What is the Most Cost Effective way to exchange EUR to USD?

peege

I am heading to the U.S. at the beginning of July and I am looking for advice with currency exchange.

I have an account with a bank in Ireland that offers commission free travel money if purchased in a branch. However the rate at which they convert (1.076) EUR to USD is lower than other banks (1.094)that I have looked up.

Alternatively I could use my credit card or debit card in the US but there are various fees involved.

I was going to wait a couple of weeks before I change any money hoping that the Euro strengthens against the dollar.

I am just wondering what other people would recommend and any advice would be much appreciated.

coylemj

Do it sooner rather than later, the US is expected to increase interest rates soon which will only make the EUR/USD rate worse.

The exchange rate when using an ATM card or your credit card over there will almost always be better than when buying dollars over the counter here. Just make sure that you don't take out small amounts as there is a minimum charge for BoI withdrawals and avoid ATMs in liquor stores/McDonalds etc. as they tend to levy charges, stick to machines in bank branches if you can.

AIB looks to be the best at the moment for dollars, they're quoting 1.0942. Their commission is 1% (minimum €1.27) which will make it effectively 1.083 so they're still better than An Post which is 1.0753.

Francie Barrett

Currencyfair.com are by far the cheapest people to do fx transfers with, they are cheap because their model is peer to peer. I have used them for years now no issue whatsoever.

coylemj

Francie Barrett wrote: »

Currencyfair.com are by far the cheapest people to do fx transfers with, they are cheap because their model is peer to peer. I have used them for years now no issue whatsoever.

From what the OP said, I don't think he's looking to move a large amount of money - he talked about 'travel money' so sounds more like a holiday and he probably doesn't have a destination bank account in the US.

peege

coylemj wrote: »

From what the OP said, I don't think he's looking to move a large amount of money - he talked about 'travel money' so sounds more like a holiday and he probably doesn't have a destination bank account in the US.

That is correct. I am only going there for two weeks. Thanks again for the advice.

Morpheus

Same here,

travelling over this month for 2 weeks and wondering whether to change the remainder of my money (about 1000 euro) prior to going or just to take out dollars via ATM but making sure its 2 - 300 dollars at a time. was going to use credit card, but now am i correct in thinking the cheapest method is large sums withdrawn from US atms using my AIB visa debit card?

coylemj

For security reasons alone I would not be using large wads of cash in the US, use the credit card. The difference between the exchange rate on ATM withdrawals and what you get on credit card transactions isn't going to be great so you'd be better off using the credit card.