A Holiday Special!

In this Holiday Special, Martin goes through his top holiday hacks, including his car hire and insurance tips, and the cheapest ways to spend abroad. Plus, how to make sure your passport and GHIC is ready for your travels!

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:06Speaker 01

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• 1:47Speaker 03

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• 1:50Martin Lewis?

  Hello, I'm Martin Lewis and this is the cunningly named The Martin Lewis Podcast. I do wonder what that's going to be about. Now, usually much of it comes from our BBC Radio 5 live show with Adrian Charles, and this one is extra special. Oh, yes, indeedy, because I'm on a break, so it's a good excuse for a best. Best Bits Pod. The producers have put together what they think are some of the most pertinent and still relevant elements of the podcast we've done so far this year. Let's just hope they're right. Though worth noting, if I do mention specific products, do be aware they could have changed, so double check before you take any action. We don't want you listening to February's Best Buys once you're in August. Appropriately,

• 2:32Martin Lewis?

  this pod is a holiday special with my holiday hacks, the cheapest way to spend abroad, car hiring and insurance tips and much, much more. Play the theme tune.

• 2:57Speaker 05

  Where do we start on holidays?

• 2:59Martin Lewis?

  Well, let's do passports. I think passports and G Higgs, this is really important for everybody to understand. So if you are going abroad this year, I want you all to check yours and all members of the family's passports for two things. For when you go, the day you arrive, will you have over six months left on your passport of validity? And will your passport be under, in fact, for the day you leave, not the day you arrive? Will you have over six months left for the day you leave? So you've arrived, you've been there two weeks on that last day. And will you have under, your passport is under 10 years old? Now, those are two crucial facts that may not be the same. Now, the reason I do those

• 3:41Martin Lewis?

  rules is those are the most harsh rules that you've got out there. So let's just talk about the European Union, which is where the vast majority of people in the UK go when they go abroad. If you're travelling to the EU, your passport needs to be less than 10 years old on the day you enter. Some countries, it's the day you leave. And valid for at least three months after the day you plan to leave. Now, this 10 year thing confuses people. You can't do it anymore. But what you used to be able to do is when you renewed your passport, you could renew it months early and you could get the months that you had left on your current passport added to your next passport. So it's over 10 years old. But many countries now won't accept a passport that's over 10 years old, even if it's still valid. So there's two separate factors. How old is the passport? And how

• 4:22Martin Lewis?

  long do you have left? Now, that's three months. In India, to get into India, your passport needs to be valid for at least six months on the day you enter. You need two blank pages for your visa. So you've got to be careful. On your passport, check your passports now. What you don't want to do is check this the week before you go away and go, oh mate, I'm not going to get in. So check your passports now. Another check I would make is your European Health Insurance Card or your Global Health Insurance Card. They're basically virtually exactly the same thing, although Australia is partially covered on the Global Health Insurance Card. What this is, it's a card that means if you're travelling mainly in the European Union, but a couple of other

• 5:02Martin Lewis?

  countries as well, you get healthcare the same as a local. So if it's free for them, it's free for you. If they can go to a GP for free, you can go to a GP for free. Slightly different in Australia, mainly in the European Union, it works that way. Everybody should have an EHI or its replacement, the GHI, and you should have a valid one. So I want people to check their dates, especially if you have a European Health Insurance Card, the old card, because those are the ones that are now, there are millions of them that are out of date. Check your valid date. You can renew that for free. You should never pay anyone to get an EHI or a GHI card, or it's now a GHI, sorry, keep using the wrong terms. The EHI was replaced by the GHI. So when you renew your EHI, it will now be a GHI, Global Health Insurance Card. You should never pay anyone. Go onto the NHS website.

• 5:46Martin Lewis?

  Make sure every member of the family has one. You don't need to have them with you if something happens to you, but it's always far easier if you've got them with you, carry them with you when you go out, when you're out of the country, and it gives you a valuable level of protection. It's only in state-run hospitals and state-run GPs that you can use it, but it's absolutely crucial to have. So those are my two star checks.

• 6:04Speaker 06

  If I want one, where do I apply to?

• 6:06Martin Lewis?

  There are lots of links. The simplest is go to the NHS website. This is the problem. There are many shyster sites, and I use that word deliberately. What they do, it's a grey area of the law. So they advertise on search engines, and they often say it's a fast track, there's no fast track on GHI, there's no fast track. Or they often say, you know, this is the GHI site. You go in, they'll charge you £20, and literally you'll enter your data, and then they'll feed you their, your data into the official system for you, but they'll charge you £20 for doing it. It's an absolutely pointless...

• 6:41Speaker 06

  Everyone's got to make a living, I know. But imagine getting up in the morning and that being your job. That's what you do.

• 6:47Martin Lewis?

  I I've had long discussions with lawyers over the years, whether I'm allowed to say shyster or not. I can't call it a scam because it isn't a scam. I will say that again, I can't call it a scam because it isn't a scam. Shyster is a quasi-legal way, immoral way of operating, and I believe it is an immoral way of operating. And you have to be warned about these shyster sites. So I'm not, there are other legit addresses, but the easiest for me is do it via the NHS or do it via gov.uk because then you're absolutely certain what you're going to be getting. But I mean, the same happens to passports and visas and driving licence all have shyster sites who advertise where you pay a fee or a fee over the top. If you're applying for your ESTA to go to the States,

• 7:30Martin Lewis?

  there's shyster sites, so you'll pay three times the actual price. It's more difficult when there is a real fee because then people don't know what the fee should be. So they don't know they're being charged a hundred quid, that it should only be ten quid type thing.

• 7:41Speaker 06

  Mel's going to Egypt. It's best to wait to get there to exchange currency. I heard you can pay with dollars, euros and pounds. Is this correct? Well, there's a couple of questions in there, aren't there?

• 7:51Martin Lewis?

  Well, generally you can pay on a card in Egypt and as you can generally hear, using the cheapest cards are cheaper than Bureau de Change generally. But if you want to go to a Bureau de Change, you want to change your money. So people always ask me, should I wait till I get there? My answer is only if you have specialist knowledge. So if you're going to a country that you regularly go to and you know there's a local Bureau de Change that will give you exceptionally good rates, go for it. If you don't, I would change my money before I went. And the reason I would do that is I would go onto a travel money comparison site, which is comparing thirty or forty bureaus and I would get yourself the best rates.

• 8:36Martin Lewis?

  And generally, the best UK bureau rates, because you're doing a comparison, you've got a widespread, will beat your local bureau in the place you happening, happen to be holidaying. Because one of them is a comparison and one of them is location specific and just random, will it be good or bad? So my general rule would be unless you know something about that location and know that happens to be, they always give incredible rates there and I'd question how they're doing it. But then I would just, if you want to change your money, change it here. Then at least you've got certainty that you've done a comparison, you've been able to do it that way round.

• 9:11Martin Lewis?

  I've got podcast producer Simon with me.

• 9:13Speaker 07

  Absolutely delighted to be back the week after I've been on holiday. We've done this topic, but.

• 9:18Martin Lewis?

  It's just to spite you. Don't go away again, man. You're not allowed. Before I get to your questions though, Simon, I just want to do a reminder of what we talked about on the pod with travel insurance a couple of weeks ago. The golden rule is always get your travel insurance ASAP, as soon as you book. And the reason for that is pretty simple. Half of the use of travel insurance is to protect you in case something happens before you go that can stop you going. If you leave it to the last minute, you don't have that protection. And as I said many times before, every summer, someone gets in touch with me that something's happened. It's usually a horrible illness. You know, they're going to need cancer treatment, or they've got leukaemia, or something like that has happened.

• 10:01Martin Lewis?

  That means they're not going to be able to go away. They haven't got their travel insurance. The hotel or the flight are saying, no, you can't have a refund because you didn't book with cancellation. And they don't have to give you a refund because the flight's still available, the hotel's still available. The problem is the fact that you can't travel, not the fact that there's a lack of availability on the room. And they say, what can I do? And I feel impotent because the answer is that's what travel insurance is for. That's why you get ASAP. So I know you've got travel insurance questions for me, but before we do that, if you have booked a holiday and you don't have travel insurance, get your travel insurance now. If you're booking a holiday, get your travel insurance straight away afterwards. And if you're going to book a holiday, remember you do your travel insurance ASAP. Now, what questions you got?

• 10:42Speaker 07

  Elaine wants to know, we have annual travel insurance that expires in September 2025. We've just booked a trip for September 25, but the insurance will have expired. Would a new annual one cover a trip that has already been booked?

• 10:55Martin Lewis?

  Yes, a new annual one would cover a trip that's already been booked. What you could do is you can get the travel insurance now, and you can book it to start the day your old travel insurance policy ends, and it should cover you for a year onwards. And you should be able to do that. The only slight issue is if it's with a different company, there can be jurisdictional questions of arguing depending what happens when, who covers you. So what I would probably do. In that circumstance, even though it may not be the very cheapest way because there may be a cheaper policy than your existing policy, is I would probably sign up now for another year when your existing policy ends with your existing insurer. And then whatever happens, you're covered and that would cover you for the following year.

• 11:36Martin Lewis?

  I mean, I should say, if you're not planning to go away again after that September trip until after September 2026, then you could just get a single trip cover to cover you for when you go away.

• 11:47Speaker 07

  And Lyn's asked a question and we got a lot of questions about this. She asked for the best travel insurance for over 70s.

• 11:52Martin Lewis?

  Travel insurance gets very expensive the older that you get. Now, there's a couple of ways to do it. Some of the packaged bank accounts like Nationwide or Virgin have travel insurance that covers people who are older without much of a premium at all, and it is worth looking at those as long as you're going to use them for the other insurance like the mobile and the breakdown. If not, it can still be cheap. It just depends, is the answer. I mean, I would be checking for really dirt cheap policies and these are bog standard, no thrills. You know, I'm not talking there's any great bells and whistles with them and they don't have the, you know, not really collected the feedback. Places like Coverwise Bronze, Leveraguard Flexi Bronze, Avanti,

• 12:32Martin Lewis?

  Admiral Stayshore are all worth looking at for older people that you can still get roughly similar prices to people under age 65. It's 65, which is the crucial point. Once you're getting over 80 though, it does get very difficult.

• 12:47Speaker 07

  Kocot has asked a question about travel insurance for pre-existing conditions. They want to know why it has skyrocketed so much since Brexit and Covid.

• 12:55Martin Lewis?

  I mean, just insurance premiums have gone up so much generally. I don't know that pre-existing conditions have gone up. I think what we've had is we've had a change of policy where the regulator has told firms that they must signpost people who have pre-existing conditions to specialists if they don't have cheap policies. And I think what may have happened is some of the normal insurers may have then priced at a premium the pre-existing conditions because they're not really covering it. So I would always first, if you've got a pre-existing condition, go on to a normal travel insurance comparison site to just see if standard travel insurance will cover you for your condition. Depends on the severity of the condition and when it was. And always make sure you declare it. There's no point getting travel insurance policy that doesn't declare your pre-existing condition. It arguably could leave you uncovered if you did.

• 13:39Martin Lewis?

  If you're struggling, then there's a couple of specialist pre-existing condition comparison sites.

• 13:46Martin Lewis?

  Medical travel compared is one with a wide range of insurers and I'd also check paying too much as well. So they would be the two sites, medical travel compared and paying too much.

• 13:59Speaker 07

  And Hans has asked for advice on what to do if you don't get what was promised or what was advertised to you.

• 14:05Martin Lewis?

  It always surprises me that people don't realise that travel insurance is a regulated product and like all financially regulated products, that means that if you have a problem with the travel insurer, you think you haven't been treated fairly, you don't get what you think you were promised or something goes wrong, you have a right to go to the Free Financial Ombudsman Service for it to adjudicate. Now, that can be even as simple as you've put a claim in, they say that your claim isn't valid, you think what they're saying is wrong because they've got the facts wrong or they're adjudicating it the wrong way. Even on a claim, you can then take that claim to the Free Financial Ombudsman Service. I would always tell the company that you're planning to do that in advance because being honest, they have to pay if you go to the Financial Ombudsman and sometimes it makes

• 14:47Martin Lewis?

  them think with a little bit more clarity about whether they should be settling, whether the ombudsman is likely to order in your favour anyway, in which case they're going to have to give you what they would give you anyway and pay the ombudsman on top. So I think it's worth letting them know in advance that you're going to do that, but you always have to complain first to the insurer, but once you've complained to the insurer, if they are rejecting what you want and you don't think you've been treated fairly or you don't think you've got what you would have offered, or you have any other problems, once you've complained to the insurer, you can go to the Free Financial Ombudsman Service, even about travel insurance.

• 15:16Speaker 07

  That brings to the end the special quickfire travel insurance round.

• 15:19Martin Lewis?

  Thank you. How did I pass?

• 15:22Speaker 07

  Yeah, flying colours.

• 15:23Martin Lewis?

  My full marks?

• 15:24Speaker 07

  Literally flying colours. Kai me wants to know about car hire. They ask, how do you stop car hire companies charging extra fees when you pick up the car?

• 15:31Martin Lewis?

  Well, this is the car hire excess insurance trap that many get caught out on. Basic car insurance is included in the hire. Yet at the pickup desk, you'll often hear, hello signor, and that's someone in Germany, hello signor. You will need the excess insurance. If you don't get the excess insurance, scare tactic, if you don't get the excess. I'm fine. Let me move into the microphone to do this. If you don't buy our excess insurance, even if you get one scratch on the car, it could cost you a thousand.

• 16:04Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, you generally get that type of thing, a rear fee a sell on the excess. And the problem is, especially if you book cheap car hire, what they're trying to charge you, it could be 20 quid a day, it could be more than you're actually paying for the car hire for this excess insurance, and they will give you loads of scare tactics on top. So what I would always suggest you do is you get yourself a standalone excess insurance policy before you go, which instead of 20 quid a day, could be about 2 quid a day. There's a good comparison site, Money Maxim has a comparison site where you can go and find it. If you use car hire a lot, you can actually get annual excess insurance for car hire. But even if you do do that, expect the person at the desk who is likely on commission to hard sell you to try and put you off, to tell you it won't work, or to try and make you jump through hoops.

• 16:49Martin Lewis?

  So you're going to need to be prepared to leave a refundable deposit of probably a thousand pounds on a credit card, a credit card, not a debit card. They generally won't accept debit cards. You need to have a credit card if you're doing this. It will usually need to be in the name of the person who booked, though in some cases it will need to be in the name of the main driver. If not, they may not accept it because they're trying to make you not be able to do this. So generally, I would always have the main driver be the person who is doing the booking and who has the credit card when you're getting your car hire in the first place. Once you've gone through this and successfully navigated it once or twice, I mean, I do

• 17:32Martin Lewis?

  it and I find it really easy now because I just, no, thank you, I've got one of these, no, thank you, yes, here's my credit card, yes, I'll pay the deposit, thank you very much. And you can get through it. And I think they can sort of tell on the desk, those people who know what they're doing and those people who don't know what they're doing. And there've been times when I've been at a desk getting car hire and there's been someone of some British people on the next desk and I hear it's going through. And I have to tell you, you can let me know what you think. Do I intervene? It's hard to intervene when you're me, because if they know who you are, it's a bit embarrassing, it looks like. But on the other hand, that just really annoys me and I'm going, you've got your excess insurance, it's fine, just, just don't get that extra policy. Anyway, I'll probably stop that, it was a long answer.

• 18:09Speaker 07

  A good one.

• 18:13Martin Lewis?

  When we're talking about holiday money, and we're talking about far too often, you pay to pay when you go on holiday. Summer's coming, now's the time to prep. So let's start with the basics of what happens when you spend on plastic. When you go abroad, whether you're spending on a debit card, a credit card, or a prepay card, prepay has some slight exceptions on this. What happens is, you spend abroad, your card gets a near-perfect Visa, Mastercard, or American Express exchange rate. Now, the perfect exchange rate at any moment is what's called the spot FX rate on the FX market, the foreign exchange markets, that's what FX stands for. The spot rate is the perfect rate. You're paying as near as, damn it, your card company gets that rate. I mean, a very smidgen above it, but not a smidgen that's noticeable in the amount that it costs us.

• 18:58Martin Lewis?

  But what most plastic then does is adds what is called a non-sterling, makes sense, exchange rate fee, which is normally about 2.75 or 3%. So in practice, that means if you buy something on the card that costs £100 worth of euros, or £100 worth of dong, doesn't make any difference, at that moment's spot rate, you pay £103 for it. Makes sense? Yeah. So we're making it exchange rate neutral, by the way, I've just phrased it. £100 worth of euros at that rate costs you £103. Now, what we're looking for is there are quite a lot of them these days,

• 19:38Martin Lewis?

  a range of specialist cards that do not add a non-sterling exchange rate. So then, £100 of euros costs you £100, i.e. you get the perfect, or the same near-perfect exchange rate that Visa, Mastercard, and American Express offer. And there are a lot of them out there. So how do we differentiate between the best ones? Well... First of all, we have to look at other fees. And second, we have to look at can you get cash back? And there is a card at the moment that has no other fees and gives you cash back. And it's called the Barclaycard Rewards Visa Card. Now, it is a credit card, so you're going to pay on it and then pay afterwards.

• 20:22Martin Lewis?

  But you need to make sure, block your ears, everyone, that you pay off the card in full every month. So there's no interest, you're just going to do your spending on the card. It works that way. It's interest free on spending on the card as long as you pay off in full in the month. You can make up to £500 a day of withdrawals from a cash machine with no fee. And bizarrely, some credit cards, if you withdraw cash on them, will still charge you interest even if you pay off in full. This one doesn't. So as long as you pay off in full, you won't pay cash withdrawal interest. Now, I would put as the top credit card Barclaycard Rewards is my overall top pick.

• 21:02Martin Lewis?

  There's an argument that MBNA Cash Back Visa, which gives 45% cash back and is guaranteed cash back for three years, has longevity on its cash back deal. Also, the Virgin Everyday Cash Back Mastercard pays 1% cash back this summer, so more than Barclaycard, but only for three months. And again, you pay cash withdrawal fees. So if you weren't going to use a cash machine, Virgin would beat it this summer. But either way, all of those are easy to get as long as you pass the credit score. Cash back credit cards that also give you near perfect exchange rate. And that smacks the pants of any Bureau of Change rate you will get.

• 21:39Speaker 06

  And what about drawing cash?

• 21:40Martin Lewis?

  So that's why the Barclaycard, you can draw cash up to £500 a day, fee free with no interest. The other two cards, the MBNA and Virgin, will charge you quite a whack if you withdraw cash on it. So that's why Barclaycard is my overall top pick. But if you weren't withdrawing cash, the other two come into it. It's worth saying, overseas cash machines may still charge you a fee. So let's say you've got the Barclaycard, you're on an overseas cash machine, the cash machine might charge you two or three euros, whatever card you use, but Barclaycard won't add to that.

• 22:09Speaker 06

  But so if you choose a card on that basis to go away with, will it all, how do you know it's always going to be good for it? So for example, I think on your advice, I went out and got that one.

• 22:22Martin Lewis?

  Halifax Clarity.

• 22:23Speaker 06

  Yes. Is that still good?

• 22:25Martin Lewis?

  Halifax Clarity is a top pick specialist card. In fact, I should probably say Halifax Clarity is currently a specialist card. You get perfect exchange rates, near perfect exchange rate on your spending. You just don't get the cash back. Right. So, and that's really

• 22:39Speaker 06

  What about cash? Can I withdraw cash on that?

• 22:41Martin Lewis?

  I think that one charges you interest on cash withdrawals, not a fee. So some charge you a fee and interest. So on that card, you're better to spend, but it's not prohibitive if you withdraw cash as long as you pay off in full. But I mean, just to put that in perspective, I'm going to mention quite a lot of cards. You know, there's Club Lloyds, there's Halifax Clarity, there's Monzo, there's some Nation My Debit cards, there's some NatWest credit cards, there's Starling. There's lots of cards out there that are specialist and are good. If you have a specialist card, I'm not urging you to switch. But if you're asking me, what is the top credit card at the moment? Barclaycard giving half a percent cash back on top of near perfect exchange rates beats your card because of the cash back. So you may as well choose that. But is it worth you switching for half a percent cash back? It's only a small gain, would be my answer.

• 23:26Speaker 06

  After Dominican Republic later this year, on Official Mastermind, what's the, what's the currency? You know, it doesn't matter. You don't have to tell me. I'm only joking. Is it, is it credit or debit or credit card that's best? And is it prudent to use a different card for holiday to what you normally use in case there are any fraud issues? Though it's an all-inclusive holiday, how do you deal with tips if going cashless, as it seems you tip for the majority of things?

• 23:51Martin Lewis?

  Okay, so let's start with debit or credit card. I deliberately only mentioned credit card before because I knew the first two questions that were coming and I wanted to cut up debit card separately. The big advantage of a credit card abroad is what's called section 75 protection. That's where by law, credit cards are jointly liable with the retailer if you buy something costing between a hundred pounds and thirty thousand pounds. That's very valuable abroad because even if you had a fault with something you'd bought abroad, well, you're not going to take it back. So you have the ability to go to your credit card firm here. But there are some good debit cards as well. And of course, one of the advantages with one of them, which is the Chase debit card, which is an app-only bank that you do not have to switch to get and only does a soft credit score. So virtually everybody can get it.

• 24:35Martin Lewis?

  As long as you're passing the ID check, unlike the credit cards where you need to pass a credit check to get it. So it's much easier to get. You have the Chase debit card, which doesn't have section 75 protection because it's a debit card. But that gives you near perfect exchange rates abroad and virtually everyone can get it. You can also get that really quickly. For example, if you are listening to Five Live and you are on holiday abroad now and you do not have a specialist card. You can actually sign up to Chase and within about 10 minutes, assuming you're accepted, you have a Chase account. You can then put a virtual Chase card into your Android, Google Pay or your iPhone Pay app. Within 10 minutes and you could use it abroad within 10 minutes and get near perfect exchange rates.

• 25:17Martin Lewis?

  So that's a very, that's all about functionality rather than rate. It doesn't have the cash back. We used to have cash back abroad. It doesn't have it anymore abroad. You also have, worth me noting, if you were willing to switch bank. Then you've got First Direct's free 175 pound deal at the moment. It pays you to switch bank. It has top rated for service and it has a near perfect exchange rate debit card. So if you wanted to switch bank, you could get paid 175 quid. Say you're going on holiday in a month, that's 175 quid towards your holiday spending and you get a near perfect card. They don't have, if you ask me purely to go on what is the very best card in isolation. I would go for Barclaycard Reward at the moment. If you want to look at other things like ease to get, there's Chase.

• 26:02Martin Lewis?

  If you want to switch bank, I would go for First Direct. So that all wraps it up. As for cash for tipping, actually generally, both the debit cards don't charge you any fees for withdrawing from an ATM. I would tend to find the best route for that would be, once you get to Dominican Republic at the airport. Get your specialist card out, put it in the card machine, get yourself some cash out.

• 26:21Speaker 06

  Joanne, we have a Revolut card which we use when we go abroad. Is this still a good choice? Would be better off switching to a Chase card instead?

• 26:28Martin Lewis?

  And so. Couple of differences. Revolut is a prepaid card where you load up the money in advance as opposed to a card like Chase, which is a debit card where you have the money coming out of your account when you spend on it. Revolut is probably the top pick of the prepaid cards. It gives near perfect rates Monday to Friday on up to a thousand pounds a month. There's a 1% fee on weekends. The first five ATM withdrawals are free each month, up to 200 quid, then there's a 2% fee after. So if you're doing it in the free periods, it's good. If not, well, it is beatable by a Chase card. You can always have both. One advantage of a Revolut card, though, that you don't get on debit or credit cards, is you can

• 27:11Martin Lewis?

  opt to get the exchange rate at the time you load money onto it. So remember, we talked earlier that with credit and debit cards, you get the rate at the moment you spend. With a prepaid card, you have a choice, with some of them anyway, that you can get the rate at the moment you load up. So you might say, I'm going to put 500 quid on it today. The euro rate looks good to me. I'm locking that rate in. And then you've got all your euros when you spend on them at that rate. Now, clearly, the problem with that is rates can go up and they can go down, and nobody knows, or you'd be making billions of pounds on the foreign exchange market as to what was actually going to happen. Yet, locking in a rate, the benefit is, if you go, actually, the euro rate looks pretty good now, I'm

• 27:54Martin Lewis?

  going to lock in at that rate just in case, because I want it, that would make it affordable for me, and I'm going to close my eyes to what happens afterwards, because I'm doing it a bit like fixing on an energy tariff or a mortgage. I'm going to fix my rate now because it looks decent, and I don't care what happens afterwards because this is a decent rate. That's not a bad idea. Or you could hedge your bets. I mean, here's an idea. You've got a Revolut card. You're asking about a Chase card. You could get half of the money you need for your holiday on a Revolut card, locking in the rate now. And the rest, you could do spending on your Chase card at the perfect rate on the day. If the rate gets worse meantime, well, at least you've locked in half at the better rate. And if the rate gets better, half your money is at the good rate, and that's a way to hedge your bets. There is no perfect answer there. Revolut is probably the best rate prepaid card, though.

• 28:38Speaker 06

  Actually, a number of people have texted, David in Northampton and John in Lincoln, and someone's been in touch with you as well. When you take money out of a cash point abroad, it says, do you want it in? Do you want it in your own currency effectively? Do you want it in GB pounds? Or do you accept our rate?

• 28:57Martin Lewis?

  This is one of my golden rules. Okay, so let me do Y first and then I'm going to do a very, very plain, easy way for you to remember this.

• 29:07Martin Lewis?

  What's being asked is who do you want to do the conversion? If you pay in the local currency, because you have a pound account, if you pay in the local currency, your card will do the conversion because you've paid in euros or whatever it is. If you pay in pounds, that machine or that shop, that cash machine or that shop will do the conversion. So that's your choice. Do I want the conversion to be done by my card? Or do I want it to be done by the overseas machine? Now, we've talked about specialist UK cards. If you have a specialist UK card, the whole point is it gives you a near perfect exchange rate. So why on earth would you want somebody else to do the conversion when you have a guaranteed near perfect exchange rate on your card?

• 29:53Martin Lewis?

  In other words, the answer to that is pay in the overseas currency. If you don't have a specialist card, you're going to pay a 2.75% exchange rate fee. You may also pay cash withdrawal fees, but you'll pay them anyway, even if you change it into pounds. And I have done copious amounts of experiments and films abroad where I have gone. I mean, many people go abroad and they do a pub crawl. I go abroad and I do an ATM crawl. And genuinely, I mean, it's not as an exciting a life, but I have done this and I always do it. I have never found an overseas ATM or shop that gives as good a rate as a bad credit or debit card in the UK. So even the bad ones, the non-specialist cards are giving a better rate than the conversion you get abroad. And there's proof in this.

• 30:38Martin Lewis?

  You know, when you go abroad and it says, would you like us to convert the currency? If you say no, it says, are you sure? If you don't, we can't be responsible. You say no and they go, are you absolutely blooming sure? You don't want us to do the conversions? Seriously, are you crackers? They're not doing that because it's for you. They're doing that because they make a lot of money if they do the conversion. So the golden, solid, locked in, don't risk it unless you have a lot of research that is above and beyond what I've ever done and never seen in all the times I have ever done it. Always pay in the local currency. If you're in Europe, pay in euros. If you're in dollars, pay in dollars.

• 31:15Speaker 06

  If you're in Costa Rica?

• 31:16Martin Lewis?

  If you're in Costa Rica, pay in colons.

• 31:18Speaker 06

  Yes.

• 31:19Martin Lewis?

  If you're in Vietnam, pay in...

• 31:22Speaker 06

  Uh, forgot.

• 31:23Martin Lewis?

  Dong.

• 31:23Speaker 06

  Dong, that's right.

• 31:24Martin Lewis?

  Pay in dong.

• 31:25Speaker 06

  And if you're in the Dominican Republic, you pay in Dominican peso.

• 31:30Martin Lewis?

  Pay in peso. That is the answer. Always, always, always pay in the local currency. And if you are in a shop, the Brits, let's band together abroad. If you're in a shop, and I've done it myself, and I have seen a Brit who's ahead of me, being asked, "Do you want to pay in euros or in pounds?" And they say, "Uh, I'm like, euros." "I'm answering for you, euros." Sometimes, if they don't notice me, they might think it's a bit weird. If they notice me, then they've got a story to tell. But I can't cope. I can't cope with the concept of people paying in pounds abroad, because it is just a mistake. Hopefully, that answers your question. Now, just to interrupt this podcast, because you had so many holiday money questions, I wanted to answer more. But I'm no longer with Adrian. I'm now with podcast producer

• 32:13Martin Lewis?

  Matt, who's standing in for podcast producer Simon. Hello, podcast producer Matt. Maybe I'll just call you Matt.

• 32:18Speaker 07

  Hello, hello. Thank you for having me back again.

• 32:21Martin Lewis?

  So what have you got for me?

• 32:22Speaker 07

  Right, some more questions. First one, Catherine is asking, "My 17-year-old is going on holiday to Greece next week with her friends. They're all 18 and using cash cards, but I think they're only for over 18s. Can you advise the best way for her to spend her money there, please? She's got a Santander bank account with a debit card, and I'm worried about any charges if she uses it abroad."

• 32:42Martin Lewis?

  Depending on which Santander debit card depends whether it does or doesn't have charges. You'll have to look that up. You're looking for the non-sturning exchange rate fee and ATM charges. Assuming it is not a card that's a specialist overseas travel card, there are some easy options for you, because there are cards available, prepaid cards for kids, that also have near-perfect exchange rates. So probably the easiest one to get is a hyperjar card, which is a free card if you use the virtual card. But if you want an actual hard card, then it's a £5 card delivery fee. There can be small fees if you top up over 10 times a month, or you top up for less than £10. Ten quid, but most people won't do that. It's available for six to seventeen year olds. The parents must download the free app. I know she's seventeen, it's not such an issue. But you can get this at age seventeen.

• 33:27Martin Lewis?

  It gives near perfect exchange rates on spending, although you can't withdraw from cash machines abroad on it. There's also similar, the Nationwide Flex One debit card as part of a children's bank account for eleven to seventeen year olds. And that does give fee free ATM withdrawals as well. Under thirteen's will have to apply in branch with a parent. Eleven to seventeen year olds can apply themselves. And there's the Starling Kite free prepaid card as well. But parents must have a Starling current account. If your child, and so this is generic, probably not for your seventeen year old daughter. But if your child has a GoHenry prepaid card, which is a fee paying card that you'd have, so you have to pay four pound a month fee, then that is also near perfect exchange rates

• 34:10Martin Lewis?

  if you use it abroad, if you already have one of those. And Revolut customers, you can get your child a Revolut under eighteen prepaid card, which gives near perfect exchange rates, but only on up to five hundred pounds a month. And fee free ATM withdrawals up to a hundred quid a month. So there's a whole host of different cards out there that you can use and you can give to your kids if you're going abroad. Because obviously, just like we tend to be moving towards a cashless society for many people when they travel. Children need access to the same thing. And if you want to give them their spending money when they go abroad, especially teenagers, these cards are the way to do it.

• 34:43Speaker 07

  There is Richard, he's asking about haggling.

• 34:45Martin Lewis?

  Richard, hello, welcome. You have a holiday money question for me, I believe. What is it?

• 34:50Speaker 05

  Martin, I wanted to know, do you think it's easier to haggle with cash or card while you're abroad? And should that influence people's choices when they're planning?

• 34:59Martin Lewis?

  So where are you thinking of haggling? So you're clearly not, you're not talking about going to a supermarket in Spain.

• 35:06Speaker 05

  Well, I'm thinking Spain, but I'm thinking more of the market stalls.

• 35:10Martin Lewis?

  So look, generally, you often find people will haggle better in cash. You know, but it is always a case by case situation. I wouldn't let me influence how I do it, though. If I were going to haggle in Spain in a market, I would probably get myself a specialist card with perfect exchange rates. When I was there, before I went to the market, I'd go to an ATM. I'd take my cash out of the ATM at those perfect exchange rates and I would use the cash for haggling there. I wouldn't just take cash in advance. So I would, I would always be going with a specialist card. Does that make sense?

• 35:44Speaker 05

  It does, yeah.

• 35:45Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, yeah. But as for the haggling, I mean, it just depends on the sophistication level and what they want. And frankly, I suspect the tax regime, if we're being honest. Because one of the reasons that paying in cash is often cheaper in some areas is because people aren't paying tax on it. So you might also say it depends on your ethical idea of what the taxation situation should be, which I'm not going to ask you on air. Well, as a fraud investigator, I'm always keen to pay my tax. Oh, are you a fraud investigator? Okay, so then, well, it's a really interesting one, isn't it? What the haggling derivation. But I think sometimes having the cash ready there, even as a prop when you're involved in haggling in these type of places, you know, and wherever in the world you are, having that, I'm ready to pay, I've got the money to pay, but I only want to give you this amount, can be very useful. But I wouldn't

• 36:30Martin Lewis?

  let that put me off getting a specialist card. That makes sense. All right. Thank you for calling. Nice to chat to you. Thank you.

• 36:35Speaker 07

  Okay. Helen is asking, she's going to Thailand and she needs to pay in the local currency. She wants to know the best way to change money. Get it from an ATM or take sterling and change it while she's there in the resort.

• 36:50Martin Lewis?

  So I think you've probably got the best and the worst option there, and you've missed out the middle option in those three. Now, I have to, I have to say that I'm not talking specifically for Thailand, as I don't know the situation in Thailand. I'm talking more generically, if you want cash when you go abroad. The best way to do it is on a top specialist card. Just getting your money out of a cash machine once you arrive and making sure it's one of the top specialist cards that doesn't charge you an ATM fee will generally be your winner, because you're getting that near perfect exchange rate. Of course, as I've already mentioned, you are therefore somewhat at the mercy of the fact that exchange rates move. So do you take it out at a good or a bad moment? But there is no way to know

• 37:30Martin Lewis?

  that. My second option, if you want cash, would be to go on to a travel money comparison site in the UK before you go, and to find who is giving you the best travel money rates. Now, certainly changing at the airport is bad, and high street rates aren't that good. But there is, there are a couple of travel money comparison sites out there that you can use, which will tell you who's giving you the best exchange rates for the currency you want and the amount that you're using, once you factor in all fees and the exchange rate. And that will generally be better than taking money abroad and changing it once you get there. Now, I say generally, because it's very simple logic.

• 38:10Martin Lewis?

  When you go abroad, you're probably going to only have a very limited choice of one or two bureaus near you who will change the money for you, and therefore it is not a particularly competitive market. Whereas when you're, before you're going here, if you go into a comparison site, you're comparing the very best rates from 20, 30, 40 different bureau de change agencies, and the rates can actually have quite a big variation between them. So the cheapest will want, tend to be one that's trying to be top of that comparison site, and therefore is giving special rates to attracting new customers and will give you a good rate. Now, that's not to say that there might not be somewhere in the world, a bureau abroad that gives an even better rate, but it's just, it would be incredible happenstance and luck if you happen to find upon it.

• 38:55Martin Lewis?

  Now, if you're going somewhere that you've been regularly before and you know there's a really good bureau de change, and you know it has exceptionally good rates, I'm not saying don't use it, but that would take local knowledge before you went and a decent comparison to know if it was worth it. So, use a card if you can. If you can't use a card, I would get the money before you go from the best bureau de change here, only otherwise would I get it from the best bureau there. But just read me the last sentence, Matt, if you wouldn't mind of that question.

• 39:24Speaker 07

  So she said, what's the best way to change money at an ATM or take sterling and change at the resort?

• 39:31Martin Lewis?

  Now, I suspect from the resort, you're meaning sort of at the hotel. If you're meaning resort to mean a local town or area where there may be a few bureaus, that's one thing. If you're meaning resort because you're going on an all-inclusive place where it's a specific hotel, or you're, you're in a locked-in monopoly situation with the bureau de change, and the rate will almost certainly be abysmal, as bad as changing at the airport, if not worse. So generally, the worst place to ever change your money is at the hotel. Hotels are not bureau de change, and they do not give good rates. They charge you for the convenience of doing it at the hotel. So- Well, I think I've been through it. Card first, comparison second, leaving it till when you get there, third, but making

• 40:15Martin Lewis?

  sure that you're going to a good, decent local bureau, just not doing it in the hotel or the resort's own bureau de change.

• 40:21Speaker 07

  Okay. Sarah is going to Dubai and she wants to know, should she take cash or use a travel card?

• 40:30Martin Lewis?

  Dubai is virtually universal acceptance of plastic when you're there and I would take a specialist plastic travel card with me. And if you need to get cash when you're there, you just put your card in the cash machine and you get some cash out.

• 40:41Speaker 07

  Similar question. Nikki is going to Cyprus. She wants to potentially go cashless. Do you think that she should go cashless or she should take cash?

• 40:51Martin Lewis?

  I mean, I can't see any reason, unless someone has some specialist knowledge about Cyprus, that I'm missing any reason that you couldn't go cashless in Cyprus. They will tend to take cards and there'll be enough cash machines that you could take money out if you needed to get money when you got there, as long as you have a specialist card giving you the great rate. That's it for this week and this Best Bits holiday special. If you've enjoyed it, do tell your friends you've been listening to the Martin Lewis podcast and suggest they subscribe too.

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• 43:28Speaker 00

  Welcome to The Haunted Library. Join me, Colin Morgan, as I read Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.

• 43:38Speaker 00

  A story of science and ambition, loneliness and longing, and what it truly means to be human.

• 43:48Speaker 00

  Listen to The Haunted Library wherever you get your podcasts or find us on YouTube.