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| Find Your Way Around |
| Pack |
| Make a Travel To Do List |
| Buy Souvigneers |
| Exchange Currency |
| Learn a New Language |
| Get a Visa |
| Get a Passport |
| Have a Great Time |
| Create an Itinerary |
| Check In for your Flight |
| Get Automatic Updates |
| Clear Customs |
| Use Your Stuff in Other Countries - aka, All about Electricity |
| Things to do on the plane |
| Workout on the Way |
| Arrange Transportation |
| Trip Journals |
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Basic Information | Exchange Rates | Exchange Service Fees | Exchanging Currency in the US | Exchanging Currency outside the US | Understanding their Currency | Know What You are Paying | Best Practices
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| When you travel to foreign countries you will need to exchange your money for the currency used in that country. A better way to think of it though is that you are buying their currency. When you exchange your US dollars for foreign currency, or vice versa if you are entering the US, you are purchasing a specific amount. You will not only pay what their currency is worth compared to the dollar at that moment, but also pay and exchange fee or service fee along with that. (Regardless of what you hear, most countries, and most vendors in those countries won't accept US dollars any more than our stores would accept the Japanese Yen or the Russian Ruble. |
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| Exchange rates are what the foreign currency is worth compared to the US dollar. For example, a Pound in Britain may be worth $1.87 in US dollars. Therefore, it will cost you $1.87 for every Pound yo would like to purchase. This figure is constantly changing depending on what investors and analysts determine or belief it is worth. Because of this, the exchange rate varies greatly depending on when you go, where you go, and how you exchange it. |
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| How ever you exchange your currency, there will be a service charge for exchanging it as well as a "spread" on the exchange rate. These are both basically fees that are charged for providing the service. The spread is added to the actual exchange rate. For example, if the exchange rate currently is 1.87, the location you are converting it at may be charging 1.89. The fees on the other hand is a straight percentage based on the amount you are purchasing. This is where you will see the greatest variances in exchanging money and you must compare them carefully to insure you are getting the best value for your dollar. |
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There are a couple ways to exchange currency prior to leaving the US: |
- - If you choose to do it this way, you will usually need to give them an advance notice of 3 days. (with most major banks you can do this directly on line from within your account)
- - which does the same thing as your bank, but will often overnight the funds to you. It's more convenient, but will often cost more because of the fees and over night charges.
- - Although this is the most expensive way to exchange money generally, if you are short on time and will need money to pay for a taxi or incidentals when you arrive, get just enough to get you through.
- - Most major cities have currency exchange office. Look in your local Business Directory (Yellow Pages) to find the office nearest you. Before you go, phone ahead and find out their exchange rate and fees as well as whether they exchange the currency for your destination.
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- - In most major cities you will find these offices quite frequently. Once again though, you will need to compare exchange rates and fees. These can often be very expensive, so be careful.
- - These often provide the most favourable rates if you can find them, and some offer the service with no fees.
- - You can use your ATM to convert currency which is often times the cheapest way, but at the same time, because you have no way of knowing their exchange rates or fees, this is gamble.
- - This is our preferred way of doing it. The fees seem to be extremely small, the rates are as good as you can get and it avoids the whole figuring out their currency issue. Visa, Master Card and American Express are accepted almost everywhere.
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| Understanding their currency can be the most frustrating part of the vacation. Although most vendors are friendly and understanding, I have had store clerks get very irritated that I didn't know their currency. A good way to learn it is to do a search on Google Images, Yahoo! Images, or Bing Images for that currency and learn what it looks like. You can also do a search on the history and philosophy of it's design. That may sound like too much information, but it can actually be pretty interesting and will most likely help you in recognizing the value. For example a lot of countries use size to denote denomination, or the colour of the bill can tell you quickly which denomination it is. |
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| There are two ways of quickly knowing what you are paying for something; |
- Yahoo Finance offers a great little pocket sized card for the currency you would like to convert to. Go to http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/currencies/converter/ and put in the conversions that you would like to make, for example, US dollar to British Pound. Directly under the conversion is a pocket guide. Click on the "Print full guide" link to open up your pocket sized guide and print it out. It's wonderful. Love it.
- Second option is the good old rounding option. Use the converter Widget off to the right of this page to determine the conversion rate of the two currencies. Then just figure out the closest number to round to. For example, if one Euro is equal to $1.27 US, then that means everything is about 25% more than the price quoted in Euros if you round it. If you had something that cost 10 Euros, then that would actually be $12.50 in US dollars, (25% more). Does that make sense? If not, go back to suggestion one and do that one.
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- Use your Visa/Master Card (or Check Card with a Visa/Master Card logo on it) to avoid the high fees and the confusing translation between the two currencies.
- Exchange your currency at your local bank before you leave, or at Visitors Bureaus at your destination for the best rates and fees.
- Know and compare service fees prior to handing over your cash.
- Use a pocket guide or understand the conversion amounts to avoid being taken advantage of when purchasing items.
- Do a little bit of research so that you recognise and understand the other currency before you get there.
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