NA buying foreign currency (for vacationing)

Let'sgoflying!

Let'sgoflying!

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Dave Taylor
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Anyone have any ideas about buying online?

I did it once, seemed crazy at the time to have a fedex guy deliver a thou in gbp, no way to verify amount til after he is long gone.

http://www.ezforex.com
https://www.wellsfargo.com/foreignexchange/

or, where do you buy foreign money when traveling? I figure airport kiosks are probably the worst rate. No local bank has cdn $ here.
 
ATM machine at the destination. Make sure your ATM card is part of a global network (most are). The exchange rate tends to be better, and any amount you spend on withdrawal fees would be less than FedEx. I have a USAA account that rebates ATM fees, so the only cost is the exchange rate.
 
Bill, I don't ATM. Not a bad alternative approach. Creeps me out to think I could get overseas etc and the card won't work however. And paying for stuff with credit cards outside the US...never again.
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
Anyone have any ideas about buying online?

I did it once, seemed crazy at the time to have a fedex guy deliver a thou in gbp, no way to verify amount til after he is long gone.

http://www.ezforex.com
https://www.wellsfargo.com/foreignexchange/

or, where do you buy foreign money when traveling? I figure airport kiosks are probably the worst rate. No local bank has cdn $ here.
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No need to bother with any of that any more. ATM machines have pretty much eliminated the need. When I get to where I'm going I stick my card in an ATM and it gives me local currency. Indonesia is great for this as you can become an instant millionaire.:goofy:(1,000,000 Rupiah = $100us) Every third world s-thole with a bus station much less an airport has an ATM that takes a MC or Visa logo card, other entities such as Star, Plus, Interlink... are more hit and miss. Everyone is going to rip you off from your bank to the ATM for fees, so I just do a maximum withdrawal every time I do it since the fees are typically per transaction based, not percentage based. If you are going to a tourist area, typically US Dollars are welcome, sometimes even at a more favorable exchange rate than the banks will give. Oh yeah, if you are using a Visa or MC "Check (debit) Card" at a point of sale, you'll propbably have to push the "Credit" button on the POS pad and sign for it. Typically they don't work pushing "Debit" and entering your PIN. ATMs still work on "Checking Account" and your PIN.
 
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Let'sgoflying! said:
And paying for stuff with credit cards outside the US...never again.
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Why not? My credit card charges a small transaction fee but it is worth it for the convenience IMHO.

I think the only problem with not having local currency is that small vendors sometimes don't take credit cards.
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
or, where do you buy foreign money when traveling? I figure airport kiosks are probably the worst rate. No local bank has cdn $ here.
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Personally, I always use the ATM when I arrive. If you are heading to Canada, you'll find abundant ATMs which take cards on the Plus network (which is what most ATM cards work with). I've never had a problem. Some ATMs in Toronto even give you a choice of taking out USD or CDN.

Now, if you don't trust ATMs.... Well, anywhere I've lived there is always one bank in town (usually the central branch) which has foreign currency. Dunno if that is true in Texas. Also, American Express travel offices will do foreign currency exchange at very good rates.

Or, if you are just worried about emergencies -- bring some american cash. Virtually every Canadian you meet will know the rough exchange rate, and can be talked into accepting USD at a favourable (to them) rate in a pinch. So you won't be out of luck if some bad luck causes you to lose your credit cards but not your cash...

Chris
 
The other option is traveler's checks (cheques!) in that currency, or even USD.
 
Everskyward said:
Why not? My credit card charges a small transaction fee but it is worth it for the convenience IMHO.
I think the only problem with not having local currency is that small vendors sometimes don't take credit cards.
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I got soaked on exchange rates in the UK once....plus their fee!
 
Exchange rate between the US and Canada is darned near 1:1 these days. That said, ATMs work great. It's been several years since I couldn't use one (Brazil, IIRC). A wad of US currency and an exchange window took care of that. And I carry a Capital One credit card specifically for foreign travel as they do not charge a transaction fee on top of the exchange rate. But, buy it in advance? I've never done that.
 
Dave,

If you want to do traveler's checks, I think there are still some places that will sell them fee-free (AAA used to, but it's been 15 years since I've even thought about using them....)

You might also research a prepaid card that you can use to get cash at your destination.
 
murphey said:
The other option is traveler's checks (cheques!) in that currency, or even USD.
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wsuffa said:
Dave,

If you want to do traveler's checks, I think there are still some places that will sell them fee-free (AAA used to, but it's been 15 years since I've even thought about using them....)

You might also research a prepaid card that you can use to get cash at your destination.
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I don't recommend travelers checks- they aren't accepted like cash any more (UK, Germany), some banks won't exchange them unless you are one of their customers (my experience in Italy), and the cash exchangers will exchange them with a 10-15% fee, even if in the home country currancy (Italy again- the best place to change them was the Vatican, which isn't really Italy.).
 
Can't you call up your local bank branch and get some foreign currency? Some of the funkier ones might take some time, but I'll bet you could get Euros, CA$, AU$ or any major currency in a day from a local bank branch.
 
JeffDG said:
Can't you call up your local bank branch and get some foreign currency? Some of the funkier ones might take some time, but I'll bet you could get Euros, CA$, AU$ or any major currency in a day from a local bank branch.
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No not really. I deal in currently trading and banks settle at the end of the day in USD. You can request small amounts but it takes longer than a single day to get it. The settle times are 3-7 days for most banks.
 
webdaddy said:
No not really. I deal in currently trading and banks settle at the end of the day in USD. You can request small amounts but it takes longer than a single day to get it. The settle times are 3-7 days for most banks.
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I should have clarified a little better. The banks settle daily but don't settle with clients for several days.
 
I do a fair bit of international travel, and I have found ATMs to be the best way to go. I usually call the card provider right before the trip to let them know that I will be leaving the country and using the card abroad. Never had any problems.

If you want to exchange cash, casinos usually give pretty good exchange rates.
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
Anyone have any ideas about buying online?

I did it once, seemed crazy at the time to have a fedex guy deliver a thou in gbp, no way to verify amount til after he is long gone.

http://www.ezforex.com
https://www.wellsfargo.com/foreignexchange/

or, where do you buy foreign money when traveling? I figure airport kiosks are probably the worst rate. No local bank has cdn $ here.
Click to expand...

As others have said, ATMs are the way to go most places. As someone else said, I've heard that Travellers Checks are not universally accepted as they once were (used to use them a lot). AAA offers a prepaid Visa Travel Card (Called Visa Travel Money) that seems to work OK overseas.

I'd suggest that you have available several types of payment options (and store them in different places). This is an old story, but I used to work with a guy that used an American Express card (exclusively) for everything (and travelled worldwide). One time he headed out, no cash in his wallet, checked in for his flight, and as was his habit, went straight to the ATM machine in the departure lounge. He stuck his card in the machine - and IT ATE IT!. There he was, headed for Pakistan or some such place, with NO MONEY (or equivalent)! He got on the horn and somehow managed to have someone come to his rescue - but I sure wouldn't want to be in such a predicament

I would carry some (but not much) cash - for obvious reasons.

Dave
 
I'm not a world traveler, and I haven't been to Canada since 1964. In Europe we used ATM machines and they worked fine. I didn't shop exchange rates, so I don't know how good the exchange rates were but I've been told that is the best rate. We go to Mexico several times a year. We go up and down the coast North of Puerto Vallarta surfing. We have found that outside "major" tourist areas, traveler's checks are not accepted. We have not used them for years. Most places will take US dollars, but they never know what the exchange rate is on any given day, so I'm sure that they make sure that they get their money's worth. I have found places that don't want dollars, but I did one time trade an ISU baseball cap for a silver ring. Most everything is negotiable anyway. OK that leads me to ATMs. I have found ATMs everywhere. Sometimes I might be in a village where they do not have one, but if I ask they will tell me that there is one in the next village ten minutes up the road in the grocery store, or something like that. The secret is to ask someone before you run out of cash. So there you are. You're not going to Mexico, so this whole post is useless to you. For me, I get to think about Mexico for a couple of minutes, and that makes me smile. So thanks.
 
One other thing that might be important. As someone else suggested, call your bank and let them know you are going to be out of the country. I had mine shut down one time.
 
Maxmosbey said:
We have found that outside "major" tourist areas, traveler's checks are not accepted.
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I found some old travelers checks in my mom's desk so we tried to use them. Even a large touristy-type restaurant in San Francisco wasn't quite sure how to handle it and other places in SF wouldn't take them at all. I finally took her to the bank to have them all changed into cash because it was such a PITA to use them.
 
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One bit of advice: if you call your bank and the person you talk to doesn't sound "with it", thank them for their time, hang up and call back until you get someone who does.

My trip last month - I called a day beforehand, and the lady sounded pretty old and addled. Slow speech and so on. I could understand her, and she seemed to be doing what I asked for although I thought it was weird that she needed a supervisor to finalize it.

From the airport the next day I called back because I had forgotten to move money into my ATM account and luckily I chattered about how I was at the airport and almost forgot, etc. The young person on the line was smart enough to ask me if I was going on vacation and if I needed VISA access. The dimwit the day before had put a BLOCK on my account. Not a "hey, don't close this down, she's in Italy, it's OK", no, she blocked usage! I told the person helping me that the person from the day before seemed really out of it and I wasn't surprised that she did something goofy.

I would bet NFCU can see who did that to my account the previous day, too.
 
woodstock said:
One bit of advice: if you call your bank and the person you talk to doesn't sound "with it", thank them for their time, hang up and call back until you get someone who does.

My trip last month - I called a day beforehand, and the lady sounded pretty old and addled. Slow speech and so on. I could understand her, and she seemed to be doing what I asked for although I thought it was weird that she needed a supervisor to finalize it.

From the airport the next day I called back because I had forgotten to move money into my ATM account and luckily I chattered about how I was at the airport and almost forgot, etc. The young person on the line was smart enough to ask me if I was going on vacation and if I needed VISA access. The dimwit the day before had put a BLOCK on my account. Not a "hey, don't close this down, she's in Italy, it's OK", no, she blocked usage! I told the person helping me that the person from the day before seemed really out of it and I wasn't surprised that she did something goofy.

I would bet NFCU can see who did that to my account the previous day, too.
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We always call Verizon and tell them also. One year my wife called them and asked them if we could use our cell phones in Mexico. The person she talked to said that we could, that they just had to add something to our account. She asked how much, and they said no charge. We found out that if we use our cells in Mexico to call somewhere else in Mexico, it doesn't cost us anything. It is just taken off of our minutes. If we call back to the states, it costs us something like just under a dollar a minute. But we call all over the place when we are down there. It has never shown up as an extra on the bill. That is just my wife's phone, I've never done it with mine.
 
JeffDG said:
Can't you call up your local bank branch and get some foreign currency? Some of the funkier ones might take some time, but I'll bet you could get Euros, CA$, AU$ or any major currency in a day from a local bank branch.
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Some friends went to Mexico with us earlier this year and they wanted to hit the ground with pesos, so they got a couple of hundred dollars worth through the bank. They got hosed. Because we go down there regularly I always bring home a couple hundred dollars worth for the next trip.
 
or...go to Panama. Not only is it a fantastic place not that far from the US, but the national currency is the US dollar. Makes life so much easier.
 
I am a world traveler and ATMs are the way to go, well most of the time. When I was in Egypt last year none of the ATMs would take my Amex card. I tried my personal Capital One VISA which was promptly locked out as a fraud attempt. Thankfully I had about $50 USD worth of Japanese Yen on my and was able to exchange that for Egyptian Pounds.
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
nope, see post #1. Maybe if I was in a city.
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OK...my experience is mostly small (very small) towns in Canada getting US currency. Small amounts (hundreds) on request, anything more, they put in the courier for the next day from the city to the bank for me to pick up. But then again, I never tried any other currency but US$, but I expect I could have gotten GBP or Euros pretty quickly too.
 
ScottM said:
I am a world traveler and ATMs are the way to go, well most of the time. When I was in Egypt last year none of the ATMs would take my Amex card. I tried my personal Capital One VISA which was promptly locked out as a fraud attempt. Thankfully I had about $50 USD worth of Japanese Yen on my and was able to exchange that for Egyptian Pounds.
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Egypt, I had no problem. I was using a bank ATM card, though I did also have the bank access feature on my AmEx.

I did have problems in France one time when the telecom workers went on strike and shut down international financial network data exchange. I was able to get cash by going to the AmEx office and using the machine there with my AmEx card.

I do have a small collection of foreign money that I carry on trips - UKP, Euro, Yen, SFr, Forint. So I can do the same as you did, if necessary.
 
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