Gatwick currency exchange: the desks, the rates and the cheaper options

Here is the part the desks will not lead with: changing cash at an airport counter, on the day, is one of the worst exchange rates you will be offered anywhere. That is true at Gatwick as it is everywhere, so if the goal is value, the useful question is not which Gatwick desk to use but whether to change cash here at all. There are good ways to get travel money, and the walk-up counter is not usually one of them.

That said, sometimes airport currency is the practical answer: a last-minute trip, a currency your bank cannot supply, or simply cash in hand before you fly. If that is you, there are still better and worse ways to do it at Gatwick, and a couple of genuinely useful tricks. This page gives you both: where the ChangeGroup desks and machines are and how to get the airport's best rate, then the cheaper routes worth considering before you reach for cash at all.

ChangeGroup is the currency exchange operator at Gatwick, offering more than 60 currencies across around 15 branches split between the two terminals. The desks sit both landside and airside, in departures, arrivals and the baggage reclaim halls, so you can change money before security on the way out or after landing on the way back. Most branches open daily from 03:00 to 21:30, wrapping around the early departure bank and the late arrivals.

The two locations worth knowing in advance are the online-order collection points, because they carry the better rate. One sits in the North Terminal before security on Level 2, opposite security; the other in the South Terminal before security on Level 3, again opposite security. Both open 05:00 to 22:00. If you have ordered ahead, that is where you pick up; if you are buying on the spot, any branch will serve you, but at the walk-up rate rather than the online one.

The single trick that improves an airport exchange is to order online in advance and collect at the airport, rather than buying at the counter. Gatwick's own guidance says it plainly: for the best rates, pre-order online and pick up on the day. The rate is set when you order, the currency is guaranteed in stock, and you collect at one of the two before-security points above. It will still rarely beat a good travel card, but it beats the walk-up desk comfortably, for no extra effort beyond ordering a day or two ahead.

The second useful option is the BuyBack Guarantee, a £5.99 add-on to an online order that lets you return unspent currency at the exact rate you paid, rather than the weaker buy-back rate on the day. For a trip where you are not sure how much cash you will actually spend, it removes the usual sting of changing leftover holiday money back at a loss. Without it, you can still sell currency back at any desk, just at whatever rate applies when you do. Live rates move constantly, so check ChangeGroup for the figure on the day rather than trusting any number printed here.

If you just want cash rather than a counter, there are around 70 ATMs across the two terminals, before and after security, so a machine is never far. The catch is the fee: most charge UK cardholders about £2.49 per withdrawal, which is easy to miss in a hurry and adds up if you take out small amounts twice.

Two machines skip that fee entirely, and they are worth walking to. One is in the South Terminal at check-in Zone H, opposite the oversized baggage desk; the other is in the North Terminal on Level 10, at the easyJet check-in area. If you need sterling before you fly, use one of those rather than the first machine you pass. For foreign currency, remember an ATM here dispenses pounds, not your destination's money, so the better foreign-cash move is usually a machine at the other end.

Before changing cash at all, weigh the two routes that usually beat it. A debit or credit card with low or no foreign-transaction fees spends at close to the real exchange rate wherever cards are taken, which is most places, and removes the need to carry much cash at all. Paired with it, withdrawing local currency from an ATM at your destination typically gives a better rate than buying that currency as cash in the UK, airport or not. Between the two, many travellers now carry very little physical foreign cash.

Cash still earns its place for tips, small vendors, markets, and countries or situations where cards are not reliably accepted, so the sensible plan is often a modest amount of pre-ordered currency for the first day plus a good card for everything else. The site names no particular card and earns nothing from any of this; the point is simply that the airport counter is the most expensive option on the list, and knowing the cheaper ones is worth more than knowing which desk is nearest. Whatever you carry, keep it and your cards secure through security and in your hand luggage, not a bag you set down.

• Never change cash at the walk-up counter if you can avoid it. It is the worst rate on offer. Pre-order online for airport collection, or use a card and a destination ATM instead.
• If you pre-order, add the buy-back guarantee for an unpredictable trip. The £5.99 protects the rate on anything you bring home unspent, which usually saves more than it costs on a holiday's worth of cash.
• Use one of the two fee-free ATMs for sterling. Check-in Zone H at the South Terminal and Level 10 at the North Terminal skip the £2.49 that most machines charge.
• Withdraw your holiday money at the other end. Gatwick's ATMs give you pounds; a machine at your destination gives local currency at a usually better rate than buying it here.
• Declare £10,000 or more. There is no limit on carrying cash, but that threshold in or out of the UK must be declared to customs; the customs guide covers it, and duty free is the other side of the airport-money question. Everything else the airport runs is indexed in the services guide.