Martin Lewis warns holidaymakers against accepting currency conversion on cash machine abroad

If you're heading off abroad on your holidays this summer, then Martin Lewis has a warning about accepting currency conversion on cash machines abroad.

The money saving expert has come up with a new warning which could save Brits abroad plenty of their own money, and it's all to do with trying to take out some cash.

If you're abroad and need to get some money out, your first thought is to head to a cash machine - but it's important not to fall foul of extra charges that could whittle down your bank balance.

The first thing he recommends you check is whether there's a fee to make a withdrawal from a cash machine, as one of the ATMs he tried in his experiment wanted to charge him €7 to take out money.

ITV

Next, he warned that on top of the exchange rate involved with converting currency, many cash machines charge a mark-up fee to scoop out a little bit of extra dough from the transaction.

In his experiment, he showed what it was like to get €200 of cash out from three machines in Malaga, with the exchange rate expected to give him a pile of money worth about £169.

The cheapest of the cash machines he tried gave him the equivalent of that, but the most expensive one would have cost him around £191 with all the extra charges.

He said: "It says there is a mark-up fee of 4.5 percent, so they are adding a 4.5 percent load on top of the exchange rate.

"You do not want this machine to do the conversion for you. I want your card company at home to do the conversion."

"You want your card company at home to do the conversion because, even if it's not a good card, it's a better rate. Continue with conversion? No way, it's going to cost me 20 quid more than it should."

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When you're converting your cash at a machine abroad, the recommendation is to avoid hitting the button to agree to the first offer of a conversion rate as it'll almost certainly be higher than whatever extra charge you end up paying.

Lewis recommended that people wanting to head on their holidays and have a minimum of fuss about money should 'let your card do the conversion' and just pay for things with your credit or debit card in the local currency.

He recommended looking into how much your card would charge you for these types of transactions and on his site had some suggestions for the ones you could go for which would minimise charges for spending abroad.

Topics: UK News, Martin Lewis, Travel, Money

Joe Harker

Joe graduated from the University of Salford with a degree in Journalism and worked for Reach before joining the LADbible Group. When not writing he enjoys the nerdier things in life like painting wargaming miniatures and chatting with other nerds on the internet. He's also spent a few years coaching fencing. Contact him via [email protected]

@MrJoeHarker