Refund of Foreign Currency Exchange Costs

What’s it for?

If you undertake a temporary duty journey overseas and need to purchase foreign currency or travellers’ cheques to cover your daily expenses, you may incur certain fees and charges. You can use this benefit to claim back these fees and charges provided you suffer a net financial loss from your currency purchase transaction e.g. a claim would not be allowed if you made a £5 gain on purchase of local currency and only incurred a £3 commission charge.

You can only claim for charges related to the minimum overseas currency necessary for you to meet your daily expenses until you are able to cash a Sterling cheque through local Service facilities at the Forces Fixed Rate of Exchange.

You can’t use this benefit if you are able to purchase foreign currency through Service-related sources or if you’re on a permanent overseas assignment.

What do I get?

Provided you have a receipt, you can claim for admissible costs that you incurred. You will then receive your refund in your nominated bank account. 

How do I claim this?

You can submit your claim on JPA via  JPA iexpenses . You can submit your claim on JPA via  JPA iexpenses. The Claim for expenses in a foreign currency self-service user guide (which can be found at JPA user guides) tells you how to do this.

If you don’t have access to JPA, then you need complete JPA Form F016 (which can be found at JPA forms)  and submit it to your unit HR.