I have English pounds and Canadian dollars from previous travel. Is it better to change these to euros in the U.S. before traveling to France or would the rate and ease be better in France? If so, should I make the exchange at the airport (CDG) or at a bank or ????
Thanks!
Posted by
Seattle, WA, USA ☔️
6788 posts
Do you think you (or someone you know) might ever travel to Canada or the UK again in the future? If yes, I'd just tuck them away and save them for those future trips and/or share with a friend going there.
When "exchanging" currency, you always lose, no matter where you do it. Sometimes you might lose a lot. If you exchange other currencies to Euros in the US, you may end up paying exchange fees twice (first to convert to US dollars, then to convert dollars to Euros). Paying to exchange money once is bad enough, paying twice (actually, maybe three times -- maybe you already paid for the original exchange), sounds doubly painful.
How much money are you really looking at here?
Posted by
SE Pennsylvania
2394 posts
Unless the English money is from fairly recent travel, it might not be accepted even in England, as they have changed the material their bills made of and older ones are no longer legal tender.
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/england/sterling-notes-expiring
Posted by
OP
8 posts
$185 Canadian and 75 pounds
I'm taking euros, but anticipate having to use a debit card to get more while I am there. I probably won't use the money in Canada or Britain, so thought I could use it to get euros.......if it makes sense financially.
Posted by
OP
8 posts
Apparently, I have up to September 30, 2022 to use my paper pounds. I will definitely use or change it while I am there. Thanks for the heads up!
Posted by
San Diego, California
4765 posts
We had the problem with the UK changing some of their GBP notes, and merchants wouldn't accept them. However, we were told that the central bank in London would exchange the notes for the current ones. Never got there....
We also had this problem in Switzerland, when we were given the old notes as change. We went back to that merchant and demanded current notes as our change, and after a brief discussion, that is what happened.
Supposedly, this is a measure to battle counterfeiting. We were also told that the Euro already built in these measures, somEuros should be good for quite awhile.
I'm sure someone here has a better explanation than mine.
Posted by
United States
4 posts
I was in Wales earlier in the year and was able to use my expired notes from a prior trip at a post office to purchase stamps. Bought one stamp per note and received back useable change. It was a smaller post office that was not busy, and they did not seem to mind.