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Do any US stores accept foreign currency?

Do any US stores accept foreign currency?

Old Aug 29th 2011, 4:04 pm
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Default Re: Do any US stores accept foreign currency?

Originally Posted by Egg and Cress
One of the younger girls I used to work with, as I was explaining about the different names for English money, thought I said "squid" and went "eeeewwww!" She's the same one who asked me what language they spoke in England! Poor soul - although she was a sweet girl, she had no clue whatsoever of life beyond Memphis!
I've posted this before...a cashier in a store asked where I was from...when I said England she said 'We had a Whale in here yesterday'. Of course she meant someone from Wales...who would be Welsh...but it made me
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Old Aug 29th 2011, 4:14 pm
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Default Re: Do any US stores accept foreign currency?

Originally Posted by Jerseygirl
I've posted this before...a cashier in a store asked where I was from...when I said England she said 'We had a Whale in here yesterday'. Of course she meant someone from Wales...who would be Welsh...but it made me
That is actually quite a good one
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Old Aug 29th 2011, 5:56 pm
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Default Re: Do any US stores accept foreign currency?

When I went to Ireland for the first time in 2003 I bought some Euros from my bank to take with me. It was a special order and took a week to get in.

My grandmother has successfully paid with dollars overseas twice that I know of. Once in Italy (I quizzed her on the Euro price and the guy actually gave her a fair deal) and once in London at a craft show, but the seller was very pleased to get dollars as he was planning to go to America later that year! And again it was a fair exchange rate.
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Old Aug 29th 2011, 6:01 pm
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Default Re: Do any US stores accept foreign currency?

A few stores up in northern Maine accept Canadian dollars, but then they're on the border.

Not seen any of the big stores around here do that though.
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Old Aug 29th 2011, 6:05 pm
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Default Re: Do any US stores accept foreign currency?

Hmm - discovered over the weekend that a local Fry's Food store doesn't seem to take US cash here - other than bills and quarters... Had to take most of contents of piggy bank (well, hippo bank!) back home!

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Old Aug 29th 2011, 6:12 pm
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Default Re: Do any US stores accept foreign currency?

There must be significantly less demand for using foreign currency abroad than there was years ago, since presumably people either use their credit card or debit card for purchases, or (when they arrive in the foreign country) they get a moderate sum from an ATM for small purchases. We visit Canada frequently since we live near the border, and we always keep $100 or so in Canadian currency.. plus a change purse full of Canadian change, much of it collected inadvertently in the US! Sometimes several trips go by and we've not spent any Canadian money, because we've simply used the debit and credit cards..

EDIT: Having said that, an amazingly high proportion of Americans seem to be tinfoil hat types who never use cards, always cash, because they are afraid of the United Nations tracking their movements and purchases etc. Mind you they are the type of people who would never travel abroad.

Last edited by robin1234; Aug 29th 2011 at 6:16 pm. Reason: rambling on.
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Old Aug 29th 2011, 7:42 pm
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Default Re: Do any US stores accept foreign currency?

Originally Posted by HarryTheSpider
Hmm - discovered over the weekend that a local Fry's Food store doesn't seem to take US cash here - other than bills and quarters... Had to take most of contents of piggy bank (well, hippo bank!) back home!

HTS
I enjoy using the Self Checkout machines to get rid of my collections of pennies and nickels.
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Old Aug 29th 2011, 8:23 pm
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Default Re: Do any US stores accept foreign currency?

Some places in Bellingham will accept Canadian $$ but they will not give a good exchange rate and your better off getting US $ before leaving or using a credit card.

There was a Wal-Mart in South San Diego near the Mexican border that at one time would accept Mexican peso's but haven't been there in years and not sure if they still do.

On the flip side, most major retailers in Canada will accept US currency.
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Old Aug 30th 2011, 9:48 am
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Default Re: Do any US stores accept foreign currency?

If banks don't sell foreign currency, where do you get it? Pretty sure DH got his sterling from a bank in his area (town just outside Boston) when he used to come here. Although he may have had to order it.
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Old Aug 30th 2011, 10:09 am
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Default Re: Do any US stores accept foreign currency?

Originally Posted by Squirrel
If banks don't sell foreign currency, where do you get it? Pretty sure DH got his sterling from a bank in his area (town just outside Boston) when he used to come here. Although he may have had to order it.
I go to the ATM when I arrive. Its a whole heck of a lot easier & quicker to get it once I arrive, than try to get it from my local bank branch before the flight.

I've never seen a stores accept foreign currency, but I don't live near to the US border either. But when I was in South Africa, they were keen to get their hands on some of my dollars. I always wonder what they would do with it? Surely USD can't have much monetary value outside the US, or am I naive in thinking that?
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Old Aug 30th 2011, 11:12 am
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Default Re: Do any US stores accept foreign currency?

Originally Posted by Bluegrass Lass
I go to the ATM when I arrive. Its a whole heck of a lot easier & quicker to get it once I arrive, than try to get it from my local bank branch before the flight.

I've never seen a stores accept foreign currency, but I don't live near to the US border either. But when I was in South Africa, they were keen to get their hands on some of my dollars. I always wonder what they would do with it? Surely USD can't have much monetary value outside the US, or am I naive in thinking that?
US dollars are considered valuable currency, probably because the US is thought of as a very stable economy. It's certainly accepted in many caribbean countries as readily as local currency. When we went to the Cayman Islands practically all shop accepted US$ as well as CI$.
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Old Aug 30th 2011, 12:41 pm
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Default Re: Do any US stores accept foreign currency?

Originally Posted by Bluegrass Lass
I go to the ATM when I arrive. Its a whole heck of a lot easier & quicker to get it once I arrive, than try to get it from my local bank branch before the flight.

I've never seen a stores accept foreign currency, but I don't live near to the US border either. But when I was in South Africa, they were keen to get their hands on some of my dollars. I always wonder what they would do with it? Surely USD can't have much monetary value outside the US, or am I naive in thinking that?
I remember when I was first in Israel back in the early seventies, I worked on a construction site in the Sinai desert for a couple of months to earn enough money to leave the country & get back to England. In those days, Israel had a currency that was only good inside the country - it could not be legally exchanged for hard currency. So you had to go to Jerusalem or other Arab areas to change Israeli Lira for dollars .. I'd never been to America so had never seen the currency. When I changed it on the street, I got a whole assortment of grubby old large and small bills that included two-dollar bills & silver certificates, paper money going back many decades. So it seems that the US dollars in Israel at the time (presumably the same in other countries without hard currency) just circulated on the street and never saw the inside of a bank.
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Old Aug 30th 2011, 2:10 pm
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Default Re: Do any US stores accept foreign currency?

Originally Posted by SultanOfSwing
Now, compare and contrast with the time I was going to England and had to change my NI banknotes to Bank of England notes because they aren't accepted (or at least weren't at the time) there even though (as a nice bloke in Scotland pointed out to his employee when I was buying fags) they quite clearly say 'Pounds Sterling' on them.
Have you ever seen this?: It's about Scottish money, but the same principle applies and it cracks me up because it's so true!

That said, in the eight years I lived in England, I don't think anyone ever refused to take an NI note from me. They usually just looked a bit confused. To save any hassle, whenever I had notes on me after a trip home I would mostly just use them in the self-service machines in Tesco, which are of course set up to take notes from all over the UK.
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Old Aug 30th 2011, 2:15 pm
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Default Re: Do any US stores accept foreign currency?

Originally Posted by Apfelkuchen
Have you ever seen this?: http://youtube.com/watch?v=gx-a5rYIAOM It's about Scottish money, but the same principle applies and it cracks me up because it's so true!

That said, in the eight years I lived in England, I don't think anyone ever refused to take an NI note from me. They usually just looked a bit confused. To save any hassle, whenever I had notes on me after a trip home I would mostly just use them in the self-service machines in Tesco, which are of course set up to take notes from all over the UK.
I never had the chance to be actually refused, as I had changed all my notes to BoE before I left, based on stories from other people. I was questioned in Scotland, as mentioned, but the owner of the shop explained why they could be accepted.

Sometimes I miss the variation in the banknotes out here that we had back home.
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Old Aug 30th 2011, 2:22 pm
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Default Re: Do any US stores accept foreign currency?

Originally Posted by SultanOfSwing
I never had the chance to be actually refused, as I had changed all my notes to BoE before I left, based on stories from other people. I was questioned in Scotland, as mentioned, but the owner of the shop explained why they could be accepted.

Sometimes I miss the variation in the banknotes out here that we had back home.
One time when I was a kid I went to change an NI tenner for a Bank of England note at the bureau de change at Aldergrove and they tried to charge me £3 commission !

My personal favourite was the plastic Northern Bank fiver, although I imagine it *would* have been hard to get that accepted in GB given how crazy it looked. Not sure if they still make it anymore.
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