The currency exchange place literally across the street from the airport will have significantly better rates.
Most places display FX rates on a board in front of or inside their stall, so it’s really easy to see the different rates; I have never exchanged money at an airport and got a better deal than outside of the airport. It can be a significant difference, like 20% less in the airport.
There are currency exchange windows in every country and city and you will be able to get a higher rate at those.
If you need to exchange $10 cash to get into the city, go for it, but wait to exchange the rest until you’re outside of the airport.
Talking from Italy:
DO NOT USE THOSE SERVICES! Unless you are in absolute need of quick cash and can’t find a better alternative.
I worked for one for a year and it was literally a legal scam.
The rates will be either incredibly bad (because of “no commission”) or unbelievably good (because there’s a very tiny text saying they’ll charge a 20% commission plus a fixed fee.
In italy, shops are forced by law to accept cards, that will surely give you a better exchange rate.
If you absolutely need cash but are not in a hurry, go to a post office. They will give you one of the best rates and charge a very small fee. But they take a day or two to get the money.
If you need it quick, the ATM’s that you’ll find everywhere will give you a decent rate. Not as good as the post office but certainly better than those exchange windows.
Good to know, thanks. I exchanged USD across central and southern Italy at FX windows without issue for a good rate, but that was several years ago. Is this a recent development or specific to your region?
ATMs are useful, but those international fees can be rough.
What was a good rate if I may ask? I can talk from 2017 on. Rates in my town are awful (normally, the commission is a 20% either through a fee or through a lower rate that, in the end charges you indirectly), and I know that in other touristic cities, rates are the same or worse.
The ATM’s are not the best, but even with their fees, the rate is way better than the windows. Still, the best is to pay directly with card, you won’t get a better rate than that.
I can’t remember the exact rate I got, but I always checked the international average rate online and compare the rates of several windows by walking around, then go to the window with the highest rate, so it would have been roughly equivalent(within a couple percentage points) to the average international exchange rate. There’s no way I ever would have agreed to a 10, let alone 20% fee.
Once I choose a place, the agent asks how much, confirms on a calculator the amount I’ve agreed to, I make sure it’s a good rate and the same rate posted, the agent takes my USD and hands me euro. I didn’t have any trouble with windows across western Europe finding a roughly equivalent exchange rate using this comparison method.
I am aware of scammy counter fees though, so maybe I avoided the fee-heavy counters you’re talking about simply by knowing they were out there somewhere.
Italian ATMs all charged me the local bank fee($5-10)+my home bank fee($5)+plus the exchange rate fee, and that was almost always over 10% of the maximum allowed withdrawal.
I usually use a no-fee card and ATMs these days, but I traveled with cash back then because the EU ATM fees were so high and I didn’t have a no-fee card yet.
You can also usually just go to a bank to exchange.
Banks are another good option, although they don’t publicly display exchange rates for comparison, are very strict about bill condition, and you might have to wait for a very long time. In a lot of countries, payrolls, utilities and disbursements are still conducted as individual cash transactions, so bank lines filled with accountants, bosses and customers can last for hours.
Waiting in line for 40 minutes to find out that the corner crease of your $50 bill prohibits the bank accepting it is not fun.
If the bank is empty, you have new bills and you don’t mind paying a small premium, city banks are a better option than the airport.
Walking around to a few different FX windows will usually get you a better rate quicker and they are the most forgiving of bill condition.
Or order some from your bank before your trip. You can pick it up after a few days and discover that £20 and 50 notes are too large to fit in American wallets.
