So, I’m back from St Martin, where we had a lovely time last week. Due to the crappy US dollar, I usually pay more than my European friends who have Euros to spend.
This year I decided to buy $1000 worth of Euros at the airport in Charlotte. Cool. Except I repeatedly forgot to have Euros on me when we were places that preferred them. And a few places where I would have used Euros had promotions going where $1 = 1Euro, which made US dollars a better value.
So I have around 500 Euros left over. Crap. Next year?
Back when I was living in NYC, I wanted to move back to Berlin. So, knowing I am not great at “saving” money, every check I got from work, I would buy a minimum of 50 DMarks (the German currency at the time). Thus, even if I found myself broke at the end of the week, I knew I wasn’t stupid enough to pay the exchange rate to transfer that money back into dollars.
Long story shorter, by the time I returned to Berlin, I had a nice tidy sum of German money to give me a start on getting re-settled.
So, by having these Euros, you are starting to “save” for your next vacation (maybe Europe next time?). Go ahead and buy some more Euros occasionally. Then when you are ready to take you next trip, it is practically paid for in advance!
This is the most heartbreaking thread I’ve read recently. Yes, poor pitiful Kayaker has come back from St. Martin’s still clasping 500 Euros, which convert to what … aproximately $684. Poor dear … probably sunburnt besides.
The obvious question is how will the exchange ratio between the U.S. dollar and Euro change in the next year. To me it seems Europe has greater short-term problems than the U.S. (could we see another Euro crisis caused by budget problems in Greece, Italy, Spain…?). Thus I expect the value of the Euro to worsen, so I would go ahead and convert to dollars now.
Generally speaking, ATM machines are your friend while traveling. You get a much better rate than the bureaux de change in the airports, and you don’t have to lug around an absurd amount of money all the time either.
There may be fees involved, but in my experience, withdrawing 200 pounds and paying $3 for the privilege was well offset by the much better exchange rate compared to a change place.
As for your 500 euros left over, take them to your bank. I’m sure they can exchange them- probably not on the spot, but it’s better than being stuck with 500 unspendable Euros.
