Currency (cash) exchange - best place for it?

[WOLF13]

Looking to exchange 5K cash Friday to USD. Any current tips for Sydney?

 

[RB]

Looking to exchange 5K cash Friday to USD. Any current tips for Sydney?

Mrs RB used KVBKUNLUN (Citibank building Park/George St) while we were in Syd last Wed. We had Aussie cash to buy Euro & the rate & transaction were fine & no complications. Time worries that have been raised previously on here did not come into play- take the English option (2nd language) when you first enter.

 

[WOLF13]

haha, I'll go with option 2 then.

How was the commission and rates?

 

[RB]

haha, I'll go with option 2 then.

How was the commission and rates?

Rates were best we saw in town on the day & it is what you see you get - ie commission is built into the rate, virtual xe rate, very small spread

 

[ethernet]

Some now say Casino's may be your bet bet exchanging money. Usually only INTO local currency.

17 April 2011. With the $A at 1.04 something against the $USD, George St Sydney, around or ACEBEN 2nd hand dealers seemed the best. The convenience milk bar shop opposite 790 on George street was selling USD for 1.04+ when we were 1.055 and rising.

The non-bank independents were giving shocking rates for Asian currencies - SIN$, Yuan, THB etc (29. to .34) a spread of 10% odd. I asked why and they said high demand for THB.Another shop told me rates - not rent recently doubled from $500 to $1000 per month, just for a hole in the wall.

So I did not exchange anything- I feel USD is only going to go down, and no-one wanted to sell swiss francs at a fair price. Meanwhile OZforex is looking good, as it is clear the 3.5% 'take' of PAYPAL is something Australian banks turn up their noses.

 

[RB]

In Sydney on Monday, trying to exchange a small amount of cash for $HKG,(only there to sleep at an airport hotel overnight) I got a bit of an education. KVBKUNLUN had good rates but had a $100 Aust min (no plans to go back to HKG for a while & I am sick of having a lot of unused currency around), Amex wanted to charge $8 fee on a $50 transaction, Flight Centre had no $HKG and I ended up paying $6 fee to a hole in the wall group for my $A50 transaction-did get good rate & no ID taken.
Also interesting that KVBKUNLUN had a sign indicating that they had no Euro available that day but were willing to lock in a rate for later transactions

 

[zeng]

In early May 2011 I did some checks. On that day the xe.com rate was 1 AUD = 0.73955 EUR. I called around and got info on the rates four agencies were offering to buy Euros with Australian dollars (cash) in Perth. Here are the results. Any extra fees and charges are noted.

Nationwide Foreign Exchange. 1 AUD = 0.7051 EUR
American Express 1 AUD = 0.7040 EUR + AUD 8 fee.
Flight Centre Travel Money 1 AUD = 0.6926 EUR.
Uae Exchange Foreign Currency & Money Transfers 1 AUD = 0.7120 EUR.