Credit card fraud is unfortunately widespread and takes place every day across the world, and holiday resorts are no exception. The Spanish Guardia Civil have arrested a restaurant employee who has allegedly been duplicating the credit and debit card details of customers who ate at a restaurant where he worked in Benidorm.

The 28 year old male, of Moroccan origin used the card details to go internet shopping and accumulated 8750 euros worth of goods using the data he had copied. I wonder if he had things delivered to his actual address! The investigation opened last October after several people complained to the police that they had not made purchases using their cards but been charged to the account. Once the police started investigating they found that they had all recently eaten at the same restaurant and paid for the meal using the affected credit or debit card.

Credit cards scams still continue despite the introduction of chip & pin - which was supposedly meant to eliminate fraudulent use, but it has seen a drop in reported cases.  Be on your guard whenever using a card. In restaurants, they should bring a terminal to the table when you ask for the bill - not like in the old days when they took your card away and you couldn´t be too sure what was happening with it.

In my opinion, cash is king. Obviously, this is not always possible, but when on holiday in a foreign country try and pay for restaurant bills in cash. Many smaller places, especially in Benidorm do not accept cards anyway, which is understandable to a degree when a Menu del Dia is under 10 euros and then the card company takes a commission out of that.

Enjoying a drink on the terrace this weekend

The euro pound exchange rate is fairly good at the moment, today´s bank rate is 1.23 and when changing money in Benidorm you always receive 3 points less than the official bank rate, therefore you would get 1.20. There is much debate whether to exchange at home before going on holiday or at the resort. But if you have any spare cash and you are going away some time this year, it may be an idea to change some of it - you certainly do not get any interest in the bank at the moment.
It depends whether you think the pound will go down in value - this time last year there was "talk" about the euro disappearing altogether! Now financial news is focused on whether the UK will loose its triple A rating - which WILL cause the pound to drop. Its a gamble and only you can decide which way to place your bets. But one thing is for sure, you won´t find beer and cigarettes cheaper in the UK than you can here! The 1 euro pints are back as its low season and those lucky enough to be here at the moment are certainly taking advantage of having a drink on the outside terraces in the current warm spell (today´s forecast is for 22 degrees)