Pounds and Euros in New York
 

Where can I get either Pounds or Euros, $100 worth, in NYC? Last time I went to London I had to change a few $ over into Pounds at Paddington station because the atm machine was down. Needless to say I got rooked so now the next time I go I would not mind having a few pounds in the pocket before I get there.

I'm not from NYC, but if you look in the Manhattan telephone book for the American Express travel offices, they usually have exchange bureaus in their offices. If you're an American Express cardholder, the service fee for exchange is waived for members.

In addition, you should be able to get currency at your bank for no charge...I typically do this before going to Europe. You could also get currency at JFK or EWR, but you would have to most likely pay a commission.

It pays to shop around for the best rate of exchange. I would never use Amex unless I had no other choice. Take a look at:
Peoples Foreign Exchange
575 5th Avenue, New York, NY 10017
(212) 883-0550

Contrary to rex's post on another thread, this place sold Euro for 20 cents less than any Italy ATM this past May. Due to the weak dollar, there's an abundance of Euro in some of America's exchange businesses and some are willing to cut their rate a bit to get rid of it. Everything depends on everything else.

You can usually exchange at any of the major banks. I don't know if there exchange rates are any better. There might be a service charge if you don't have an account there. Ask before you make the transaction. Two that I've used are:

Chase 270 Park Avenue (at 47th Street)
HSBC 452 5th Avenue (at 40th Street)

Agreed on AMEX. I like Thomas Cook. Be wary not only of the 'rates' of exchange but also the service charge. Some places neglect to inform you of a set fee until they are counting out your money. By then it is a bit late and depending on the amount that you are exchanging, this fee can be significant.

I used to use Thomas Cook until Peoples beat them in fees and price. NYC banks have never offered good deals according to my math and I've been with Chase for 27 years. I believe Peoples charges a flat $2 fee regardless of total dollar amount. I've done my homework, folks.

If you are only after one hundred dollars worth, the rate is largely irrelevant as any discrepancy will be under 10 dollars. If you're coming to London for more than one night you won't get very far on that amount - when the rate is good buy it all in NYC it's convenient and you won't have to carry "useless" dollars over here (i.e. a currency that is not readily accepted in the UK).

My favorite American Express story was when we were in Geneva and heading home to the US the next day, I thought I'd cash a $100 American Express Travelers Check so I'd have some US dollars at home. Now since I'm a member of American Express and since it was an AE check, wouldn't you think I could get $100 for it at an AE office? Wrong. They would change it to Swiss Francs only and then change the Swiss Francs into US dollars. The bottom line was that they would give me approximately $60 US for my $100 US travelers check -- about a 40% exchange rate. But guess what?? They proudly told me there would be no FEE for exchanging the money. Geez, they were already charging me 40%, how much more did I think they could add for a fee?

Oh, I went home without the dollars.

"this place (Peoples Foreign Exchange) sold Euro for 20 cents less than any Italy ATM this past May. Due to the weak dollar, there's an abundance of Euro in some of America's exchange businesses and some are willing to cut their rate a bit to get rid of it. Everything depends on everything else."

NYCFoodSnob, please let me know when the Euro can be bought again at a 16% discount (or even 10%). I'll be happy to escrow against delivery.

I'm terribly sorry everyone. I should know better. Thank you, jsmith, for pointing out my error. I referenced the wrong receipts.

Peoples sold Euro for 5 cents less than his NYC competitors and I think that brought it down to $1.20 or $1.18 (I can't find that receipt). Venice ATM's in May, depending on the bank (I researched 7 banks) went up to $1.237. When you compare Peoples one-time $2 fee to Chase's $3 per ATM (7) transaction fee, this was the first time in all my years of travel to Italy where it would have made sense to buy my Euro in NY. I'll leave the final cost/savings analysis to someone else.