Best way to get physical dollars

I'm heading abroad on holiday (Africa) and need to bring physical ~$3-4000 with me. With the likes of N26/Revolut/Transferwise/etc giving far better exchange rates than AIB/TSB/etc is there a reasonable way to take advantage of this where I need physical dollars (ie. it's not electronic)?

You can forget revolut. ATM withdrawals are capped at, AFAIK, 200 per month. I found that out the hard way when on holiday in the US last year.

Revolut doesn't cap ATM withdrawals but it charges 2% for amounts above that in any given month. That might still work out cheaper than exchanging cash, but it would obviously depend on the availability of USD- dispensing ATMs in whichever African country you are going to, and on the additional fees these local banks might charge. Alternatively, there are some USD-dispensing ATMs in Dublin (I have seen them at the airport) but my hunch is that they might have layers of surcharges.

abc_xyz said:

I'm heading abroad on holiday (Africa) and need to bring physical ~$3-4000 with me. With the likes of N26/Revolut/Transferwise/etc giving far better exchange rates than AIB/TSB/etc is there a reasonable way to take advantage of this where I need physical dollars (ie. it's not electronic)?

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You could bring the USD as USD traveler's cheques and exchange the cheques for USD in a bank in Africa.

Thanks all. @tomdublin I'd have the same hunch about the ATMs in Dublin airport.

I've gone with ordering it from AIB - they seem to have the best rate of the Irish banks (including Fexco/No1Currency from what I could see).

For withdrawing local currency outside the EU it seems N26 is the best option (1.7%) or Revolut (2% but first €200 free). Similar enough to Irish debit/credit cards but with a far better exchange rate.

@CiaranT Re: USD traveler's cheques - I don't really know how these work. Wouldn't you be paying the bank exchange rate at the time of purchase of the traveler's cheques? (I don't think it would work anyway as I'd have to exchange for cash in Africa before using them to pay unless company I'm paying takes USD traveler's cheques.)

Maybe try the banks close to the U.S. Embassy in Dublin. They always have a turnover of dollars.