I just returned from a 3 week trip to Germany and have a little more than EURO 500. Does anyone know where I can make the money exchange. I live in the Philadelphia, PA area.

Thanks,
Lydia

Every time you exchange currency you lose some value. I'd hang onto it for your next trip, butif that's not an option, find a Travelex office.

you are really going to lose in the exchange. The buy rate is much different than the sell rate so you may be shocked at how much you get back.

Travelex is probably the best 'commercial' company. But better would be if you have a friend or relative who is traveling to Europe soon and you can sell the €€ to them for close to the interbank rate.

Find someone at your office (school, church) who is going to Europe soon and sell it to them.

I always save the leftovers for my next trip. As above posters have said, the exchange will be bad.

Hi L,

If you can't put the Euros away for your next trip, and you can't find a friend to buy them from you, go down to the airport and stand at one of the exchange booths with a small sign saying "Will exchange Euro for Dollars at bank rates".

send them to me, i will save them for my next trip

I agree with ira and pegontheroad. Save them for your next trip.

And I'm sure they are worth more now than when you first bought them. The way things are going with the dollar, they might just pay for your next trip.

You should call the main downtown branch of your bank to see if they do this (many won't). And plan to lose about 10% of the value of the money.

500 Euro? Holy cow!

If you have an account with Bank of America, you can deposit foreign currency with them (paper money only, not the coins!)

Or ask your bank if you can do it.

If not, find a currency exchange place where you live.

I sold my leftover 50E to a friend on her way to Italy. I regretted it two years later when the dollar tanked and I found myself in France again!

I would suggest everyone travelling to Europe learn how to tell false euros. There are millions in circulation and unless one is getting euros from a bank, you cannot be sure of their validity until checking them.

Living here we do get lax.. but when you get stung with a fake one, it wakes you back up.

http://www.swisseurobankaccount.com/...teurofalse.htm

you can see a video on youtube also when you google "checking for false euros"

You can send them to me, I can use them even without any travelling. That is almost next month's rent ;-)
[/Nonsense modus off]

Are you really sure you won't go back to Europe within the next couple of years? If the option exists and you are not totally broke at the moment and urgently need this money, I'd simply keep them. Store them somewhere close to your passport so that you find them when packing for the next trip.

Hi, and thanks for all the suggestions!

I originally paid $1.41? and today the rate is $1.496. I had purchased 3,000 Euros before we left. The rates had already climbed above what we paid for them so we made out OK. I called Travelex at the PHL airport and they will trade them for $1.32. I didn't expect it to be quite that low!!

I don't know when I will get back to Europe, can't even figure out where I want to go. So, unless I find someone going soon, I'll just hang onto them for awhile.

Thanks again,
Lydia

"<i>I originally paid $1.41? and today the rate is $1.496.</i>"

You are talking the sell rate (selling € to you). As you've discovered - the buy rate (buying € from you) will always be much different. That's why we suggested you try to sell to another traveler.

I'd really try to cut your losses. Since you probably paid 10¢ or more premium to buy those £3000 in the first place, to take it in the shorts again means you are losing a lot of money in total. (another reason we advise against pre-purchasing foreign currency)

I bought some €'s on Craigslist for the interbank rate. This was good for me as I got a good price on €'s to start my trip, and good for the seller as she avoided bank fees. At that time the interbank rate was 1.27, I wish I had bought more!!

Little of this makes sense.

Why in the h*ll did you buy so many Euros instead of just getting the money you need at the ATM when you needed it? That made no sense. I'm guessing if you paid 1.41 before you left, the real exchange rate (Interbank) at that point was 1.33 or less.

You set yourself up to lose money. You can either hang on to the Euros until you return or wait until the dollar completely tanks.

Our bank changed their regs. They now charge a conversion fee plus a fee to use other ATMS and when we did the numbers at the time it was a better deal to buy from Wells Fargo @ .07 over the interbank.

We did the ATM route last time, before our bank changed regs, and all went well except for one instance.

Think what you may, but I kinda liked having the cash and not tracking down ATMs. I know they are all around!

Is that what everyone recommends? using ATMS once you get there? What is better, VISA card to pay for stuff, or get cash from ATM?