Find the best rates for your holiday!

Buying currency for a holiday doesn't mean you need to trade the foreign exchange market! It's simply a transaction - like buying bread - where you exchange one currency (like GBP(£)) for another one (for instance USD ($)). In this example the 'bread' is the USD ($).

You may hear the term 'buying a currency pair'. This is simply what we've just discussed. You'll find out more about this when we talk about 'Exchange rates'.

After you have decided on the amount of travel currency - say Euros (EUR (€)) - you want, there are a number of ways to get your holiday money:

• You can collect it from the outlet itself once you have agreed on the amount you want*
• It can be delivered to your door once you've finished the transaction
• The travel money can be transferred (or 'loaded') to a currency card**

*Due to COVID-19 there are a limited number of outlets that are allowing walk-in collections. We strongly recommend you opt for home delivery or direct transfer to a pre-paid currency card. Make sure you verify with the supplier before purchasing your holiday currency that these options are available

**If you want your newly purchased currency loaded to a currency card, it's better do get the card and load it together. It's cheaper and saves you lots of time. Read more about pre-paid currency cards below.

Foreign currency providers do let you 'sell' your currency back if you don't use it. So this would be like giving three slices of bread back from the loaf that you didn't eat ('X' USD ($)) and receiving back part of your original currency ('X' GBP (£)).

The true answer when it comes to buying currency despite what some claim, is no.

Unless you're buying currency far in advance (say months and months) or purchasing a very large amount of currency, you don't need to have more than a very basic understanding of exchange rates.

In the longer term, the value of a currency can change quite significantly and in the shorter term, if you are a large purchaser, then even small changes can have a significant impact on how much you'll receive.

Here we assume neither conditions are true.