacation · Merryn Talks Money

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  Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, Radio News. Welcome to Marrin Talks
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  Speaker 1: Your Money, the Personal Finance edition at Merrin Talks Money.
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  Speaker 1: In these bonus podcasts, we talk about best strategies for
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  Speaker 1: making the most of your money. I'm married Sunset Web
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  Speaker 1: and with me senior reporter and money to stiled off.
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  Speaker 2: For John Stefpacker. John, I'm John.
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  Speaker 1: School's beginning to wrap up. Everyone's getting ready for the
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  Speaker 1: summer holidays. I've had a lot of 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: for 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.
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  Speaker 2: Mistakes out there.
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  Speaker 1: Now we are John and I we have to admit this.
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  Speaker 1: We are using to talk about this. A list sent
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  Speaker 1: to us by the lovely people at aj Bell who've
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  Speaker 1: made a list of the things that you can do
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  Speaker 1: wrong and remind you how to do them right. And
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  Speaker 1: do you know what, looking at them, The very first
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  Speaker 1: mistake is one I made just the other day just
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  Speaker 1: the other day, headed for Mexico, realized I didn't have
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  Speaker 1: any dollars or any pesos.
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  Speaker 2: And what did I do?
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  Speaker 1: I 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. This's goot 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.
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  Speaker 1: You've got it, you've got to tip the first right,
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  Speaker 1: You've got to tip.
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  Speaker 2: The first taxi driver.
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  Speaker 1: I have a terrible story about us not doing that
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  Speaker 1: when we didn't stop at the buid of change of
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  Speaker 1: the airport, didn't have any euros when we arrived somewhere,
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  Speaker 1: didn't tip the taxi driver. When we got out of
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  Speaker 1: the tax hit the hotel. Never saw that, Charles Teddy
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  Speaker 1: Bear Again. All I'm saying is, if you don't have
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  Speaker 1: any cash, go to the buriers on at the airport.
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  Speaker 2: You can afford it. The spread between the actual place
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  Speaker 2: of the currency and what you will pee at the
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  Speaker 2: airport is shocking. It appols me every single time i'm
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  Speaker 2: sort of the air and I look at the exchange rates.
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  Speaker 1: Oh it's a shocker. Anyway, listen, here's here's an example
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  Speaker 1: of the rates from the AJBL report. As a third
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  Speaker 1: of July. Well, well go now, Travelex were offering to
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  Speaker 1: change one thousand pounds into nine hundred and forty four
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  Speaker 1: euros if you rocked over there he throw airport KAOSK,
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  Speaker 1: so less than one for one.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and why we know breaks it was a terrible one.
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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'd 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 amoon 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. Why exactly, everyone has to pay
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  Speaker 1: for something, right, so we're not going to do that.
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  Speaker 2: Sandwiches and more expensive at the airport as well, you
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  Speaker 2: can really blame them. So yeah, definitely if you eat
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  Speaker 2: the airport, is my.
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  Speaker 1: Press sandwich not at the airport and a press sandwich
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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 it is more expensive than so it should.
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  Speaker 1: Be limited estate, right, What are you saying, John that
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  Speaker 1: the second thing people shoure doing going on holiday is
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  Speaker 1: bring a sandwich with them.
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  Speaker 2: Bring a pipe lunch exactly, two liter bottle of coconut
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  Speaker 2: proper money.
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  Speaker 1: See if anyone drinks coke by the way, two liter
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  Speaker 1: bottle of water. Right. Mistake number two paying for your
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  Speaker 1: online money with a credit card, Now this is interesting.
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  Speaker 1: If you pay with a credit card, you're going to
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  Speaker 1: pay a cash fee to your bank. And you know
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  Speaker 1: that if you take money out of an ATM with
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  Speaker 1: a credit card, yeah, you're going to pay an extra
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  Speaker 1: fee on top of everything. Then no one quite understands
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  Speaker 1: why you pay that fee. But you do pay that fee, right, Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: I think it's just the lescen from them is don't
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  Speaker 2: ever use your credit card for actually buying money. You're
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  Speaker 2: always going to get child extra for use your debit
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  Speaker 2: card for the anything they do, be withdrawing money or
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  Speaker 2: purchasing money or whatever.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, So if you're buying it online, or if you
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  Speaker 1: buying 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 two and a half to
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  Speaker 1: three percent of the purchase amount. I mean that is whopping, actually,
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  Speaker 1: and there are some current cards that don't charge it,
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  Speaker 1: but an awful lot do.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. I hangway, that's when you just have to be
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  Speaker 2: aware because there's plenty of mainstream banks that don't do this,
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  Speaker 2: and also the certainly they are on lane banks to
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  Speaker 2: not to do this. I know it's startling. Don't do
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  Speaker 2: it because my kids, who's startling. I mean, I've got
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  Speaker 2: a nation wide card and one of the reasons that
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  Speaker 2: got that was because they have exchange fees were very
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  Speaker 2: reasonable or rather not that exchange fees, the exchange rate
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  Speaker 2: you get. So I think that's just a marter looking
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  Speaker 2: at the cards you've got, you know, I don't think
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  Speaker 2: you need to get a special one for going on holiday, unless.
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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 and 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: That is also useful for company who travels to a
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  Speaker 2: lot of different places. If you go to America and
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  Speaker 2: Europe a lot or whatever, and you need dollars and euros,
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  Speaker 2: then loading up a card with both of those before
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  Speaker 2: that is a kind of useful thing you do.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, there's also quite a reasonable way to control your
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  Speaker 1: holiday spending, isn't it. You can prepay what you expect
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  Speaker 1: to spend on your holiday onto that card, and then
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  Speaker 1: you can keep an eye.
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  Speaker 2: On things as you go, and then you can panic
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  Speaker 2: for the last three days y at holiday when you
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  Speaker 2: realize that you ran out a week ago, went on.
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  Speaker 1: The way through and splurge on the last two days.
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  Speaker 2: This happens too.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, the next one.
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  Speaker 2: I'm good at this one.
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  Speaker 1: I see. This is a mistake.
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  Speaker 2: I never make.
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  Speaker 1: Paying in sterling on a card terminal. So when you
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  Speaker 1: use your card overseas, everyone knows this. You'll get asked
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  Speaker 1: by the machine whether you want to pay in your
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  Speaker 1: local currency, in the local currency of the place where
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  Speaker 1: you are, or in sterling. And everyone thinks, well, I'm
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  Speaker 1: going to hit 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 there, but probably not
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  Speaker 1: quite as bad as you get at the bureau. Challenge
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  Speaker 1: of the airport is so far pretty bad. So you
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  Speaker 1: really don't want to do that. And that is such
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  Speaker 1: 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 un noticed
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  Speaker 2: was that the wheels there were often in some places,
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  Speaker 2: not all places. But I said fifty that we take
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  Speaker 2: your card, that we and they would make the decision
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  Speaker 2: on which button to press, and sometimes they would press
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  Speaker 2: their wrong ones. I don't know what's going on there?
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  Speaker 2: And I know that they 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 on where you are,
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  Speaker 2: people try to maybe slightly coin you on.
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  Speaker 1: That sophisticated to think that the wait is in grace
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  Speaker 1: are getting kickbags based on your exchange.
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  Speaker 2: Right, But I was kind of I was quite surprised.
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  Speaker 2: I know it's happening often enough that I thought, what's
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  Speaker 2: going on here?
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  Speaker 1: So you were losing three percent every time? Bad?
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  Speaker 2: Like, I was a shock. I was appalled. Last one
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  Speaker 2: 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 now.
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  Speaker 1: Much easier travel checks. You had to take me to
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  Speaker 1: banks catch them, and then they got stolen and then
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  Speaker 1: we 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, and 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 Bank,
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  Speaker 2: Clydesdale Bank, notes, you know how like some of the
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  Speaker 2: Scottish notes look really unusual. And this was about thirty
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  Speaker 2: years ago. Went into an actual bank in Paris and
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  Speaker 2: they pulled out the big book of notes. It wasn't there.
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  Speaker 2: I had to wander around me no money but eight
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  Speaker 2: quinn sterling and I think we'd like three francs or something.
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  Speaker 2: We end up buying like a bagett to last us
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  Speaker 2: for twenty four hours. So any kids, it's much easier
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  Speaker 2: these days. You should stop complaining about all this stuff.
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  Speaker 1: That time I had Scottish money reproved was in Dooted.
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  Speaker 2: That's because they're all racists down here, six.
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  Speaker 1: Years ago, right, the last one buy back options Now
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  Speaker 1: the sort reason going to happen to John. Based what
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  Speaker 1: we've been talking about. Some people might come back from
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  Speaker 1: holiday with spare currency, actual physical notes in their pockets,
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  Speaker 1: and I might sing to himself as they go through
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  Speaker 1: the airport on the way back. They might think themselves, oh,
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  Speaker 1: I'll just go with that desk and I'll change them
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  Speaker 1: back into sterling. You don't want to do that. Here's
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  Speaker 1: numbers again from aj Bell. You're a change will sell
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  Speaker 1: you one hundred and thirty seven euros for one thousand
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  Speaker 1: pounds out like a good deal relative to what were
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  Speaker 1: talked about earlier. But if you bring all those euros
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  Speaker 1: back and you exchange them again, you'll only get nine
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  Speaker 1: hundred and four pounds in return. You do not want
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  Speaker 1: to do that. Now, some of the people who you
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  Speaker 1: can get your travel money from will give you a
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  Speaker 1: buyback guarantee so you can take the money back and
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  Speaker 1: change it back at the same rate that. Of course,
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  Speaker 1: there's going to be some kind of charge or commission
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  Speaker 1: to that. So what do you do with your foreign currency? John?
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  Speaker 1: If you come back you don't know about this?
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  Speaker 2: Do you never any left? But let's see you next time,
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  Speaker 2: next time, because again, of course uros part early. You
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  Speaker 2: know you're probably going to be going to eurosone country
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  Speaker 2: 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 lirium.
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  Speaker 2: By the way, Yeah, I mean, I don't get off
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  Speaker 2: gild with the ASSI dollars that I'll never go any ill.
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  Speaker 2: It's hard treat them back more with the physical because
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  Speaker 2: you're going to have to go to a bureau, even
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  Speaker 2: the one 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 desk until it's not with anything anyway.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, right, it does feel like I waste the time.
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  Speaker 1: But in the hand, guys, but in the hand.
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  Speaker 2: They spent in the duty three on the way back.
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  Speaker 2: Can you do that? That depends pretty hard.
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  Speaker 1: I suppose you have another suggestion, John's you can put
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  Speaker 1: it in that charity envelope on the airplane.
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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.
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  Speaker 2: Book stealing money from the.
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  Speaker 1: H Just right, I think John and I are going
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  Speaker 1: to leave. Thanks for listening to this week's Marin Talks
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  Speaker 1: to Your Money. If you like us, rate review and
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  Speaker 1: subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. Also be sure to
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• 11:24
  Speaker 1: w and John Underscore stepic. This episode was produced by
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: some Mersidi tala Amidi and Moses and production spport and
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  Speaker 1: sound designed by Blake Maples. Questions and comments on the
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  Speaker 1: show and all our shows are always welcome to our
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  Speaker 1: show email is marrin Money at Bloomberg dot Next