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Comment by Scoundreller | Hacker News Reader

And a good reminder to get cash for your destination country before you get there where possible.

The hole in the wall forex place near me has wayyyyyy better rates than an airport’s currency desk.

Practically anyone does.

I've found that typically the easiest and very close to the cheapest way to get foreign cash is to simply withdraw it from an ATM in the destination country. Always make sure that they're charging your bank in the local currency to avoid poor exchange rates. You'll usually pay a couple bucks at the ATM and a couple more at your bank (unless you use somebody like Charles Schwab), but even with a $5 surcharge, the market rate used usually beats out the rate you can get at a money changer or from your bank before you travel.

That's been my experience as well. Using credit cards when possible and withdrawing cash from ATMs are the two best ways to get a good exchange rate.

And if you can find places where there’s cashback, you can also skip the ATM fees

Definitely! My credit union (BECU) actually refunds ATM fees which is an amazing perk. Before I was with them I would try to look up ATMs without fees ahead of time but that can be pretty tricky and inconsistent (especially outside of cities).

And then there are the American banks that charge foreign transaction fees on all foreign transactions, even those in US$.

Fuck you PNC.

Yeah. That's pretty frustrating. I always try to make sure that I have at least one card that doesn't have foreign transaction fees and I stick to that card I'm out of the country.

In the UK, the cheapest way to pay for things abroad is to get one of the travel-specific credit cards. The Halifax Clarity card is probably the best known, but I see that there are others now. These give you better rates than even the best forex places and don't charge per transaction fees. Obviously it's always wise to carry a little cash when travelling, but I can't recall the last time I had to use it, and I travel a lot for work.

My experience in France is that every little shop will have a 5-8 EUR minimum for card payments.

Of course you could buy your croissants from the Carrefour, but who would want to do that???

That would be illegal in Poland, as we have regulated transaction fees and card payment minimums have been outlawed for a few years now. You can easily pay for bread rolls by card here.

Probably depends on country and currency.

I get better Canadian dollar to Thai Baht rates after I land in Thailand (high demand for stable foreign currency over there), vs trying to buy THB while in Canada, as retailer desks have premiums for holding it.

And some currencies are best held for the shortest time possible.

Ordering currency from your bank has pretty decent rates as well. Seems a lot of people don't realize that's an option (at least in the states / same with converting back to USD).

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