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Britain is an expensive place to visit. The minimum expenditure, if
you're camping, or hostelling, using public transport, buying picnic
food and eating in pubs and cafés, would be in the region of £30-40 a
day. Couples staying at budget B&Bs, eating at unpretentious restaurants
and visiting a fair number of tourist attractions are looking at around
£50-60 each per day, and if you're renting a car, staying in comfortable
B&Bs or hotels and eating well, budget on at least £80 each per day.
Single travellers should budget on spending around 60 percent of what a
couple would spend (single rooms cost more than half a double)
Currency
Britain has so far declined to adopt the euro, preferring instead its
pound sterling (£), divided into 100 pence (p). Coins come in
denominations of 1p, 2p, 5p, 10p, 20p, 50p and £1 and £2. Notes are in
denominations of £5, £10, £20 and £50. All English and Scottish
banknotes are legal tender throughout Britain, but you may want to get
rid of your Scottish notes once you head south of the border as some
less worldly traders in England and Wales may be unwilling to accept
them.
Currency exchange
Banks or the larger post offices are the best places to change money .
Every sizeable town in Britain has at least one of the big high-street
banks: Barclays, Lloyds TSB, HSBC, NatWest, Bank of Scotland, Royal Bank
of Scotland and Clydesdale. Opening hours are generally Mon-Fri
9.30am-4.30pm, though many branches in larger towns open at 9am, close
at 5.30pm and also remain open until 3 or 4pm on Saturdays. Outside
banking and office hours you're best advised to go to a bureau de change
; these are to be found in most city centres, often at train stations or
airports. Try to avoid changing money or cheques in hotels, where the
rates are normally the poorest on offer.
There are no exchange controls in Britain, so you can bring in as much
cash as you like and change travellers' cheques up to any amount
Travellers' cheques
The easiest and safest way to carry your money is in travellers' cheques
, available for a small commission (normally 1 percent) from any major
bank. The most commonly accepted are issued by American Express,
followed by Visa and Thomas Cook. Neither American Express nor Thomas
Cook will charge commission if you exchange cheques at their own offices,
but banks charge around 1.5 percent commision. Keep a record of the
cheques as you cash them, and you can get the value of all uncashed
cheques refunded immediately if they are lost.
It pays to get a selection of denominations. Make sure to keep the
purchase agreement and a record of cheque serial numbers safe and
separate from the cheques themselves. In the event that cheques are lost
or stolen, the issuing company will expect you to report the loss
immediately; most companies claim to replace lost or stolen cheques
within 24 hours
Credit and debit cards
Credit cards can be very handy as a backup source of funds, and can be
used either in ATMs or over the counter. Mastercard, Visa, American
Express and Diners Club are accepted in most hotels, shops and
restaurants in Britain, although they're less useful in the most rural
areas, and smaller establishments everywhere, such as B&Bs, will often
accept cash only. You may also be able to make withdrawals using your
debit card - your bank's international banking department should be able
to advise on this.
Make sure you have a personal identification number ( PIN ) that's
designed to work overseas. You'll find ATMs at most large supermarkets,
train stations, motorway service areas, some petrol stations and even in
some pubs and shops.
Wiring money
Having money wired from home through a money-wiring company is never
convenient or cheap and should be considered a last resort. Fees depend
on the country, method of payment and amount being transferred, but as
an example, wiring £500 to Britain from the US will cost £20-35,
Moneygram and Travelex (Thomas Cook) being the cheaper options.
It's also possible to have money wired directly from a bank in your home
country to a bank in Britain, although this is somewhat less reliable
because it involves two separate institutions. If you go down this route,
your home bank will need the address of the branch bank where you want
to pick up the money and the address and telex number of the head
office, which will act as the clearing house; money wired this way
normally takes at least two working days to arrive and costs around £25
per transaction
Youth and student discounts
Various official and quasi-official youth and student ID cards soon pay
for themselves in savings. Full-time students are eligible for the
International Student ID Card ( ISIC ), which entitles the bearer to
special air, rail and bus fares and discounts at museums, theatres and
other attractions. For Americans there's also a health benefit,
providing up to $3000 in emergency medical coverage and $100 a day for
60 days in the hospital, plus a 24-hour hotline to call in the event of
a medical, legal or financial emergency. The card costs $22 for
Americans; CDN$16 for Canadians; A$16.50 for Australians; NZ$21 for New
Zealanders; and £6 for UK residents. A university photo ID might open
some doors, but is not as easily recognizable as the ISIC, although the
latter is often not accepted as valid proof of age in bars and pubs.
You only have to be 26 or younger to qualify for the International Youth
Travel Card , which costs around the same as the ISIC and carries the
same benefits. Teachers qualify for the International Teacher Card , for
the same rates and deals. All these cards are available in the US from
Council Travel, STA, Travel CUTS and, in Canada, Hostelling
International; in Australia and New Zealand they are available from STA
or Campus Travel; and in the UK from Usit Campus and STA.
Several other travel organizations and accommodation groups also sell
their own cards, good for various discounts
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