Money Matters

[mike carey]

There's been discussion in here about funds for travelling, where to exchange currencies and the like. I started to look at this last time I travelled but the results were a bit confused. This week I have checked exchnage rates as my trip progressed.

 

On Friday 21 Apr (22 Apr Austalian time) when I checked out of the hotel in SF, I looked at AUD/USD exchange rates. I'm using the numbers for how much $AU1 buys in USD (so the higher the number the better).

• Interbank rate (from the paper) $AU1 buys 0.7548
  
• Amex purchase 0.7362 (This includes a 3% commission charge, so the size of transaction shouldn't change it)
   
  
• ATM Cash withdrawal 0.7489 (There was a $3 ATM fee, so on a $200 withdrawal the effective rate was 0.7378 but the bigger the withdrawal the less the difference between the two rates)
  
• I didn't use my bank credit card so I can't comment on the rates it would charge.
  

Other methods:

• Travelex in Australia offers online ordering of cash (paid by BPay, the Australian banks' bill paying service) to be collected at city or airport offices. It was selling USD at 0.7302. (Amex has a similar service but they are about to close it down.)
  
• The online rate is better than what you receive at their kiosks. Last Monday I bought USD from Travelex at the airport at 0.708275
   
  
• Qantas has a loadable mastercard that sells USD at 0.7195.
  

All this is just how the calculations worked for me finding ways to spend USD when my money starts out in AUD. Also I'm not concerned with a paper trail from my accounts to where I'm spending money. The details may differ for US travellers abroad, but I would guess that ATMs mught offer the best value.

[mike carey]

A second issue, US ATMs and $20 bills. Part of the reason I had been jumping through hoops changing money before I left Australia was my perception that $20s was all you can get from ATMs (except perhaps in Vegas). Others may have already worked it out, but when I withdrew cash from a Chase ATM, one screen that I could easily have missed said that the cash would be delivered in 20s. It gave me the option of changing that to 50s or 100s. Good news for those of us who don't want to carry a brick of 20s.

[rvwnsd]

A second issue, US ATMs and $20 bills. Part of the reason I had been jumping through hoops changing money before I left Australia was my perception that $20s was all you can get from ATMs (except perhaps in Vegas). Others may have already worked it out, but when I withdrew cash from a Chase ATM, one screen that I could easily have missed said that the cash would be delivered in 20s. It gave me the option of changing that to 50s or 100s. Good news for those of us who don't want to carry a brick of 20s.

I've found ATMs to be inconsistent in regards to the denominations they dispense, even within the same financial institution. Many businesses will not accept bills over $20 (which is annoying).

[+ Funguy]

In Dubai you ccan get gold mini-ingots at the ATM!

[mike carey]

I've found ATMs to be inconsistent in regards to the denominations they dispense, even within the same financial institution. Many businesses will not accept bills over $20 (which is annoying).

I figured that consistency might not be a hallmark of banks and their ATMs. The one I used was on Market Street in SF. On a side note, I've used cash more often here in the last week than I have at home for the last year, usually because there was no alternative. Another reason is to make change for the inevitable small transactions.

[+ Keith30309]

In Dubai you ccan get gold mini-ingots at the ATM!

Do you just drop them down into the dancer's thong ?