Adventures in Currency Conversion

Jul 13, 2007 08:42

I have previously admitted to being low on cash. How low, one might ask? Well, on Monday morning, I was $24 short of having enough cash to pay my mortgage, which is due on Saturday ( Read more... )

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gothicsquish July 13 2007, 13:15:39 UTC
A /conversion/ fee?! Wholy crap, was this your bank, or a random bank?

Wow, its been years since I last tried to do such a thing, and i know i wasn't charged.

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chronarchy July 13 2007, 13:30:50 UTC
That would be my bank. Apparently this is the new "in" thing: all the banks are doing it.

I really wanted to ask, "So, if all the banks jumped off a bridge, would you guys, too?"

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whitmanschild July 13 2007, 16:05:47 UTC
My bank did something similar when I cme back from Japan, except they charged me a *percentage* of the total amount of cash, since it was over a certain amount, something like 5.5%. I paid a little over $60 to exchange just over $1000 in yen. And I had to wait while they sent it to Atlanta for processing. Two weeks of waiting. Bigtime suck.

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chronarchy July 13 2007, 17:15:53 UTC
It's really a hell of a pain. I mean, I don't mind much that they're "buying" rather than "exchanging" currency, but the flat fee really annoys me. It makes it almost completely pointless to change small amounts.

If I hadn't needed it, I wouldn't have changed it at all.

I mean, 30 Euros = 29 USD? In what topsy-turvy world does that happen?

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rfunk July 13 2007, 18:01:54 UTC
If there was a profit in jumping off the bridge, they'd do it.

As I recall from my trip long ago, the practical exchange rates are already set up to give the changer a bit of profit, so that if you change your Euro to dollars then immediately back, you're losing money. I guess someone decided they weren't making enough on small transactions.

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