FX and how to lose 20 percent of your money

I was under the impression that using a (debit) card - once abroad - to withdraw cash was the way to get the best rate?  Can;t remember the last tiem I bought currency before leaving for a destination.

Although I got hit with heavier than expected charges, when leaving Heathrow recently.  I withdrew GBP with my foreign bank card, and was given the option to be bileld in GBP or the currency of the account.  Cannot remember what I chose, but it must have been the wrong one as I was amazed at the final total coats when I got my statement!

Had you EFTd a like amount, the fees would've been over 30% - as I learned to my dismay when my bank in London slapped a fee of EUR 18 equivalent to transfer EUR 55 equivalent to another bank in Frankfurt. With fees like these for commodity products, no wonder banks can afford to give away highly differentiated offerings like Faster Payments for free!

UK Faster Payments - mmmm! If I remember correctly, that is the system that the Office of Fair Trading in the UK has been forcing the banks to introduce because the OFT considered that the banks were treating their customers unfairly.  I'm not clear on how this can remain as a "premium service" if the standard lower service level doesn't satisfy the OFT - ?

The BEFORE-FPS scenario might have been unfair to customers if that's what the OFT decreed but the AFTER-FPS scenario is highly differentiated when compared with ACH-based systems in many other parts of the world (e.g. USA). Where it's applicable, FPS delivers RTGS-like value, which justifies fees. In a free market, fees should be a matter between a bank and its customers. As far as I know, OFT doesn't concern itself with whether a bank can levy fees or not. 

I think that you've come back to my original point - fees and what a customer gets charged. Back in 17th century France, charging 4% per annum was described as "usury" (see Molière's "The Miser").  So being charged over 20% should be described as what - "banking"?