SultanOfSwing

£3.00 commission to change a tenner??? How'd they reason that one out? My method was to draw out money from the Halifax bank machines because they always had BoE notes in them

I remember those polymer fivers too, they were pretty cool. A good idea in theory because if you accidentally washed one it wouldn't get all messed up like a standard note would.

Egg and Cress

Apfelkuchen

In fairness, I think it might have been a flat rate commission that they charged on all exchanges, regardless of the amount, but I thought it was a bit stingy since I wasn't actually changing currencies - just two different notes. Now all the bank machines at both BFS and BHD seem to dispense BoE notes (and often Euro too), which is much handier.

Yeah, and they didn't tear. I think maybe they withdrew them that time the big Northern Bank at the back of the City Hall got robbed and they had to issue new notes.

SultanOfSwing

I discovered in an inconvenient way that Belfast Central railway station has a bank machine that dispenses Euros. I was blissfully unaware as I was drawing out money for a work piss-up and ended up with a handful of Euros instead of Sterling

Luckily my dad did regular business trips down south so he bought them from me, but it was rather an annoyance at the time, as I was already late for work due to a train breaking down. Which was, in fairness, to be expected on the Larne line, but annoying nonetheless!

scrubbedexpat091

I've never come across a bank they did not sell foreign currency (in US or Canada anyhow) but sometimes depending on the currency may need to order it a couple days in advance.

Bob

Depends on the bank....and if it's in a busy location or not. Chances are though, it'll still need to be ordered in and could take anything from getting it moved from another local branch so a day or so, to a week if they're a bit out of the way.

Where the missus used to work, they did keep stock of Russian and Brazilian currency, just because they had a decent population from those neck of the woods, but everything else, usually a couple of days.

GeoffM

Cambodia has a dual currency system (whether officially I don't know). You can pay for virtually anything in US dollars - and if you get change, it's usually very manky and old notes, with very small change in Cambodian Riel (no US coins). IIRC shopkeepers etc all had similar rates so you didn't really get a poor exchange rate unless you weren't paying attention. Oh, and it was far easier to buy a drink with a $1 note than 4x 1000 Riel notes (if you were lucky to get notes that big).

Some places in the Philippines take USD but it's not so common. Apparently the Euro is becoming popular in various other countries (Arab/African?) that commonly accept USD as the USD isn't quite as stable as it used to be.

kimilseung

Right if we are on funny foreign systems. Many countries have/had Foreign Exchange Certificates(FEC) Burma and China as examples, you change your dollars at a bank and are given what are in effect dollar certificates. Now it is/was illegal to use local money, but you could hardly find anywhere that would take the FEC, It was just daft and seemed to encourage the black market even more.
Anyway, China dumps this idea and you just change dollars for kuai. Only no one tells the hotel at the northern arse end of China in a small town of Mohe, way up near Russia, even after 5 years, no one gives them a call and says "hey, we've dumped that FEC malarky and now johnny foreigner can pay in kuai." So there we are. with Chinese kuai weighing our pockets down, being asked to pay in a funny-currency that had not existed in 5 years. Now China is just full of crap like this, so its just shrug the shoulders and make out we are going to camp at reception, and leave it to them to sort something out. Which probably included a bollocking from their boss for not having read the 5 year old memo.

Apfelkuchen

When my fiance and I were travelling around Egypt last year everybody wanted us to pay in dollars, to the point where some of the more official places (the train station in Cairo etc.) refused to take local currency (even though it is apparently illegal to do so). I ended up doing all the talking so people wouldn't pick up on my fiance's accent and suddenly change the currency they wanted to be paid in.

GeoffM

Coincidentally we were in Egypt last year as well, albeit based in SSH. There, being tourist town, most places took Euros, Pounds, Rubles and probably more - but not at good exchange rates. We had planned to get the overnight train from Cairo to Luxor and were aware we had to pay alternatively (and ways around it) but in the end didn't take the train. Nowhere did we pay USD, though we probably could have in the touristy areas.

Apfelkuchen

The overnight train from Cairo to Aswan (which is the same train as the one to Luxor, just with an extra stop) was one of the places where we were forced to pay in dollars. We didn't even have any on us, but they insisted that was all they took, so eventually we went to a bank and got some. We then met two other couples on the train. One of them had been allowed to pay in Egyptian Pounds without any hassle. The second pair also paid in dollars, but the cashier had refused to give them their tickets until they gave her some personal 'baksheesh' on top of the journey price .

scrubbedexpat099

I take pounds.