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Best place to exchange €100 to £

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  • 10-10-2013 2:34am
    #1
    Antifa161
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 438 ✭✭


    I have €100 cash I would like to change for GBP ahead of a trip to the UK. I was told An Post do commission free but also heard this is negated by poor rates.

    I was going to just lodge the cash in my AIB account and withdraw it from an ATM in the UK but I imagine I'd be charged a fee for that and I may as well just ask AIB for the Sterling there and then if I was to do that?


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    #2
    endacl
    Registered Users Posts: 22,305 ✭✭✭✭endacl


    Antifa161 wrote: »
    I have €100 cash I would like to change for GBP ahead of a trip to the UK. I was told An Post do commission free but also heard this is negated by poor rates.

    I was going to just lodge the cash in my AIB account and withdraw it from an ATM in the UK but I imagine I'd be charged a fee for that and I may as well just ask AIB for the Sterling there and then if I was to do that?

    If you know a student, get them to do it commission free. Lots of student accounts offer this facility. Well, at least they did way back when I had a student account.....@getting old. :(


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    #3
    Antifa161
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 438 ✭✭Antifa161


    endacl wrote: »
    If you know a student, get them to do it commission free. Lots of student accounts offer this facility. Well, at least they did way back when I had a student account.....@getting old. :(
    Mine is a student account, although I lost my student ID for the time being so would not be able to 'prove' it if they asked (would they? it is a student account as I say).

    Providing I'm not charged commission, is there a place I can compare their exchange rate to An Posts? I know the difference will be minimal for only €100 but may as well!


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    #4
    coylemj
    Registered Users Posts: 25,437 ✭✭✭✭coylemj


    Withdrawing it from an ATM you will be hit by a transaction charge which in the case of AIB is 1% but a minimum of €1.27 which in your case will be more than 1% of the transaction. The FX rate will be slightly better than over the counter cash but the charge will negate that saving. You'd be as well off getting cash before you go for that amount because an awful lot of ATMs in the UK involve extra charges as in the US.

    Currently AIB are very slightly better than An Post. Based on today's rate, this is how much £80 sterling will cost you, taking commission into account in the case of the banks.....

    AIB €97.04
    An Post €97.34
    BoI €98.63


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    #5
    mp3ireland2
    Registered Users Posts: 1,788 ✭✭✭mp3ireland2


    NO good for this time but if you are going again, you can open a uk ulsterbank account using a southern address....online, very easy. Then you can use currencyfair.com to exchange currency online (works like betfair, if you want to buy £'s you exhange with somebody who wants €'s)

    Too much hassle for one trip I'd agree, but over your lifetime I'm sure the savings would add up! even buying stuff online for example, you wouldn't be loosing out everytime!

    I'm living in the uk and what i always do if people are coming over to visit is get them to put euro's in my irish account and i'll give them £'s when they arrived at xe.com rate. THat way when i visit home i've euro's to spend and they've £'s to spend over here, all at mid market rates....just in case you are visiting a friend!


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    #6
    hfallada
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,180 ✭✭✭hfallada


    I have gone into AIB and I just say Im student when its something that usually costs eg bank draft, FX. Its never once been an issue. They will also be able to check on the system what type of account you have. Just chance it. They worst they can say is no


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    #7
    Cointreau
    Registered Users Posts: 21 ✭Cointreau


    I'm looking to do similar - what did you decide to do in the end?


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    #8
    Antifa161
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 438 ✭✭Antifa161


    Cointreau wrote: »
    I'm looking to do similar - what did you decide to do in the end?
    AIB, I told them I had a student account and they did it 0% commish. They didn't even ask me for my account details or anything.

    On a side note, AIB's new drive toward self-service is shocking. I stood in a small (not for long) queue for 40 minutes because of the 5 visible staff only 1 of them was actually doing any work, while the other 4 milled around bothering people in the queue asking them what they were queuing for and would they like to use the new machines. If they just sat down and actually did some work the queue would have moved much faster.


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