Heading off to Gold Coast in 2.5 weeks for a reccie. Not sure what to do with regards money. Should I get some traveller cheques for the majority of the money or just use my UK debit card wherever possible? I've used travellers cheques when going abroad in Europe in the past, however, you always seem to get a fairly poor exchange rate. With the exchange rate already being quite low at the moment I want to try and take as little hit as possible above and beyond the standard exchange rate, especially as money is going to be fairly tight as it is.

Any help/advice appreciated.

Thanks.

You will get a very good rate using your card for purchases but probably get charged a fee to withdraw cash. Having said that, you will only get holiday rates on travellers' cheques. So cards are probably best value.

If I purchase some Australian travellers cheques within the UK does anyone know if you have to pay commission when exchanging them into cash whilst on holiday?

I used travellers cheques on my reccie and I changed them in the supermarket and restaurants (in Perth). One bank did change them to cash for me and they didn't charge me anything but them another bank did. Can't remember the commission though.

Hi
We took travellers cheques last year and were charged 7 dollars every time we changed some up. On 200 dollars that was quite a sum so we changed a 1000 dollars at a time after that. The charge was still 7 dollars.

Hope this helps

Depending on your bank, some have arrangements with Oz banks and so their is no withdrawal charge.

Barclays Bank can withdraw from Westpac for free (but only 300 pounds about $700) in both Oz and NZ.

So check with your bank.

hi i just used my debit card to withdraw cash from hole in the wall ....i used to withdraw the largest amount and was charged a couple of quid by my bank to use it
sir les