We are traveling next month and need about 1000 pounds for tips. What is the best way to get that much money in Edinburgh?

First I'll say I lived in England for about 5 years until recently and went to Edinburgh more than once. I don't think I pulsed 1000 poinds of cash the entire time I was in England let alone for one trip. So make sure you actually need 1000 poinds. Else you will pay the bid offer both directions on conversions if you end the trip with a bunch of pounds left over.

If you know you will need 1000 pounds, almost certainly your best deal will be going to your bank ahead of time to convert. It will still be a bit of a rip off relative to using Wise or a similar service but you don't have that luxury as you won't have a local bank account.

Doc4rock said:

---

We are traveling next month and need about 1000 pounds for tips. What is the best way to get that much money in Edinburgh?

---

I have a traveling bank account for work through USAA. ATM fees are rebated up to a dozen a year IIRC. ALWAYS refuse the conversion on the machine and withdraw in local currency to keep fees lowest.

I'm sure others can recommend similar banks if you don't have access to USAA.

I have the second account to limit damage if there is any fraud issues.

I'm not sure what you think you will need that much cash for. Thats like $1350. Restaurants and whatnot are all tap and go with service fees built in as tip. Maybe leave a couple extra on the table if was over the top service. A few here and there for bellhops maybe. Cabs are tap and can add extra on the card if needed.

If you really do need that much just go to any ATM and withdraw as much as you can. The service fees on ATM are going to be less than any converter or buying them from your own bank.

I travel there frequently. I have yet to tip in pounds. Card, $US for van driver to offload my bag. They will take USD as tips just fine. That's in just about any country I've been to - South America, Europe and Africa.

Told we need to pay private driver and caddies in cash.

Order pounds from your bank ahead of time. But I agree with those who said you won't need it. Get a couple hundred at most. If you have to pay drivers in cash, make it 300.

Caddies make more sense. Most drivers take cards in the area though.

Just use any local bank ATM machine with your credit card that doesn't have foreign transaction fees. As long as you are not at the airport you won't get a better exchange rate.

Don't know about Edinburgh, but cabbies only take cash in Inverness. Got to our AirB&B and had to get our driver to take us to an ATM to pay him. Kept and used cash for the rest of that trip, including Edinburgh.

Do you remember how much cash you could take out each time?

I've never had a cab not take a card.

When I've taken out cash for any reason in foreign ATM's (I travel to multiple countries monthly) there is usually a limit, but nothing says you can't do multiple transactions. The hard limit is likely going to be on your debit card.

If worried, just order from the bank and eat the extra costs and save the worry. The difference isn't going to be staggering.

The other benefit to ordering from you bank before you go is that you will get Bank of England notes, rather than notes issued by Scottish banks, which can be hard to exchange if you have them when you return.

I've not been to Edinburgh, but I have arranged private transportation from my hotel to the airport for early morning flights in Italy and France. They drove "luxury vans" and we booked them because we had VERY early morning pickups and didn't want to rely on public transportation, Uber, etc. In both cases, we were told in advance they needed cash payment. Maybe that is a thing for that industry.

To add to what others said. We recently returned from 2 weeks in Italy. The only cash I used for the entire trip was for the private driver to the airport. Everything else was tap and go.

et98 said:

---

Order pounds from your bank ahead of time. But I agree with those who said you won't need it. Get a couple hundred at most. If you have to pay drivers in cash, make it 300.

---

Do not order from your bank ahead of time. They charge more than withdrawing from a local ATM does.

I made the mistake once doing this. Asked Chase to get me a few hundred GBP. Exchange rate was about 1:1.32 at the time. They charge $1.42 per. I got into a whole thing with them. I said:

"You told me there wasnt a fee?"
"There isnt"
"The exchange rate on this was $1.42 to 1 pound"
"Yes."
"Well the current exchange rate is $1.32"
"Well the 1.42 is our rate in the system. Theres no extra fee"
"If I'm paying more than it costs... theres a fee. Can I give them back?"
"We can buy them back at $1.22 to 1"

I left before I caused more of a scene.

Doc4rock said:

---

Told we need to pay private driver and caddies in cash.

---

Yes you'll need cash for caddies.

The Milkman said:

---

et98 said:

---

Order pounds from your bank ahead of time. But I agree with those who said you won't need it. Get a couple hundred at most. If you have to pay drivers in cash, make it 300.

---

Do not order from your bank ahead of time. They charge more than withdrawing from a local ATM does.

I made the mistake once doing this. Asked Chase to get me a few hundred GBP. Exchange rate was about 1:1.32 at the time. They charge $1.42 per. I got into a whole thing with them. I said:

"You told me there wasnt a fee?"
"There isnt"
"The exchange rate on this was $1.42 to 1 pound"
"Yes."
"Well the current exchange rate is $1.32"
"Well the 1.42 is our rate in the system. Theres no extra fee"
"If I'm paying more than it costs... theres a fee. Can I give them back?"
"We can buy them back at $1.22 to 1"

I left before I caused more of a scene.

---

That's usually solid advice, but, as I mentioned above, Scotland is sort of a peculiar situation where the bank notes issued there (from Scottish banks, not the Bank of England) are not always accepted by other institutions if you try to change them back to dollars. It's not a big deal if you know you're going to use them all while in Scotland, but you don't want to take any significant sum of bank notes issued by Scottish banks anywhere outside Scotland.