Hi wiw4,

I heard a rumour they are only available in bulgaria.

Not true - you can obtain Leva in most of the usual sources of foreign currency, e.g. Post Office, Travel Agents, Marks & Spencer, banks, etc. You are, however, generally better off changing Sterling into Leva in Bulgaria, as the exchange rates tend to be significantly better than those available in the UK.

As an example of UK versus Bulgarian rates - Marks & Spencer (from the link above, are offering a rate of £1=2.744Leva today, while my Bulgarian bank (Raiffeisen) is offering £1=2.856Leva.

You can take up to 8,000 Leva (around 4,000 Euro) into or out from Bulgaria without declaring it to the Customs authorities.

Baldur

<edited to provide example rates>

I usually take a small amount of local currency abroad and lowl denomination travellers cheques. Am I best to take Sterling or Euro cheques? Is it better to exchange Sterling notes?

Alio

Hi Alio,

Take clean and unmarked Bank of England notes, no writing on them or tears.

Forget travelers' cheques altogether, the commission gives them a low exchange, and you have to show your passport which is safer locked up in your safety deposit box in the hotel.

Scottish and Northern Ireland notes are NOT accepted.

Peter

evening peter of york
you forgot to remind the good people not to change their cash in the street or the booths to avoid being ripped off.

Hi Seahunt,

Quite correct, must sort out a set piece of text I can copy and paste time after time.

Perhaps we need a sticky, but the problem is that we might end up with more stickies than actual live topics!

Thanks for the reminder.

Peter

Peter of York
Seahunt

Thanks for the info, very useful

Cheers
Alio

There are also quite a few ATMs which take british cards at a reasonable exchange rate.

I never think of ATMs.

Not only have cards been cloned and accounts drained to the tune of thousands of pounds, they can be 'eaten' or damaged.

That could leave you in one hell of a fix if it was your only source of money, and can't think that getting a replacement would be anything else other than a very slow process.

Better to take cash.

Peter

Good Morning, A good idea is to keep watch on the HSBC banking site as last year we were getting a better rate than in Bulgaria. It was commission free and delivered to your home if a customer or to a Bank of your choice free of charges within 48 hours. Tonyt

Hi Tony,

While HSBC online offered very good rates last year, their recent offerings have been pretty poor - today's rate is £1=2.616350, compared with 2.85/2.86 in Bulgarian banks last week and the Bulgarian National Bank's current rate of £1=2.87495.

Marks & Spencer recent online rates have been sgnificantly higher than HSBC's (£1=2.746 yesterday).

Baldur

can anyone tell me what is best to do take sterling travellers cheques or currency or just english money we normally take sterling cheques with a small amount of currency it would be much appreciated for any info many thanks christine.

Hi Christine,

The answers are on this thread, see the earlier posts -

Hi Alio,

Take clean and unmarked Bank of England notes, no writing on them or tears.

Forget travelers' cheques altogether, the commission gives them a low exchange, and you have to show your passport which is safer locked up in your safety deposit box in the hotel.

Scottish and Northern Ireland notes are NOT accepted.

Peter

On ATMs

I never think of ATMs.

Not only have cards been cloned and accounts drained to the tune of thousands of pounds, they can be 'eaten' or damaged.

That could leave you in one hell of a fix if it was your only source of money, and can't think that getting a replacement would be anything else other than a very slow process.

Better to take cash.

Peter

Hope this helps,

Peter

While I tend to agree with some of Peter's reservations about ATM use in Bulgaria, I must say that I use a Bulgarian Debit Card to withdraw Leva but also frequently use my Nationwide Flex Account Debit Card, which gives interbank rate and no charges - the exchange rate on that card last week was £1=2.8731504 Leva compared with the Bulgarian banks' cash exchange rates of 2.85/2.86.

I always try to use ATMs which are located in bank premises, which minimises the risk of cloning, etc.

Baldur