Yet another thought on the ongoing money order debate:
I concur with Prof. Woods that it is simplest to set up a British account
and re-stock it with funds. However, one must be wary that not all bank
machines accept all North American bank cards and many British bank
machines (at least in London) are outside on very busy streets - not a
happy combination for withdrawing large amounts of cash.
Another method of re-stocking a British account is to purchase a
money order in Sterling made out to oneself and marked "for deposit only"
before leaving North America. The bank charge for this service in Canada
is far less than $ 35. Once one arrives in Britain the money order can be
directly deposited into a British account with no service charge at all
although it will take a few days to clear. For ready spending money a few
travellers' cheques will usually suffice until you can get at the newly
deposited money in the British account.
Two other related thoughts -
I'm sorry to hear of the irritation my fellow countrymen at the William
Morris Society caused Prof. Stansky. Any North American academic society
should be more flexible in allowing payments. However, I would extend
these words to all American institutions and societies. Many are
notorious for prohibiting any payments in Canadian funds. Some even make
Canadians pay extra as "foreigners" even though Alaska is considerably
farther away than most of Canada from the headquarters of these groups.
Whatever happened to "Free Trade" between our two fine countries?
Any thoughts on dealing with currency fluctuations while doing research
in England? During my two research trips to Britain the pound has
fluctuated between $ 2.00 to $2.30 Canadian. When I lived in England for
a year as a child between 1975-76 the pound was worth about $ 1.40 Canadian.
It's enough to make one nostalgic about Britain before the Thatcher
deluge.
Matthew Hendley
Ph.D. Candidate
Department of History
University of Toronto
Canada