Is there anyone else old fashioned like myself?

[John Findlay]

What I mean is this. For me personally part of the enjoyment of foreign travel was exchanging my sterling currency for the currency of the country I was visiting. Now especially in Europe this enjoyment for me has been taken away with alot of countries adopting the Euro.

I enjoyed my French Francs, German Deuchemark, Italian Lira, Portuguese Escudo, Spanish Peseta, Greek Drachma. Italian Lira was my favourite as you got over 4,000 to the pound and you felt loaded changing up a £100 for 400,000 Lira. I understand the world and currency has moved on, but there is just a sense of sameness nowadays.

Well there is for me.

[redjambo]

Having travelled a lot in Europe, I loved it when the Euro was adopted as it meant that I could use the currency in my pocket in a large number of countries without having to exchange it. There are still places like the Scandinavian countries, Switzerland, a fair few Eastern European countries, etc. to keep things interesting, and believe it or not there are still 25 different currencies used throughout Europe.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_currencies_in_Europe

[Cruyff]

We should all use the same currency imo.

[ri Alban]

Heartbreaking isn't it.   

[Morgan]

We've talked about this before and agree with your sentiments, John.

[Morgan]

1 minute ago, ri Alban said:

Heartbreaking isn't it.   

You old cynic.

 

[ri Alban]

3 minutes ago, Morgan said:

You old cynic.

 

Travellers cheques, do they still do them?

[redjambo]

2 minutes ago, ri Alban said:

Travellers cheques, do they still do them?

 

Easier to just carry gold.

[Morgan]

5 minutes ago, ri Alban said:

Travellers cheques, do they still do them?

I don't think so.

 

Just sell your body.

 

[JudyJudyJudy]

18 minutes ago, ri Alban said:

Heartbreaking isn't it.   

 

[ri Alban]

5 minutes ago, Morgan said:

I don't think so.

 

Just sell your body.

 

[Mac_fae_Gillie]

Losing 5% or of your money before you buy anything thx to exchange, then knowing any not spent meant losing 5% of that.. I not that old fashioned... But I do like the idea of France been French and Spain been Spanish and Blackpool been cheap. Really not seen much cultural change in Europe outside of natural modernisation and I hope that it does not become a melting pot. Viva la Difference..

[Ray Gin]

Makes no difference to me if I'm changing my pounds to Euros or any other random currency tbh. An inconvenience regardless.

 

[ri Alban]

No been abroad for ages. Can you use your Bank card/Credit Card at the swipy thingy?

[lost in space]

49 minutes ago, John Findlay said:

What I mean is this. For me personally part of the enjoyment of foreign travel was exchanging my sterling currency for the currency of the country I was visiting. Now especially in Europe this enjoyment for me has been taken away with alot of countries adopting the Euro.

I enjoyed my French Francs, German Deuchemark, Italian Lira, Portuguese Escudo, Spanish Peseta, Greek Drachma. Italian Lira was my favourite as you got over 4,000 to the pound and you felt loaded changing up a £100 for 400,000 Lira. I understand the world and currency has moved on, but there is just a sense of sameness nowadays.

Well there is for me.

You need to travel further. Get to Vietnam or Thailand, Cambodia, etc.

Flights arnt too expensive and great value when you get there.

Or maybe you are getting to an age where a day trip to Salcoats is exciting enough...

[Tazio]

6 minutes ago, ri Alban said:

No been abroad for ages. Can you use your Bank card/Credit Card at the swipy thingy?

Of course. It really is a while since you’ve been out the country. 

[John Findlay]

6 minutes ago, lost in space said:

You need to travel further. Get to Vietnam or Thailand, Cambodia, etc.

Flights arnt too expensive and great value when you get there.

Or maybe you are getting to an age where a day trip to Salcoats is exciting enough...

I would feel safer in Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam, than I would in Saltcoats.

[ri Alban]

9 minutes ago, Tazio said:

Of course. It really is a while since you’ve been out the country. 

30 years if you don't include England. 

[milky_26]

19 minutes ago, lost in space said:

You need to travel further. Get to Vietnam or Thailand, Cambodia, etc.

Flights arnt too expensive and great value when you get there.

Or maybe you are getting to an age where a day trip to Salcoats is exciting enough...

you just want him to exchange his money for some vietnamese dong.

[Morgan]

24 minutes ago, ri Alban said:

30 years if you don't include England. 

You went to England?

 

You?

 

[Morgan]

Swipy thing.

 

:

[ri Alban]

2 minutes ago, Morgan said:

You went to England?

 

You?

 

Golfing at Newcastle. 25 years ago.

Edited January 16, 2022 by ri Alban

[Tazio]

5 minutes ago, ri Alban said:

Golfing at Newcastle. 25 years ago.

Good man. Making sure you’re not too far from the border if you get panicked about being in England. 

[ri Alban]

2 minutes ago, Tazio said:

Good man. Making sure you’re not too far from the border if you get panicked about being in England. 

🤣

[JimmyCant]

1 hour ago, Mac_fae_Gillie said:

Losing 5% or of your money before you buy anything thx to exchange, then knowing any not spent meant losing 5% of that.. I not that old fashioned... But I do like the idea of France been French and Spain been Spanish and Blackpool been cheap. Really not seen much cultural change in Europe outside of natural modernisation and I hope that it does not become a melting pot. Viva la Difference..

Monzo (or similar) is the answer. Use at an ATM abroad and you get the full Mastercard listed exchange rate with no fees

[Samuel Camazzola]

1 hour ago, JimmyCant said:

Monzo (or similar) is the answer. Use at an ATM abroad and you get the full Mastercard listed exchange rate with no fees

Halifax Clarity Credit Card does the trick. No withdrawal fees etc... No need to carry a wedge of currency to see you through the duration of your stay. Just withdraw what you need as you go and no need to exchange anything back either. 👍 

[Tazio]

Just now, Samuel Camazzola said:

Halifax Clarity Credit Card does the trick. No withdrawal fees etc... No need to carry a wedge of currency to see you through the duration of your stay. Just withdraw what you need as you go and no need to exchange anything back either. 👍 

Yep. I never take currency with me apart from some for when I get off the plane in case I need it for local transport and to tide me over until I find an ATM. 

[Jamstomorrow]

3 hours ago, Cruyff said:

We should all use the same currency imo.

Don't fret mate!  When we get independence, we will all be using the same currency. . the Euro.  Yay!

[Samuel Camazzola]

13 minutes ago, Tazio said:

Yep. I never take currency with me apart from some for when I get off the plane in case I need it for local transport and to tide me over until I find an ATM. 

Same. And when you make an ATM withdrawal, NEVER accept the exchange rate offered on the display. 

[Sharpie]

I never had much to do with the family money that was my wifes job she was a saver and had worked with money, I on the other hand was a highly efficient heid basher, and we stuck to our relative abilities. I have now retired from one aspect and have taken over her job, and it is easy. You don't need to spend money, you go to the shops show them this wee card and there is no money asked for or anything, an eedjit could save money with that system, and I qualify so I will be getting very rich, lots of food at no cost, life is grand. 

 

[redjambo]

13 minutes ago, Sharpie said:

I never had much to do with the family money that was my wifes job she was a saver and had worked with money, I on the other hand was a highly efficient heid basher, and we stuck to our relative abilities. I have now retired from one aspect and have taken over her job, and it is easy. You don't need to spend money, you go to the shops show them this wee card and there is no money asked for or anything, an eedjit could save money with that system, and I qualify so I will be getting very rich, lots of food at no cost, life is grand.

 

[Ked]

16 minutes ago, Sharpie said:

I never had much to do with the family money that was my wifes job she was a saver and had worked with money, I on the other hand was a highly efficient heid basher, and we stuck to our relative abilities. I have now retired from one aspect and have taken over her job, and it is easy. You don.

't need to spend money, you go to the shops show them this wee card and there is no money asked for or anything, an eedjit could save money with that system, and I qualify so I will be getting very rich, lots of food at no cost, life is grand. 

 

Heid basher Sharpie?

Needs a bit filling that description

[Sharpie]

2 minutes ago, Ked said:

Heid basher Sharpie?

Needs a bit filling that description

I refuse to answer on the grounds that it may incriminate me.

 

[Taffin]

I enjoy different currency but now almost everything you buy (which is the real interest imo) is available here, so unless you're going further afield where you'll get a new currency. As such I don't mind the Euro.

 

I usually just use card in Europe anyway!

[HeartsandonlyHearts]

4 hours ago, Tazio said:

Good man. Making sure you’re not too far from the border if you get panicked about being in England. 

That and the Newcastle language barrier can be intimidating.

[Greedy Jambo]

Coming home with a handful of foreign money was always great...

NOT

[Doctor FinnBarr]

6 hours ago, John Findlay said:

What I mean is this. For me personally part of the enjoyment of foreign travel was exchanging my sterling currency for the currency of the country I was visiting. Now especially in Europe this enjoyment for me has been taken away with alot of countries adopting the Euro.

I enjoyed my French Francs, German Deuchemark, Italian Lira, Portuguese Escudo, Spanish Peseta, Greek Drachma. Italian Lira was my favourite as you got over 4,000 to the pound and you felt loaded changing up a £100 for 400,000 Lira. I understand the world and currency has moved on, but there is just a sense of sameness nowadays.

Well there is for me.

 

Euro was a godsend to me when touring Europe by motorbike. Entirely possible without much effort to cross into France, Belgium, Holland, Germany and Lux all in half a day. Before the Euro this involved stopping on every border to change money, its easy nowadays.

[3fingersreid]

Still got some old notes from various countries I/we visited years ago , kind of brings back memories of the holidays 

[Greedy Jambo]

I've got a couple of crisp 1 pound notes 

[Herbert.]

It's like Christmas when you open the wee envelope they put your money in so you can get a good look and feel of it. We usually load up a multi currency card and just have a wee bit cash but it's nice having a full wallet even if it's only worth 20quid or something.

[Savage Vince]

6 hours ago, ri Alban said:

Heartbreaking isn't it.   

 

😁

[WorldChampions1902]



Ah…….good old Travellers Cheques. This thread brings to mind one really special memory. It goes back to 2004 in Lisbon and the final match of the Euro Championship Greece V Portugal. Crap game of football, although one of the standouts was a certain Takis Fyssas whose name would become more significant not long after. I digress.

 

I applied in the UEFA draw for 4 x Tickets for the final, probably a year before the finals and miraculously was successful. I subsequently booked flights and a nice 3 bed apartment in a top Lisbon hotel, with the intention being to spend 10 nights in Lisbon as a family holiday, with the match sandwiched in the middle. 

 

Fast forward to arrival day at the hotel and it turns out that my apartment has been double-booked! After heated discussions at a very busy reception, they punt us into a 2 bed apartment and ask me to come back in a couple hours. Two hours later, I return to reception and they fess up and as it’s their mess, give me the keys to their penthouse suite on the top floor. 4 x bedrooms all with en-suite bathroom, big TV’s in all the rooms, massive kitchen, dining room and huge lounge. And two big mini-bars which they make complimentary for the length of my stay as an additional apology. The lounge was so big that it had three sets of double sliding doors onto the balcony that you could play long-bangers in! Wow! I had won the lottery.  To the travellers cheques.

 

Before leaving the U.K., I had decided to not take my credit card/bank card but have enough Euros for the first few days and then cash Travellers Cheques. Schoolboy error. The Final was played on a Sunday, so the Friday before, I popped into a mainstream banking branch only to discover that they want to charge me 35% (yes 35%) commission for cashing into Euros. I therefore beat a hasty retreat and decide that I will cash them at the hotel which has its own Foreign Exchange service. As I still have a decent amount of Euros left, no panic, or so I thought. Second schoolboy error.

 

Fast forward to match-day Sunday and midday, I make the trip to the hotel reception. My timing couldn’t be worse. A coach load of VIP guests of match-sponsors, Canon has just arrived and they are checking in. I get in the queue and a few stragglers queue behind me. Eventually, I reach the front of the desk, only to be told that the hotel cannot change Travellers Cheques at the moment as they have insufficient funds. I explain that I have no money and need Euros now as I am going to the match. They refuse and it all gets heated but they ain’t budging. At that point a voice behind me says, “what’s the problem Jock?”. I turn around and there is this elderly bloke in pin-striped suit. I explain my predicament to him, I have no cash and I am taking my family to the game. He tells me he is a guest of Canon and is going to the game as well. He then goes into his inside pocket, pulls out his wallet and says, “how much do you need?” I explained that I had asked them to exchange cheques for 200 Euros and before I could finish my sentence, he peels off 200 Euros from his wallet and says, is that enough? I was totally gobsmacked at a complete stranger making such a magnanimous gesture. The only thing he asked for was my room number and said I will see you in the hotel bar after the match. I couldn’t believe it! It gets more intriguing.

 

After the match, we soaked up the atmosphere in the Lisbon streets on the walk back from the metro station. Incredible scenes. Thousands of Portuguese people on the streets partying - after losing the game! Eventually gets into my hotel, I go straight to reception and successfully exchange my Travellers Cheques at a ‘reasonable’ commission rate. I then head to the hotel bar and my benefactor and his son are already there. It is bedlam, so I invite them both up to our penthouse suite - bearing in mind, I have unlimited free bevvy in my 2 x sizeable Mini-bars. At this point, we have finally introduced ourselves and his name is Derek. As we enter into my millionaires pad, Derek blurts out, “Wow! What an apartment. He asks me what I do for a living (nothing special BTW). I pop open a bottle of Champers and whilst I’m doing that, Derek picks up my digital camera that I had placed on the lounge coffee table as I arrived. He starts talking about it really knowledgeably and I explain that it’s a new model of camera that I bought for the trip as I wanted to get some decent snaps. At this point, I ask him if he is a professional photographer and he coyly tells me “no” he is the Chief Executive of Jessops!
 

His full name is Derek Hine and I shall never forget that wonderful gesture

[Doctor FinnBarr]

12 minutes ago, WorldChampions1902 said:



Ah…….good old Travellers Cheques. This thread brings to mind one really special memory. It goes back to 2004 in Lisbon and the final match of the Euro Championship Greece V Portugal. Crap game of football, although one of the standouts was a certain Takis Fyssas whose name would become more significant not long after. I digress.

 

I applied in the UEFA draw for 4 x Tickets for the final, probably a year before the finals and miraculously was successful. I subsequently booked flights and a nice 3 bed apartment in a top Lisbon hotel, with the intention being to spend 10 nights in Lisbon as a family holiday, with the match sandwiched in the middle. 

 

Fast forward to arrival day at the hotel and it turns out that my apartment has been double-booked! After heated discussions at a very busy reception, they punt us into a 2 bed apartment and ask me to come back in a couple hours. Two hours later, I return to reception and they fess up and as it’s their mess, give me the keys to their penthouse suite on the top floor. 4 x bedrooms all with en-suite bathroom, big TV’s in all the rooms, massive kitchen, dining room and huge lounge. And two big mini-bars which they make complimentary for the length of my stay as an additional apology. The lounge was so big that it had three sets of double sliding doors onto the balcony that you could play long-bangers in! Wow! I had won the lottery.  To the travellers cheques.

 

Before leaving the U.K., I had decided to not take my credit card/bank card but have enough Euros for the first few days and then cash Travellers Cheques. Schoolboy error. The Final was played on a Sunday, so the Friday before, I popped into a mainstream banking branch only to discover that they want to charge me 35% (yes 35%) commission for cashing into Euros. I therefore beat a hasty retreat and decide that I will cash them at the hotel which has its own Foreign Exchange service. As I still have a decent amount of Euros left, no panic, or so I thought. Second schoolboy error.

 

Fast forward to match-day Sunday and midday, I make the trip to the hotel reception. My timing couldn’t be worse. A coach load of VIP guests of match-sponsors, Canon has just arrived and they are checking in. I get in the queue and a few stragglers queue behind me. Eventually, I reach the front of the desk, only to be told that the hotel cannot change Travellers Cheques at the moment as they have insufficient funds. I explain that I have no money and need Euros now as I am going to the match. They refuse and it all gets heated but they ain’t budging. At that point a voice behind me says, “what’s the problem Jock?”. I turn around and there is this elderly bloke in pin-striped suit. I explain my predicament to him, I have no cash and I am taking my family to the game. He tells me he is a guest of Canon and is going to the game as well. He then goes into his inside pocket, pulls out his wallet and says, “how much do you need?” I explained that I had asked them to exchange cheques for 200 Euros and before I could finish my sentence, he peels off 200 Euros from his wallet and says, is that enough? I was totally gobsmacked at a complete stranger making such a magnanimous gesture. The only thing he asked for was my room number and said I will see you in the hotel bar after the match. I couldn’t believe it! It gets more intriguing.

 

After the match, we soaked up the atmosphere in the Lisbon streets on the walk back from the metro station. Incredible scenes. Thousands of Portuguese people on the streets partying - after losing the game! Eventually gets into my hotel, I go straight to reception and successfully exchange my Travellers Cheques at a ‘reasonable’ commission rate. I then head to the hotel bar and my benefactor and his son are already there. It is bedlam, so I invite them both up to our penthouse suite - bearing in mind, I have unlimited free bevvy in my 2 x sizeable Mini-bars. At this point, we have finally introduced ourselves and his name is Derek. As we enter into my millionaires pad, Derek blurts out, “Wow! What an apartment. He asks me what I do for a living (nothing special BTW). I pop open a bottle of Champers and whilst I’m doing that, Derek picks up my digital camera that I had placed on the lounge coffee table as I arrived. He starts talking about it really knowledgeably and I explain that it’s a new model of camera that I bought for the trip as I wanted to get some decent snaps. At this point, I ask him if he is a professional photographer and he coyly tells me “no” he is the Chief Executive of Jessops!
 

His full name is Derek Hine and I shall never forget that wonderful gesture

 

 LOL, brilliant mate

[Sharpie]

58 minutes ago, 3fingersreid said:

Still got some old notes from various countries I/we visited years ago , kind of brings back memories of the holidays 

 

1 minute ago, FinnBarr Saunders said:

 

 LOL, brilliant mate

 I have taken to looking at the old photo albums of our many trips, and have also found my wifes trove of foreign money that she kept sometimes deliberately and sometimes accidentally but are now souvenirs.

[Captain Slog]

Remember when the Jam Tarts played Munich in 87/88, and a five pence piece worked in in the private video booths for discerning gentlemen because it was the same size as one of their currency at the time?

 

[Ked]

3 hours ago, Sharpie said:

I refuse to answer on the grounds that it may incriminate me.

 

🤣

[Ked]

42 minutes ago, Captain Slog said:

Remember when the Jam Tarts played Munich in 87/88, and a five pence piece worked in in the private video booths for discerning gentlemen because it was the same size as one of their currency at the time?

 

Yes.....then no😁

[Doctor FinnBarr]

41 minutes ago, Captain Slog said:

Remember when the Jam Tarts played Munich in 87/88, and a five pence piece worked in in the private video booths for discerning gentlemen because it was the same size as one of their currency at the time?

 

 

It was the same size as a mark, worked there at the time, fag machines were big victims. Old 5p pieces for younger viewers.

[Captain Slog]

12 minutes ago, Ked said:

Yes.....then no😁

🤣

[Seymour M Hersh]

9 hours ago, John Findlay said:

What I mean is this. For me personally part of the enjoyment of foreign travel was exchanging my sterling currency for the currency of the country I was visiting. Now especially in Europe this enjoyment for me has been taken away with alot of countries adopting the Euro.

I enjoyed my French Francs, German Deuchemark, Italian Lira, Portuguese Escudo, Spanish Peseta, Greek Drachma. Italian Lira was my favourite as you got over 4,000 to the pound and you felt loaded changing up a £100 for 400,000 Lira. I understand the world and currency has moved on, but there is just a sense of sameness nowadays.

Well there is for me.