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How to evade foreign currency problems? |
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Travel Articles
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Travel Articles >> Economics
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1. Do not travel with sacks of money. It is much better to take some cash with you and the rest should be on a plastic card. It is quite easy to get it blocked if it is stolen or lost. Your account can be usually in your home currency - the ATM of the destination country will give you local currency. But remember - there is usually a commission for the cashing with the use of foreign ATMs - 1-3% and usually not less than a certain amount - about $3-5. That is why it does not really make sense to take out small sums for current expenses. It is better to pay with the card in shops and restaurants. Plastic cards in most countries are accepted even in small stores. 2. Avoid double conversion. Ask your bank about the currency exchange rate. For example, some banks do not have a correspondent euro-account to deal with the payment systems. This means that when you get cash abroad, the bank first converts the amount to US-dollars and after that into the local currency. You can lose significant amount as the result. 3. Take a small currency reserve with you. It is quite reasonable to buy some currency of the destination country before you get there. Sometimes it is not so easy to find it, especially if you have a lack of time. It will cost you approximately the same as if you would exchange it after arrival. But some countries prohibit the import of their national currency, for example China, India, Myanmar, Egypt and Tunis. 4. With euro to Europe and with dollar to Asia. If you did not manage to buy exotic local country in your homeland, think about which currency is better to take with you - dollars or euro. Of course, European directions are more convenient with euro. The Asia and Middle East welcome the US dollars. But the currency will have to be exchanged to the local after the arrival, because in the most shops of Asia and North Africa are accepting dollars, but at a very bad exchange rate. 5. Avoid street money-changers. When you are on holiday, do not forget that the exchange rate highly depends on the place of the exchange. It is usually least profitable at the airports and at popular touristic routes. The difference between the exchange rates in the historical center of the city and it's distant corners can be really fantastic. Your touristic guide or experienced travelers at the internet-forums could help you to find out such national peculiarities. Always use the legal exchange points. At first, the probability to get cheated there and secondly - you can take a receipt. The rest of the local currency, left after the stay cannot be exchanged back without such an initial receipt in India, Indonesia, China, Egypt and Tunis. 6. Take your calculator with you to the exchange point. In some countries there are sometimes serious tricks that are actually a real fraud. For example in the historical center of Prague that is full of tourists, all the exchange points are promising "0% commission". But do not get deceived so easily - there are no commissions only if you sell krone. If you buy them - the commission can reach 10%. So you'd better ask to show the real amount that you will receive for 100 dollars on a calculator. 7. Mind the time of the day. There are countries with hours and even days when most of the currency exchange points are closed. In Spain and Italy it is siesta time, in Israel and Nepal - the Saturday, in Poland - Sunday. Most of the exchange points in Czech Republic get closed at 18:00 and the exchange rate in the non-stop working exchange points is really brutal. But in any situation - try to evade the street money-changers - you can eventually lose all your money. Try to find a non-stop currency exchange in a large hotel. But the best is to take care about the cash beforehand. 8. Remember about the cheaters. If the situation is hopeless and extreme and you have decided to exchange at the street nevertheless, it is useful then to know about the main tricks of the cheaters. The first trick is popular in the Eastern Europe and Italy. The street money-changer counts the money before your eyes and folds them up. At the folding moment he imperceptibly takes out a part of the banknotes or replaces them and you get only apart of the amount in your hands. The second trick is more brutal, but effective and is applied in Eastern countries. A noisy activity that often involves gypsies or street beggars distracts the tourist during the exchange process. 9. Evade the old banknotes. Remember that in the developing countries there are often denominations and the old banknotes are taken out of the traffic and are exchangeable to the new ones only in commercial banks and after a longer period of time - only in the local central bank. For example in Azerbaijan since the 1-st January 2007 the old manats have been replaced and tolars are not more convertible in Slovenia. 10. Examine the banknotes. Be careful with unknown currencies abroad. For example in Pakistan - an old 500-rupee banknote that is still convertible - is very much like the 100-rupee one. In some countries with high inflation rate the banknotes have a very large nominal value - don't get messed up with the zeros. And at the multi-colored Eastern banknotes like Egyptian pounds or UAE dirham - it is quite hard to notice the digits at all. |
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