One reason I did not mention this is that the only currency exchange houses we have here in Orange County are Travelex. Their exchange rates are so bad that you could add a 15 percent service fee on top of your exchange anywhere else and do better. But for those of you who have a currency exchange house that offers better rates than your local bank or credit union, you should really explore their rates.
Just remember that a Credit Union is a nonprofit organization, so if you belong to one, you should certainly check the rates there.
I agree. Travelex has awful rates, whereever you go. Most of the big exchange chains are that way. It is usually the smaller exchange offices that offer the best rates. Also, in just about all countries that have adopted the euro, exchange rates have gotten noticibly worse and commissions more pervasive since those countries lost their independent currencies. I used to know of exchange houses with great rates and no commissions in Paris, for example, but these are now either out of business or their rates are no longer great and they have added commissions.
In exchanging with an exchange house, one has to remember both ways in which one may be charged. All exchange houses make their profit by charging a lower rate to buy a foreign currrency than they sell it for. The differential in this spread is their profit. Some also add another fee, double dipping and making it harder to compare rates, by adding a ''commission'', something akin to a bank ''junk fee''. Even worse for small transactions is the minimum commission, which is often seen at airports. Commissions have become pervasive in countries that use the euro. It wasn't so much this way back in the days of the independent currencies. In eastern Europe, however, commissions are usually rare, and you only have to look at the differential between buying and selling rates, or better if you can do some research and compare currency buying rates for the currency you have with the mid-market interbank rate.
Many exchange houses here make a clear statement ''no commission'' on their signs. If in doubt ask. One eastern European city where commissions used to be fairly common, although this is changing, is Prague. One major chain of exchange houses there used to have a small sign that showed their commission in units of Czech currency rather than as a percentage. Many customers probably did not grasp that this amounted to a 9.8% commission in addition to the differential in rates.
Generally exchanges offices inside an airport or train station gives a bad rate, high commission, or both, but walking just outside a train station often produces a good rate with no commission. One exception is the Zurich airport, where the bank exchange offices in both terminals offer good rates, and one of the two does that with no commission and the other with a rather small commission as commissions go.
I try to find an exchange house with a 2% or less differential between buying and selling rates, and at the very most 3%. Here locally, the differential between buying and selling rates is usually 1% or less between either dollars or euros and local currency, and with no commission. At times it is less than half of one percent. For other currencies, there is a wider spread buy most of that is on the buying side of the differential, and the selling rates are often very close to the midmarket rate. That means I can often do a double exchange by way of local currency into quite a few currencies at a rate much better than if I was in other country doing a direct exchange.
