Best place to exchange dollar to euro

Old Aug 26th, 2014, 09:12 AM
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Best place to exchange dollar to euro

Hi all,

I am flying to Greece this Thursday. I am trying to determine the best place to exchange dollar to euro.

The current rate is $1 = 0.76 euro

My bank is $1 = 0.71 euro, and another local currency exchange is $1=0.73 euro.

Should I exchange here or wait until I get to Athens Friday evening?

Please help! Thanks!
yisler is offline  
Old Aug 26th, 2014, 09:18 AM
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Don't exchange at all. Best rate at ATMs with your debit/ATM card. Essential to call your bank before traveling to advise them of your plans or the card will likely be blocked.

There must be a thousand threads on this topic here already (See "search the forums" above).
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Old Aug 26th, 2014, 10:32 AM
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Thank you- I did search, but they appeared out of date. I already have cash in hand, and my bank charges a fee for international atm use.
yisler is offline  
Old Aug 26th, 2014, 10:40 AM
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Exchanging currency will cost more. Period. You may certainly do as you like and are comfortable with, but do it knowing you're wasting money. This question, asked so often, is a sign of an inexperienced traveler. Those with experience wouldn't dream of exchanging cash except in an emergency and I don't recall what year it was when I last got cash anywhere but an ATM at my destination. In fact, I've heard it's sometimes difficult these days to even find currency exchanges in some places while ATMs are virtually everywhere. Put your cash back in your account. Or don't, up to you.
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Old Aug 26th, 2014, 11:04 AM
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>

Considering this topic comes up monthly, they cannot all be out of date. MmePerdu is right, the ATM is the way to go and you can mitigate the fees your bank charges by extracting larger amounts, which should make the transaction costs lower than the crappy exchange rate you will get from the bank (your bank's rate is more than 5% worse than the actual exchange rate).

And further considering you're in the US, where foreign cash transactions are relatively uncommon, that 0.73E/$ rate seems off - that may be the rate at which they sell dollars or there may be other fees involved.
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Old Aug 26th, 2014, 11:12 AM
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You will be hard put to find a bank that can and will exchange dollars for euro apart from a bureau de change at the airport which will not give a good rate, especially if they claim to charge no fees.

Use you card at an ATM - take out as much as you are allowed to to minimise your own banks fees. You will not be charged by the European ATM assuming it is from a recognised bank.
Also use your credit card when you can.
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Old Aug 26th, 2014, 11:32 AM
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Yisler, you may be confusing the exchange rate with fees. The rate is the percentage of the entire dollar amount changed, whether by ATM from your own account, or cash dollars at a bank or exchange facility. The fee is a small fixed amount charged by your bank for the transaction, maybe $5 or thereabout. So you can see how a difference in a rate of several percentage points could add up. A difference of 3% on $500 is $15. If you withdrew $500 at a time and the bank charged $5 per transaction, well you can see the difference. I'm using hypothetical figures and it could be a bit more or less. But the fact remains, using an ATM is the least expensive way to do it.
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Old Aug 26th, 2014, 12:07 PM
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The OP apparently did not like the answers, because he is no longer with us.
Michael is offline  
Old Aug 26th, 2014, 12:12 PM
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Once you get out of the airport you're going to have difficulty finding a currency exchange office. Banks will be your best option, but be advised that you will not get a favorable exchange rate, even in a bank. And FYI, Greek banks don't charge a transaction fee for ATM withdrawls.
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Old Aug 26th, 2014, 02:19 PM
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"The OP apparently did not like the answers, because he is no longer with us."

Don't confuse them with the facts, etc.
MmePerdu is offline  
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