Do I need to change Dollars to the different currency for cruise to Iceland, Ireland and England?

[Lacoop]

I am flying in to Amsterdam next year and going from there to Iceland, Ireland and England. Do I need to get a different currency from the Dollar or would it be better to just use my credit card?

[wdwkings]

Need or want, is my view.  There are quite a few factors that could be impactful.
 

We have done two different cruises to those areas and did have some Euros and Pounds.  The currency was really for small purchases or the odd chance that someplace did not take cards.  
 

For us the majority was all on credit cards.  Many have good conversion rates, so double check those policies as you evaluate the need to get local currencies.  
 

The main factor should be how much time you expect to be away from the ship or ship based excursions.  If you are doing time before or after the cruise, have a long port time or overnight port, or are considering an excursion not booked with the cruise line those all might increase the need of local currencies.  

[hotsauce126]

I would have some local currency for tips or whatever but for everything else I'd use a card with no foreign transaction fees

[gumshoe958]

The UK is fast becoming cashless so you will be fine with just cards there (although American Express isn’t as widely accepted as it is in the US, particularly outside London).

 

Indeed in London cash is no longer accepted on buses, and if you use it on the tube you’ll pay much higher fares.

Edited July 14, 2022 by gumshoe958

[Seannie]

So you’re traveling to four countries and will be using, respectively, euros, kronas, back to euros and then pounds.

 

All those countries will accept credit cards, but you need to make sure that your credit card company is not hitting you with a common 3% foreign currency fee.  Do you have a card with a no fee currency conversion?  Or at least a 1% fee instead of the 3%?  
 

I would find an American bank before you leave and get some dollars converted to euros and pounds to bring with you.  For a small country, Iceland is big on cash-less transactions so you should be fine there but maybe you want to  have some cash for smaller purchases in in Britain and Ireland like street food vendors or souvenir places.  
 

You’ll always do better with the transaction fee converting currency at a big American Bank than some random foreign currency conversion place in touristy areas in Amsterdam, London & Dublin.

 

[Another_Critic]

In addition to zero foreign transaction fee, I recommend that you have a "tap to pay" contactless credit card.  It's much easier to use tap to pay with a signature priority chip card (most US issued chip cards are signature priority vs PIN priority).

[Ashland]

We actually prefer to (order) get local country currency that we'll need from our home town big bank.

The conversion rate and the discount they give me and no fee to do this is a much better deal for us. We're not interested in finding or using a foreign ATM and we don't use a credit card in foreign countries either unless it's absolutely necessary ... one example where we would is at a hotel.

 

What we prefer to do may not suit some but it's what we're most comfortable doing.

 

We're getting ready to leave for Amsterdam in one week for an Arctic Circle cruise and have already picked up our Euros and Krone from our bank.

[xpcdoojk]

Why would anyone in today’s world take out a bunch of foreign currency at a bad exchange rate (local big bank) when 99% of transactions can be done on a major credit card with fraud protection and the lowest exchange rate and no foreign transaction fees.  I took out a Capital 1 card 20 years ago for exactly that reason.  Now many cards offer no foreign transaction fees.  

 

I agree it is nice to have some local currency for small purchases, which is all you need for a cruise.  Now, if I was doing a land tour, I would definitely go to an ATM and get some cash.  We did a river cruise several years ago, to Romania, Serbia, Bulgaria and Hungary (4 different currencies) not exactly London or Paris, I was easily able to find an ATM within a single block of where I arrived each and every time I needed to withdraw some currency.  When I am in a foreign country I don’t really want a large supply of currency, which usually comes home as a reminder of a trip.  Euros and pounds, I keep because odds are high I will be back and be able to use them in the future.  

 

 

[FionaMG]

1 hour ago, gumshoe958 said:

The UK is fast becoming cashless so you will be fine with just cards there (although American Express isn’t as widely accepted as it is in the US, particularly outside London).

 

Indeed in London cash is no longer accepted on buses, and if you use it on the tube you’ll pay much higher fares.

 

This is so true.

On a recent trip to the UK for our daughter's graduation we had a terrible time getting places to accept our cash. On two occasions, when we really didn't want to pay by card because our credit was getting low, store employees were kind enough to pay for our purchases with their own personal cards and accept the cash from us.

We will go prepared with more cashless payment options when we go on our Canaries cruise from Southampton in September.

 

[ATG]

We just got home from a river cruise visiting the Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg, France and Switzerland.  We had about 20 euros from a previous trip.  We came back with 15 euros.  Everywhere took credit cards. I had planned to go to an ATM but never needed to.  
 

One thing I learned was in a restaurant if you want to leave a tip, just tell them what total amount to charge.

 

 The only card issue I had was with the Swiss train tickets.  I couldn’t use the machines since our card required a signature.  I had to go into the ticket office.  Not a big deal.

[hal2008]

42 minutes ago, ATG said:

We just got home from a river cruise visiting the Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg, France and Switzerland.  We had about 20 euros from a previous trip.  We came back with 15 euros.  Everywhere took credit cards. I had planned to go to an ATM but never needed to.  
 

One thing I learned was in a restaurant if you want to leave a tip, just tell them what total amount to charge.

 

 The only card issue I had was with the Swiss train tickets.  I couldn’t use the machines since our card required a signature.  I had to go into the ticket office.  Not a big deal.

 

In recent trips, need to use local currency is rarely encountered (may be streetside purchase from gypsy vendor). Nowadays, even paid WC take credit cards.

US based credit cards are preferred as they offer excellent fraud protection.

 

It is advisable to take the contactless versions as most Europeans do not like the hassle of putting chip card in the machine (and roll their eyes when "signature needed receipt rolls out").

 

Some of the military/federal govt associated Credit Unions (open to anyone to join) do issue PIN priority credit cards which work even with ticket vending machine and unattended gas/toll stations.

 

However, most places, even signature priority US cards work just fine especially when amount is less then 50 USD (or whatever threshold issuing bank has set)

 

In pinch, you can always use your US ATM card in any reputable ATM machine to take out local currency.

 

Edited July 14, 2022 by hal2008

[DCPIV]

You certainly can use your credit card a LOT.  Still, I like to pull out some euros while I'm in the UK and some British pounds while in the UK.  Not a lot, mind you, maybe $50 at a time at most (and, as mentioned, maybe $20), unless I have real plans for it (and the the most popular "plan" I may have is tipping tour guides).

 

That said, you REALLY don't need to get any ISK at all while in Iceland.  Just don't bother.  Iceland is almost completely cashless, and I say "almost completely" because I hesitate to speak in absolutes.  The truth is that we were in Reykjavik for three days, and I never saw a single item of Icelandic currency passed (I did see some on display).  If you ever do need cash for some reason, you can use EUR, GBP, USD.  At least, that's what I was told.  I cannot personally verify it because it never actually came up in practice.

[Simon-t]

4 hours ago, FionaMG said:

 

On a recent trip to the UK for our daughter's graduation we had a terrible time getting places to accept our cash. On two occasions, when we really didn't want to pay by card because our credit was getting low, store employees were kind enough to pay for our purchases with their own personal cards and accept the cash from us.

 

This is definitely true. The pandemic has led pretty much everywhere accepting (and preferring) contactless card payment even for the smallest transactions. I genuinely cannot remember the last time I used cash in the UK. 

[long4acruise]

We were in Belgium and Amsterdam recently (Jewel TA) and almost all places, restaurants and stores we visited would not accept any cash!  Many "No Cash Accepted" signs everywhere. 

[Missusdubbya]

credit card (with no international transaction fees)

[xpcdoojk]

5 hours ago, ATG said:

We just got home from a river cruise visiting the Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg, France and Switzerland.  We had about 20 euros from a previous trip.  We came back with 15 euros.  Everywhere took credit cards. I had planned to go to an ATM but never needed to.  
 

One thing I learned was in a restaurant if you want to leave a tip, just tell them what total amount to charge.

 

 The only card issue I had was with the Swiss train tickets.  I couldn’t use the machines since our card required a signature.  I had to go into the ticket office.  Not a big deal.

Yes, you need a card with a pin and chip.  You need to tell your CC provider you want a four digit pin associated with your credit card.  I had a major struggle in a car at a unmanned French Toll Booth before I found a card in my wallet with a PIN that I remembered!🤣

 

jc

Edited July 15, 2022 by xpcdoojk