MIDDLESEX, England — First Rate Exchange Services, a U.K. currency-exchange provider, is providing post offices in the United Kingdom with a euro and U.S. dollar currency-exchange service at 13 ATMs.
Customers using the ATMs provided by Bank of Ireland simply select what currency they want to receive. Neither the post officer nor the bank is charging a fee for the service, and users get the same exchange rate they would if they made the same exchange over the counter.
The announcement comes after recent figures show that 309 million overseas transactions were made on U.K.-issued cards last year — roughly 3 percent of all transactions on U.K.-issued cards.
The use of debit cards to withdraw cash abroad is so popular with U.K. holidaymakers that a total of £7.1 billion (U.S. $14 billion) was withdrawn from overseas ATMs in 2007, according to APACS Administration Ltd., a England-based payments association.
"We recognize that our clients need to offer great value and convenient foreign exchange services which meet their customers' changing needs," said Gordon Gourlay, managing director of First Rate.
