What does it really mean to exchange currencies? It’s actually not all that straight forward with changes daily due to world currency exchange fluctuations and different vendors offering different rates.
If you look up the market rates for the exchange for a particular day (July 7, 2007), it yields 2.01520:
Buy and Sell
The Buy and Sell (you always see two prices on those exchange boards with the red LED numbers) basically mean this:
1. They Buy USD= You exchange GBP for USD.
2. They Sell USD= You exchange USD for GBP.
Generally you are going to be buying GBP that they sell. So #2 is what you would be concerned with since you really should be using up all your cash at the pub and not converting GBP back to USD like a wuss.
Capital One Credit Card
On Yahoo for 7/7, my meal at Fortune Gardens was 13.85 GBP. On my credit card statement it shows up as $27.86, which yields an exchange rate of 2.0116. Yes, I had Chinese two nights in a row. The Chinese food in Notting Hill is pretty damn good. And by good I’m not referring to the Panda Express stuff yall thinking about. This is real deal Peking duck.
That’s pretty damn close to market, which is fabulous. Capital One rocks, folks. Get this one for travel.
Banking
For comparison, my HSBC bank does free wire transfers for its premier accounts but skims off the top with 1.9641 Buy and 2.0649 Sell. That’s not good but not that bad. It’s so-so and you get convenience.
High Street money exchange
My local Post Office does sells USD at 2.2043 and buys at 1.9150. So mosdef not good. You simply shouldn’t be using these anymore the same way you shouldn’t still be using Vidal Sassoon to create the effect of the wave on your head to go along with your Members Only jacket. Or maybe retro is cool again….
ATM
For my cash withdrawal at the Barclays, the exchange rate was 2.011, which is pretty much wholesale market rates for currency. This is great if you have a Bank of America account as I had mentioned in my blog about How to get Cash in London.
Checks
Don’t deposit UK Checks into your bank account. You will NOT get the same rates that you get for taking cash out. For my travel reimbursement from my initial trip to London, I received a check in GBP that I deposited into my account and I got an exchange rate of roughly 1.9. ZOMG. FDAT. Avoid GBP checks mixing with your US Bank accounts.
There…now take those GBPs and go buy some bangers and mash.
Leave comment