Pure Travel
  • About
  • Destination Inspiration
  • Tips & Advice
  • Guide
  • Travel Writing
  • Cookie Policy (UK)
  • Conservation
  • Privacy
  • Travel Writing Competition 2025
  • Reviews
  • Travel Resources
  • T&C
  • Contact Us
  • Conservation
  • Privacy
  • Travel Writing Competition 2025
  • Reviews
  • Travel Resources
  • T&C
  • Contact Us
Pure Travel
Pure Travel
  • About
  • Destination Inspiration
  • Tips & Advice
  • Guide
  • Travel Writing
  • Cookie Policy (UK)
  • Tips & Advice

How To Get The Best Exchange Rates When Travelling

  • August 19, 2012
  • Jules

So you’re finally going on that dream vacation to that other country that you love, but there’s just one problem, right before you go, you realize that your money probably won’t work over there and you’ll need it exchanged. Follow our tips and advice below to ensure you get the best travel exchange rates.

Obviously you know that most countries don’t use the same currency (unless of course youโ€™re in the Euro), but it doesn’t hit most new travellers until they first travel. The first thing you could do is convert your money in your home country. Check the rates at your local providers and with your bank. Some upgraded bank and building society accounts offer their account holders preferential rates on holiday money. You might not get the best rates when doing this because they change daily and you will end up traveling with a large sum of cash. In this instance look at a good balance between hard cash and travellers cheques. One note of warning is to never ever exchange money at airport, hotels and other tourist establishments. The rates are notoriously low as they look to snare the captive customer.

What you could also do is look up the foreign exchange rate for the country you are going to before you travel there, so you have a pretty good estimate of what your money is worth once there. Foreign exchange rates do change a little bit on a daily basis but for the most part will remain the same over a few weeks.

The second thing you will want to do is check your credit card and ATM card before you go on your vacation to see what their foreign usage rates are. Visa and Master Card tend to offer foreign exchange rates that are almost half of what you will get by using cash. The latest numbers say 8% compared to 15% for cash. This is a big difference, but there is one thing you have to look out for. Most credit cards do have extra fees for using them overseas so you will need to check those out and know what you are getting into before you go travel.

Additionally, letting your credit card company know in advance that you will be traveling to another country and there will be quite a few charges coming from there is a good idea too. Many credit card companies have automatic fraud detection and will block your credit card until you call them and tell them what is going on.

Once you get the credit card and ATM card situated and you’re ready to travel, you just need to know where the best places are to exchange your cash are in the country you are visiting. This can vary from country to country, but for the most part, you will want to stay away from the currency exchange booths near tourist traps. They almost always have terrible rates and some are downright scams.

Want you want to do is again check the rate in the country the day you go to exchange money so you have a general idea what it should be, and head to a large bank or post office and see if they can exchange the money there for you. Typically you will get rates closest to the actual exchange rates at these locations.

Share
Tweet
Related Topics
  • advice
  • budget
  • exchange rates
  • finance
  • money
  • tips
Jules

Previous Article
  • Destination Inspiration

5 Simple Tips to Explore London on a Tight Budget

  • August 18, 2012
  • Jules
View Post
Next Article
  • Sea Dog Tales

10 Worst Hotels In The World

  • August 20, 2012
  • Jules
View Post
You May Also Like
Four women celebrating after completing a fundraising challenge
View Post
  • Lifestyle
  • Tips & Advice

Adventuring with a Cause: Fundraising Tips for Ethical Explorers

  • Jules
  • May 19, 2025
Luxury fishing lodge
View Post
  • Lifestyle
  • Tips & Advice

Where To Go For The Ultimate Catch? Top Destinations With Luxury Fishing Lodges

  • Jules
  • May 16, 2025
The Best Destinations for Independent Travelers
View Post
  • Destination Inspiration
  • Tips & Advice

Solo Summer Adventures: The Best Destinations for Independent Travelers

  • TotalSEO
  • May 12, 2025
overseas adventure travel ideas - Nepal
View Post
  • Action & Adventure
  • Lifestyle
  • Tips & Advice

The Ultimate Guide to Overseas Adventure Travel from the U.S.

  • Robert
  • May 8, 2025
travel clipart
View Post
  • Tips & Advice

Travel Clipart: A Simple Way to Improve Your Travel Website

  • Robert
  • May 7, 2025
camper trailers
View Post
  • Tips & Advice

Rolling Home: How to Pick the Perfect Camper Trailer

  • Jules
  • May 1, 2025
Bangalore festivals
View Post
  • Tips & Advice

Karaga Festival in Bangalore: A Journey into Tradition and Devotion

  • Jules
  • April 25, 2025
villa in st barths
View Post
  • Tips & Advice

Escape to Paradise: How to Book Your Dream Villa in St-Barths

  • Jules
  • April 18, 2025
Pure Travel
  • About
  • Destination Inspiration
  • Tips & Advice
  • Guide
  • Travel Writing
  • Cookie Policy (UK)
A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step

Input your search keywords and press Enter.

Pure Travel
Manage Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage {vendor_count} vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}