Britons wasting unused travel money
24th June 2010
Most British holidaymakers are hanging on to their unused foreign currency once they get home and failing to change it back to sterling, a survey has revealed.
Online travel agent sunshine.co.uk found that nine out of 10 travellers are not changing their travel money back to their currency once they return.
The survey suggested that holidaymakers each have an average of £24 left in travel money but 89% are not bothering to change it back.
Around 47% of those surveyed said they were keeping their travel money until their next trip, but 37% who did this admitted they quite often forgot to take it with them.
While a third said they simply could not be bothered to convert the money back to sterling.
The group estimates that Britons could collectively have nearly £800 million in unused foreign currency at home because of their reluctance to change it back to sterling.
Chris Brown, co-founder of sunshine.co.uk, said: "Exchanging foreign currency back to British pounds can, evidently, be one of those things that a lot of people just don't see the point of doing, but I think our study really brings home the fact that there is an awful lot of foreign currency floating around in the UK that isn't being put to good use.
"It's all well and good saying that you will save the currency for your next holiday but, as the poll shows, not everyone is good at sticking to this."
Copyright © Press Association 2010
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