Best Money Exchange In Corralejo ???

Started by musicworld, July 18, 2013, 00:42:01 AM

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musicworld

Hi

I'm looking to change euro in to pound for a trip back to the UK.
Could anyone advise me on where i could get the best rate in the amount of €2k.
Could go in to my bank but i know thats not the best deal.

lionfish

If I had known a week ago I would have been happy to bring £2k pounds over and do a mutually acceptable deal - too late now, but maybe someone else about to fly over could help?

musicworld

Sorry to here that, ironic. But surely there's an exchange office in corralejo that could do a deal ? otherwise where do the rest of the residents of the island go to change their money when they trip back to the UK.

isleswing

Last year, the Asian shops on the seaward side of the lower, main drag, were offering a good rate.
We take euros in cash and prepaid card, but got low, so dipped in to our Sterling reserve.
Don't trust ANY exchange booths after a couple of previous rip-off attempts, and banks are no better.
After asking "If I give you £100, will you give me 120 euro (or whatever the rate was)" and he repeated it, we got our money in used notes.
Apparently, they prefer Sterling for secreting away. It's worth a try. They may even give a better rate for quantity.

SheilaW

Do you have a UK bank account? We do, and we just go to a cash card machine immediately on landing and refamiliarise ourselves with sterling there. Euros or card have always been good enough on the plane (don't tend to buy anything much on the plane anyway).

I notice the exchange places in Corralejo are only giving £1.12 today - was £1.15 just a few weeks ago.

lionfish

There has been a slight shift in the interbank rate recently - downwards from the point of view of those changing sterling to euros.

A good rate at present would be 1.14€ to £1 or the other way round 1€ = £0.88.

SheilaW

Did I get my exchange numbers the wrong way round? ::) I wouldn't be surprised. :-[

musicworld

So what would be a fair to good rate from any exchange office ? what should i be looking to get for €1.

potash

Admin is not about time you had a sticky on currency exchange every two or three weeks this question crops up, older posts have gone into great detail ie best credit card best debit card and best prepaid  and best ways to transfer money from uk to Fuerteventura, come on you know it makes sense you can dig some of my old posts up and slap on there.   

lionfish

The current interbank rate is 1€ = £0.863, so exchanging money I would consider 2 cents less than this a good deal and 3 cents less quite good/acceptable - so £0.833 to £0.843 would be my target.

admin

Quote from: potash on July 19, 2013, 07:39:46 AM
Admin is not about time you had a sticky on currency exchange every two or three weeks this question crops up, older posts have gone into great detail ie best credit card best debit card and best prepaid  and best ways to transfer money from uk to Fuerteventura, come on you know it makes sense you can dig some of my old posts up and slap on there.
You are probably right - but there are several topics there. I'm not sure one sticky would cover it especially as currency rates change more frequently than our weather.
There may be just cause to introduce a 'Currency & Banks' section to at least put them all in one place.

lionfish

For those using "Windows" there is a desktop gadget available giving the up to date interbank rate for currencies of your choice.
Right-click on your desktop and choose "gadgets" and then "currency". Finally set up your choice of currencies to monitor from the two dropdown lists.

musicworld

#12
After approaching the exchange office to change currency from Euro to GBP i was asked was i buying or selling and did i know the rate. To this i had no response as i didn't have any idea what they were talking about. Could somebody briefly explain what buying selling and exchange rates are all about, how does it all go together ? And how do the indian shops make a profit when you exchange money with them?

Sorry not to familiar on this topic.


isleswing

#13
I'm only used to buying euros with sterling, but the principle is the same.

Post Office  selling rate is currently 1.13 euro.

This means that for each Pound you give them, they will give you 1.13 euros.

When you get home with euros left over, the buying rate is 1.32 euro.

This means that you have to give them 1.32 euros to get one Pound back.

The profit margin is 19 cents on every Pound they buy back.

You'll just have to work it the other way round for your euros to Pounds.

With the Asian shops, I've heard that they trust the value of the Pound more than the euro when squirreling it away
Also, I believe they send some of it to the homeland, and Pounds buy more rupees or whatever than euros do.

I've just realised that they may be better off paying for their imports with Sterling than with euros. They're crafty, so they've got a very good reason somehow.
If anyone can explain how they reaal do work, I'd be very interested!


lionfish

#14
Most of what isleswing says is correct, but of  course money exchangers don't just make money on what you bring back to exchange, they make money both ways.
Basically, banks trade currencies at what is know as Inter Bank Rate and this is a variable rate (we all know sometimes we get a better deal that at other times). I will keep the amount small here, but remember banks will buy in millions not thousands!
Let's say a bank spends £1000 and buys 1200€ (the rate here is 1.20€ to the pound). When you go to the same bank to change your £1000 into euros they might offer you 1180€ which would be a very good rate, but note that the bank makes 20€ out of the deal - multiply this by 1000's of deals and the bank gets very rich. In reality, you might well get a much lower deal than 1180€ and hence the money changer makes even more profit. Remember too that many money changers have to buy from the bank at close to the rate you would get from the bank, so when they sell to you the rate goes down so that they too can make a profit.
As I said in my previous post when I change pounds to euros I always check the Inter Bank Rate and I consider 2 cents less than IBR a very good deal, 3 cents less not too bad and if offered 4 cents less I look elsewhere.
It's a similar story when you bring your money back the moneychanger will offer you a much worse deal than they did when you bought the currency in the first place. Let's say you managed to bring all 1,180€ back to change into sterling (you paid £1000 for that) the best you are likely to get now is something like £960 and this would be a very good deal. so basically having bought the euros and then simply changed them back to pounds you end up about £40 short - that's called profit!
So always check the rates and buy where you get the best offer.


isleswing

#15
Quote from: musicworld on July 20, 2013, 13:12:40 PM
After approaching the exchange office to change currency from Euro to GBP i was asked was i buying or selling and did i know the rate. To this i had no response as i didn't have any idea what they were talking about. Could somebody briefly explain what buying selling and exchange rates are all about, how does it all go together ? And how do the indian shops make a profit when you exchange money with them?

Sorry not to familiar on this topic.


Thanks for the in-depth, Lionfish. I was just giving a simplistic answer to how it affects the buyer, and how much they lose when double-changing money.

Any leftover euros are best traded with friends who are preparing to travel themselves. Strike a deal that suits both.
The asian shops, of course operate completely outside the usual system!!!

woe10

UK AIRPORTS:

HUNDREDS of thousands of Britons waste millions of their hard-earned holiday cash by buying expensive foreign currency at UK airports.

A shocking 1.65 million tourists waste more than £18million a year – despite widespread advice not to do so – according to the annual survey of airport exchange rates by Post Office Travel Money.

Birmingham Airport topped the poll for poor rates, for seven out of 11 currencies, followed by Newcastle and Liverpool.

Almost two-thirds of tourists are headed for the eurozone. After surveying exchange rates at 10 UK airports, researchers found 1,086,993 Britons each waste an average £10.57 buying euros because of poor rates and commission charges.

musicworld

Went in to 2 Indian shops over the weekend and was given 2 different exchange offers. The first one offered 1,540,GBP from €1800. and the other 1,630,GBP from €1,800. Obviously I'll take the €1,630 so is that good deal ?

lionfish

At the current rate I would say they are both good deals, obviously one better than the other. My view is that the boundary (at this moment in time) for a good deal on 1800€ is £1512.
However, you must ask yourself why they are willing to offer such a good deal:-
1) Suspect money laundering of some form - and make sure you are happy to be a party to it.
2) Check that the (£) notes you are given are genuine.
3) Having said that, the deal they are getting is pretty much what they would get at a bank - but this way the money can't be traced - now back to 1)