Urgent advice on buying currency at LHR

Off to SFO tomorrow - hadn't realised you need to give Travelex so much notice.
I realise we're probably going to get stuff in terms of commission, etc, - what would be the next best place to buy dollars from at LHR?

Cheers
Andy

[mitchja]

Andy

You get just walk up and buy $'s from Travelex. No idea of the walk-up rate you'll get though.

Regards

OK Cheers James

You can use the Amex online facility, they only need 6 hours notice, whereas Travelex need between 24 and 48 hours. I think both companies offer free pre-orders.
I was at the Travelex counter on Saturday and recall them having a free commission for transactions over £500.
Travelex exchange rate appears to be better online, and better rates than the others at T3 in my experience.

[preiffer]

Travelex walkup rate is bad at LHR, and the commission that's slapped on top makes it silly. If it's 1.9 to buy pre-pay, expect 1.8 or less as walk-up in T3 after commission.

I did online reservation with Travelex a couple of weeks agao, and forgot to bring that plastic with me (yes, I was a bit silly, didn't read the small print).

They cancelled my reservation in T3, and I exchanged £ to $ immediately at exactly same rate as online reservation. And they didn't charge any extra. The rate was around 1.852. It must gone up a bit now.

After I returned home, I found out they not even refunded the whole amount of my original reservation, and also refunded the £4.50 commission as well. In the email, they said due to late cancellation, they may charge a 10 pounds handling fee, in fact, they didn't do that at all.

Good service, overall.

Online exchange rate on Thur last week for Sat was 1.8889

Originally posted by ukcobra
Online exchange rate on Thur last week for Sat was 1.8889

This is pretty much the same rate that I received as a walk up in T4 on Monday.

Phil FM