Need cash when I land, best place in Jersey UK? Airport or places in the city?
On my first trip I changed €100 at the Jersey Airport counter and immediately regretted it - the rate was awful. Since then, I’ve only used HSBC or Lloyds ATMs in town. I withdrew £80 in Jersey pounds and spent it easily in pubs and on buses. Everything else I paid with card. The only snag was taking leftover Jersey notes back to London where no shop would take them. Now I make sure to spend all my JEP before flying out.
Airport exchange desks in Jersey aren’t great. ATMs like HSBC, NatWest, and Lloyds give fair rates when withdrawing directly in JEP or GBP. Both are equal, but JEP notes may not be accepted outside Jersey. For that reason, only withdraw what you’ll spend locally. Shops and restaurants happily accept cards, so there’s no pressure to carry large sums of cash. Plan to use an ATM at the airport or in St Helier instead of airport counters. Bring a debit card for convenience.
I ignored the airport counter in Jersey and went straight to a NatWest ATM outside arrivals. Worked fine with my foreign card. In town (St Helier), Lloyds and HSBC ATMs are also easy to find. Jersey pounds and sterling are accepted interchangeably, though you might get change in JEP that you can’t use back in the UK. Most hotels, taxis, and restaurants take cards, so you don’t need a lot of cash. I normally keep £100 cash handy, but honestly it’s a card-friendly island.
At Jersey Airport you’ll find a Travelex-type counter, but the rates are not good. I usually just head straight to an HSBC or Lloyds ATM on the island. They dispense Jersey pounds, which are pegged 1:1 with GBP. Cards work in most places, but local buses and a few small cafés prefer cash. My habit is to grab £40-50 from an ATM on arrival and then pay everything else by card. Unless you have a stack of euros or USD to swap, don’t waste time at the counter.