People who travel frequently outside their own country often accumulate a collection of currency they can’t use at home. It sits in a drawer with their passport waiting for the next trip to a place where they can use Euros, Rupees, Rand or Hong Kong dollars. How do you manage cash that isn’t your home currency is a challenge and everyone has an idea of what’s best.
Before leaving home I acquire some of the
currency used at my destination. I want to be sure I can pay for the cab to the hotel, a snack when
I arrive. One of my friends would rather
find an ATM when she arrives. If she
can’t find one in the airport she’s happy to negotiate an informal exchange
rate at coffee stand so she can grab her latte and pay in US dollars. Too complicated for me at the end of a ten-hour
flight.
And to figure out the relative values
of the currency you’ll be using one place to check is Oanda currency exchange service (www.oanda.com). Their currency converter is easy to use and
offers an quick way to compare any of 180 currencies ranging from the Albanian Lek to the
Zimbabwe Dollar. (There’s a free app for
your iPhone or iPad by the way.)
When you’re planning don’t forget
the connection you’ll make somewhere between home and your ultimate
destination. What currency will you need
for a cab into town in Zurich, lunch in Frankfurt, newspapers in New York?
At the end of the trip how do you
avoid returning with a stack of cash for your passport drawer? A favorite approach is to apply that currency
to your hotel bill. But don’t be tempted
to use every last bit of change in your wallet. On my last trip a flight was cancelled
which meant an unexpected night in a hotel, with meals, cabs and tips to be
paid. Glad I kept some currency as a
souvenir!
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