Maltese Lira always seems to be the best currency for Malta

I would change cash over there as the rate is always higher.

I agree with jojouk. My wife and son were in Malta recently and picked up some Maltese Lira (I hope they don't adopt the Euro - though I think that is inevitable!), and got only Lm30 for £54.50 off Thomas Cook. They got much better exchange rates in Malta.

Sterling or Amercan Dollar Travellers cheques I have found are both okay - but you might have difficulty changing the Vietnamese Dong!!!!

Trev

We were in Malta not long ago and before we went checked with our local travel agent what their rate was.It was 0.59 Maltese Lira to our £ ,but we were exchanging @ 0.63-4 to our £ when we got there.

It depends who you know and where you can get a good rate, personally we have a bank of Valletta account which works very well for us I would highly reccomend this to anyone who goes to Malta a lot.

L-Isbah xewqat
Sliema2

Hi Sliema2,

How much do you need to invest to have a bank of Valletta account? Do you have to be mega rich like you or can a poor soul who scrapes by on a meagre pittance like me able to open one?

Trev

Hi Trev, it's not an investment account it's just an ordinary current account with a cash card etc, check out http://www.bov.com and I am sure you will find all the info there, having an account in Malta is really good because a couple of months or so before we go I post a cheque to my branch in Sliema and wait for it to clear, this is a much cheaper way of transfering funds as all you pay is for a stamp and the initial exchange rate, hope this helps.

Tkellem iktar tard
Sliema2

Hi Sliema2,

OK - If I open a current account with the BOV, could you give me some idea as to what sort of exchange rate I could therefore expect or roughly how the exchange rate would compare with me changing sterling travellers cheques?

Trev

the banks in Malta mormally quote a 2-3% spread on currency rates - ie if the mid price for lm-£ was 0.625, you would receive about lm 0.617 per pound

We have a Nationwide FlexAccount which we top up with money before we go away, and then we withdraw money from it using ATM's when we are abroad. So far we've only done this in Portugal, but we find we get a better exchange rate than we would have done in England and there are absolutely no charges. We're going to Malta for the first time this year - can anyone please tell me whether there are plenty of ATM's there? Thanks!

loads of ATMs - if you search this forum, someone posted a link to the locations - I live here, and my Nationwide card is how I access most of my money.

edit - here you go http://www.holidaytruths.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=29185&highlight=atm

I posted the link to all the locations of ATMs HERE
If this helps anyone.

Thanks very much, Gozomark and Ingliza. What a very organised lot you are here on the Malta forum!

Hi Trev, leave it with me for a bit and I will try and work out how much it cost me last time as this was the cheapest way so far, previously I had been transfering the money from my uk account which costs about £20.00 per time then the exchange rate at BOV, but this last time I posted a uk cheque to my BOV branch and it worked out much cheaper that way, only slight draw back with that is that you have to wait 31 days for the cheque to clear in Malta, but it's only a draw back if you are going at short notice, if you know you are going well in advance and you post accordingly then it is perfect.

Caw for now
Sliema2