News
British holiday makers keep £910m in foreign cash
06 September 2006
Brits have £910m worth of unspent holiday cash left in their homes, according to a new poll.
In total, 33m Brits or 87.4% of the population have some holiday money tucked away at home, but mostly small amounts.
However, the poll revealed one in five have over £50 and 63% have more than £17.35 of unspent cash.
Kevin McAdam, head of travel services at the Post Office, which commissioned the survey, said: 'It's easy to stash your leftover foreign notes and coins in a drawer when you get home from your travels and forget about it. But with one in five of us claiming to bring back £50 or more, it's shocking to discover that so much money is being wasted.'
The chief reasons travellers gave for not changing back currency to sterling were they either forgot or thought they had too little to exchange.
Travellers who have small amounts of holiday money left over, and are not planning to return to their destination are encouraged to donate it to charity, with many airports and bureaux de change having collection boxes for foreign coins.
© Adfero Ltd
In total, 33m Brits or 87.4% of the population have some holiday money tucked away at home, but mostly small amounts.
However, the poll revealed one in five have over £50 and 63% have more than £17.35 of unspent cash.
Kevin McAdam, head of travel services at the Post Office, which commissioned the survey, said: 'It's easy to stash your leftover foreign notes and coins in a drawer when you get home from your travels and forget about it. But with one in five of us claiming to bring back £50 or more, it's shocking to discover that so much money is being wasted.'
The chief reasons travellers gave for not changing back currency to sterling were they either forgot or thought they had too little to exchange.
Travellers who have small amounts of holiday money left over, and are not planning to return to their destination are encouraged to donate it to charity, with many airports and bureaux de change having collection boxes for foreign coins.
© Adfero Ltd
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