i travel to europe a lot, generally changing money as i need it wherever i am. But in the post office today, someone was bringing some euros back, presumably from holiday to change them back to sterling. What a poor exchange rate they received.
This got me to thinking, why don't I offer to take the euros from such people. They get a better rate, i get a better rate. BUT, is that legal? Could I advertise to do this?
Just a thought on a wet wednesday
one question - who would use your services? Friends and relatives fine but strangers I think not. Eric
Why don't you just open a Nationwide flex account and withdraw money from foreign ATM's? You get a rate within a whisker of the interbank rate and no charges. I never bother currency in advance anymore, ATM's are everywhere in most of Europe.
"Eric Jones" wrote
Why not strangers?
You may want to buy currency off a total stranger but I would not. Eric
"Eric Jones" wrote
Are you on personal terms with the cashier you normally use?! ;-)
...that's illegal...
instance, or the notes I had were dodgy - Once your stranger has had my money I would probably never see them again! Eric
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When I worked in Corfu, I never used banks to change my Drachma salary into pounds. I used to just ask around for someone who wanted their holiday money. This invariably was a friend of a friend. We agreed a rate mid-way between the buy and sell rates advertised by one of the banks and both parties (I hope) got a good deal.
I agree that meeting total strangers and putting a few hundred pounds on the table is asking for trouble. However, if there is a demand, you should be able to ask around your friends and find people willing to change money. Most people here are likely to want to change pounds to euros but if you ask in the right places (tourist hotels perhaps), you might save some transaction charges by changing someone's euros into pounds.
Personally, if someone came up to me in a pub or placed a classified ad in the local paper asking to change money, I would be very suspicious about counterfeit notes, tricksters or muggers. I often buy through classified ads, but I think one reason I would be suspicious about money changing is because you don't often see such ads.
Also placing classified ads usually costs money and to recover this money you could well end up charging similar fees to the banks.
I am no legal expert but I would imagine there is some point where the transactions stop being between friends and fall under some money changing legislation.
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