Doing a little accounting from European trip. I just double checked the exchange rate of the yen to the Euro online and compared it to the price I paid at the airport. The results are rather startling.
The online rates as posted at www.xe.com as of this posting is 158 yen / Euro. The rate I got at the airport was 175 yen / Euro. The difference means that I paid an extra 17 yen per Euro at the airport (10% of my cash). To add insult to injury, they also charged a commission of an additional 17.11 Euros.
WHAT!? They give me a shitty rate and then charge me for their effort? What a rip-off. With the additional charge, the exchange rate goes up to 184 yen / Euro. They ripped a whole 16% off me (I exchanged about $600, meaning they stole about $100)!
This is the first time I really double checked the exchange rate so this might be not indicative of all airports, but this experience will keep me on my toes. Generally, I've been told that you usually get the best rates when exchanging money in the host country of the currency. This might be true, so long as it isn't at the airport or a hotel.
3 comments:
Yeah those airport kiosks will murder you with bad rates, they're there to take advantage of the travellers who need to exchange money. But, I guess you're paying for the convienience, but that's a lot in difference. Banks are likely to give you the best rates, if you can find one before you need to start exchanging.
If you can find an ATM that accepts a debit card with a supported network (Cirrus, Maestro, etc.) then you usually get ripped off only to the tune of about 3% plus a $2-3 charge. I don't know what the situation is in Japan though.
I did some searching and the information on the net has indicated that banks and ATMs offer better exchange rates. Anyways, moral of the story is that always keep good tabs on the exchange rates before going traveling, or else you'll end up getting screwed.
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