Euro to GBP Exchange Experts?

We fly to the UK for xmas - what would you reccomend, change the Euros to pounds here or in the UK . We live in Berlin so the banks don't like doing foreign currency at all, they send you to the wechselstube and I don't now if the exchange would be better here or there! Any ideas? Thanks (it is mainly the kids xmas pocket money which they got from daddy, so 100 euro each, far too much really but he's not coming with us so to compensate..)

we don't change at all when we go. We get pounds from the bank machine in England. Get a rather high amount and not only little ones because it costs money per usage, no matter how much you get. I have a friend who works at Commerzbank, she says thats the cheapest way.

EDIT ups, guess i got this wrong? But still...get money out in England and give pounds to the kids, when you are back, you can use their euros

Good idea but I thought it cost more to withdraw from banks in the UK because they're not giving euro? I know when I pay a cheque into my bank from UK the Berliner Sparkasse took about 25 euro just for paying it onto my account , infact it was maybe more and in the south another bank only took 10 Euro. Thats Europe!
How do you find out where the best exchange would be?

checks paying into accounts? Erm...i mean getting money from bank machines...put EC card in and get pounds out. If you go to USA put card in and get dollars out... etc.
Are we talking about different things?
I have no clue how much the charges are but as I said, my friend at commerzbank would even get a special "rate" for changing my euros into british pounds but she said its silly and told me to get them in England

Yeah, you didn't notice I was just chating away to my computer and slightly changed the subject. I was writing to ask where the best exchange would be and I don't see how putting a card into a machine has anything to do with cheques! You don't use cheques much here in Germany but when I recieve a cheque from England made out to me - I pay it into my account , that is the only way to cash it as far as I know. But that wasn't what i was asking for advice about!
Without going into my financial situation my personal account is abit in the red and if I withdrew money with my EC card in the UK it would cost even more than the kids just taking their money and exchanging it in whichever country I eventually find out is the best exchange. It is also important for them to learn how to go about using their own money etc so it will be a good experience to see how they give 100 Euro to be changed and get so and so much pounds.

The best way to transfer money between accounts is international transfer rather than cheque and if you set up online banking it's a lot less hassle.

I do the same as Hannah, just draw out money from the cash machine when I get there, if there's not enough in my UK account I use my Sparkasse card.

If you want to see what €100 is worth in pounds look here

http://xe.com/

I think you get a better rate when you draw the cash directly from the machine because you get the bank rate rather than the tourist rate.

If your accounts in UK and DE are both feeling the strain then change the kids money but do it all together rather than as separate transactions so you don't get the charge on each one. Alternatively, buy something at the airport and ask for change in pounds.

Can anyone here remind me what is the shortcut to a pound symbol on a German keyboard?

Thanks! I suppose I could pay their money into my account here and withdraw it over there but it's hard for kids to follow how money "works" if you see what I mean. i will probably go and let them hand it in to the bank in UK and exchange it themselves.
We should try online banking from UK , we both have online banking for our german accounts too. I have even been thinking of changing to an online bank, I know loads of Brits who have all their money in an online bank. Last time my dad tried to send money direct from his account in UK to my account here , they robbed nearly 30 pounds so he said! So after that I got him to send cheques.

Rick Steves (US based travel writter) talks about the bad old days when you had to have a bit of cash for each country you visited and then trying to cash travelers cheques, today you just pop in the bank card and out comes cash. I've checked you get bank to bank rates. Much better than exchanging cash.

When I was in Canada I got the bank exchange rate via a ATM.

Alternativly is to charge it to a CC but then you have 1,5% service charge plus you tend to spend more.

Rebecca, no clue sorry, mine does bloody $ only
I always use EC card from Sparkasse to get (shortcut for pound's) , we dont have accounts in UK, only in Germany.

You may not need to change uk bank to go online - most major banks offer this option now, you just need to register (and work out how to remember all the security numbers and passwords)

Also remember that a lot of shops in Uk no longer accept a signature with a credit card, you need to know your PIN.

Alt + 0163 = £

hold down [alt] and type 0163 on the numpad to get a pound sign.

edited because my suggestion about putting them on web forums doesn't work on the Britboard!

Alt + 1063 doesn't work for me

As everyone has said, you get by far the better rate by using the ATM. Changing money at the exchange counter or in a bank is a rip off. If you want to teach your kids how to get ripped off, do that. If you want to teach that part of how money 'works' is finding a way to lose less of it, introduce them the ATM in Britain.

When I got back from the US after vacation last year a made a spreadsheet tracking the money I took out and what I paid with a credit card and checked this against my bank statements. I got a rate just barely below the published rate in the newspaper even after factoring in all the bank service charges. That sounds a hell of a lot better than paying a 15% commission.

Try keeping finger pressed on Alt, type 0136 on Num key pad only and you should get a £ sign

Try Alt Gr and 0163

Alt Gr and 0163 = }³

which is an improvement on the others which generate nothing.

Nice to see you back on the board Slackmack

:doh: oh well worked for me.

Try this:
Start
Programs
Accessories
System Tools
(left click) Character Map

Find the symbol you require, left click it and then the correct way to type the symbol should appear in the bottom right hand corner of the open sub-window.

£ Yes that works

Still can't understand why my keyboard won't do the shortcut

I love a happy ending

@ rebecca:

I think you must be using a notebook...


Works on the separate numbers block a normal desktop.


Is what you get if you press <Alt> and type on the numbers along the top row of the keyboard, above the letters.

If you are on a notebook, there is normally a "ghost" number pad on the keys "MJKLUIO789". On notebooks, these are often reached using a key labelled <Fn>, usually on the lower left of the keyboard.

If you press and hold <Fn> and <Alt>, then the code for the character on the ghost block, you will get the respective character.

<Fn> <Alt> and "MJOL" (= 0163 on the ghost pad) on my notebook results in £ on the screen.

£ it worked, finally no longer having to type pounds!!!

It would be easier if they just put it beside the € key!!!

Actually I have a notepad document as an icon on my desk top where I put regualy used things, bank acounts, BLZ etc etc , I just copied in to there then when ever I need it just open and copy, much faster.

£

Hehe .. Yes that works using ...

fn + Alt + 0163

Thanks Mike and everyone else - after this much discussuion I won't forget how to do it!

£ It works for me too! Yipee!

what key should the yen go next to and all the others

Logic would suggest, and I have never understood why it has never been realised, that the £ should go on <Alt Gr> L and the ¥ on <Alt Gr> Y.

Another tip to get more rarely used special characters more quickly under WinXP:

Call up the character table programme. On german Windows you can find this under:

Start -> Alle Programme -> Zubehör -> Systemprogramme -> Zeichentabelle

I've never used an english language XP, so I don't know the exact chain there, but I assume something like:

Start -> All Programmes -> Accessories -> System Programmes -> Character Table

Once the programme has started, it will appear in the recently used programmes section of the start menu. Just go here, click the programme entry and drag it into the upper, permanent part of the list.

After this you can call it up with 2 clicks, instead of having to go through all the lists. It is also more handy here than a link on the desk top, as you don't have to move and collapse windows to get to it.

That's really quite useful - THÂÑK$

back to the topic,

@ mesbah - Which bank do you bank with? Deutsche bank have an agreement with Barclays bank in which you can withdraw dosh from your current or savings account from any Barclays ATM on a no commission and no charge for the use of ATM basis.

This also works in any Deutsche Bank (worldwide), Bank of America, BNP Paribas (France), Scotiabank (Canada), or Australian Westpac bank ATM.

The result is dosh at the current exchange rate.

In case like me you have a US keyboard, you can make the € symbol by pressing Alt 0128

My husband has deutsche bank but my account is at sparkasse, don't know why, it was just the account I got when first in Germany and the boss just took me and opened the account! Anyway it is definately better to do the cash withdrawl in the UK as I noticed the wechsel stube seemed a rip off when we first moved to Berlin. In our sleepy old south german town I never even heard of a wechsel stube and just payed any foreign currency onto my account! Gotta get used to the big city life now though, the sleepy swabian life is over!