Currency exchange, the best deal?
 

Hi all.

I just found some US dollar bills and I'd like to transfer them over to my Norwegian bank - but it's costly!

So I wonder what you guys do when you transfer other currencies? Does anyone here have any experience with TransferWise?

I'll be travelling lots this year, and so I'm curious of whatever tips you have to keep your money off the bank fees ;)

Cheers Norway xx

Have you looked at xe.com?

When traveling I use ATMs for local currency - I have a bank account that charges no foreign conversion fees and no fees for using foreign ATMs. For larger expenditures I use credit cards that don't charge foreign conversion fees.

If you're not coming to the US within the next 3 years -or ever, give the US currency to someone who is coming to the US to spend here. I hope it is more than a few one dollar bills.
Anyone coming into the US should plan on visiting an ATM for walking around money and use a no fee credit card for purchases where the credit card is accepted.

Found them where and how much? You can just take them to your bank and ask them to exchange them and deposit the result. Or did you find say $10,000 in a drawer?

It was $226, they were in my foreign currency-box where I keep the coins and bills left over after travels, usually of little value. But so I had forgotten about the time I went to New York years ago and withdrew more than I spent. The Norwegian Krone is a bit weaker now than usual due to oil prices and the US dollar strong, when I was there a dollar was 5.8 kroner and now it's 7.65 - which, if the dollar falls at some point, I could have earned off it (or I should wait until it grows further).

So yes, the smartest is probably just to get them into my account and then wait and see. It's not like it's a huge amount of money at stake, I was just curious of foreign conversion fees and whether they could be avoided. I didn't use to pay attention to this before at all but now I want to know all I can about it

I would keep them for future travels. They're likely worth more now than they were when you bought them and you'd lose on conversion. I live in Canada and always keep all leftover USD after travelling as they are universally accepted and could come in handy such as purchasing a visa on arrival in many countries. The USD is Cambodia's unofficial second currency so I used USD there last year. In my "secret stash cash" (places I hide bills in case my credit card and debit card are lost, stolen or compromised) I keep a $100 USD bill and 50 EUR bills in two other places for emergency use. I hope I never use them but I feel more secure with them. Perhaps you could use some of your USD for that purpose.