Help!! How many GBP's to buy?

[marilynbn]

I am going nuts trying to realistically figure out how much money in GBP's to bring for our pre cruise 3 1/2 day stay in London. There are 3 of us. We will be eating out for 2 meals per day, some money for cabs, light souvenir buying and sightseeing.

 

I want to get the money before we go...just one less task to do when we arrive. Please somebody help me with a figure. Thanks so much...I'll be asking the same question about Euros on the ports of call Europe board!

Marilyn;)

[susieh]

I've been watching the £/$ exchange rate as we are off to Hawaii tomorrow and at the moment the rate is about $1.9 = £1 but the $ is getting stronger vs the £ at the moment so you may want to wait.

 

If you want a meal in London it depends if you want to eat in a decent restaurant where you could expect to spend £25 a person easily - or if you want to go to McDonalds or similar where a meal will cost about £5 each.

 

I have no idea about cabs in London - we use the tube if we go there. (London is about 70 miles from my home in Portsmouth) and you can buy a tube ticket which allows you to travel all day. It used to cover buses too (not sure if it still does) so that may be better for sightseeing. The trains are fast and frequent.

 

Entrance fees to many places are ridiculously high - £25 each is not uncommon - but you can see places like Hyde Park ,The Mall, Trafalgar Square all for free - it's also free to stand outside Buckingham Palace and watch the changing of the guard.

 

Sorry I cant be more helpful - I suggest you look at a few website for places in London and work out costings from there

[cberge]

I replied to your other question on the Med board...if you are going to be in London...double whatever you think you need or better yet bite the bullet and pull pounds out of the ATM since you probably won't want extra pounds..USE your CC as much as you can.London is VERY $$$$$.Figure at least $75 a day and that is 150 pounds a day...you really will be surprise,but for 3 of you it should be ok,You can reduce it of course,but even takeaways add up big time.

[pcur]

Well, we just got back on 5/18, so I'll tell you what we did. We had 2 nights in London before our cruise, and 5 days in Coventry after our cruise.

 

We took NO GBP with us into the UK. There are gazillions of ATMs, and you can just go to one when you get there, even in the airport. We have a BofA account, they partner with Barclays, and there is no fee at any Barclays ATM, and they were EVERYWHERE (I mean all over Europe, not just in the UK!!).

 

 

We used our Capital One Visa card for as much as possible: food, tickets, anything. Cap1 has no international surcharge that most other credit cards charge. I checked our statement online when we got home: just the exchange rate; no extra. Cap1 is also a popular credit card in the UK, so they were used to it: no funny looks, etc.

 

We had less than 200 GBP in cash during this trip, because we charged everything else. We came home with less than 1 GBP, and we donated it on the plane to the charity British Airways donates to. They hand out an envelope, you put your extra in, and they donate it.

 

We got small amounts from ATMs when we needed more, and charged almost everything.

 

Euros we also got at the Barclays ATMs all over, or at the foreign currency desk on board the ship. The ship only does even money exchanges, no coins, rounds off to the nearest dollar/pound, and charges about an extra 3%. I exchanged $101 for about 47 GBP.

[standby 06.30]

Dont forget to get a pin no for your cards

[pcur]

Dont forget to get a pin no for your cards

 

I'm puzzled by this one still. Is the PIN for the ATM card, and it has to be a 4 digit number in Europe? Or, are we talking about the Visa credit card? We only used a PIN for ATM withdrawals, and ours are 4 digit anyway.

 

I've read posts about this before, and never was quite sure what it was referring to. Thanks.

[Spikesgirl]

Marilyn - we plan to charge as much as we can, but do intend upon changing about $500 into GBP before we leave in July. We're in London for two days prior and a week after the cruise, so I'm thinking that we'll use the money one way or the other. If you have a BoA account, they have an agreement with Barclay's, so I think there's no extra charge for using their ATMs.

 

Likewise, I'm puzzled by the Pin No. debate.

 

Charlie

[Shogun]

Hi There,

 

The UK has moved over to a chip and pin credit card system,

 

Europe has had one for a number of years.

 

This should not be a problem for folks from the US as all card readers still have a swipe reader on them, you may need so extra ID in some shops.

 

While in Europe my card had to be swiped as it could not be read by the chip reading machines.

 

yours Shogun

[RHefley228]

Figure at least $75 a day and that is 150 pounds a day

 

No, just the reverse: 150 pounds is about $300.

[cberge]

No, just the reverse: 150 pounds is about $300.

I really screwed up amd I am sorry..75 £ is $150.00 a day...sometimes the blonde in me just comes out:D .Thank you for the correction I do appreciate it.

[pcur]

I really screwed up amd I am sorry..75 £ is $150.00 a day...sometimes the blonde in me just comes out:D .Thank you for the correction I do appreciate it.

 

In cash???? This seems like a really high amount of cash to figure on spending per day if you use a credit card. There isn't much you are going to buy in the UK that you cannot use a credit card for.

 

I agree that $500 = 250 GBP for the trip is a better estimate.