I think one of the biggest inhibitors of travel is that “It’s expensive” in the minds of almost everyone. I’m not going to say that it’s cheap but one of the best ways to save money for a trip is by creating it out of nothing. I’m talking about purchasing foreign currency when it is cheap/weak or what I like to call “on sale”. Confused? Ok let me show you an example.
I have plans to go to New Zealand, Australia, Tasmania and am keeping an open mind to the idea of Indonesia up to South Korea. If I plan on going to any foreign country, I’m obviously going to need some of the local currency (This is not the case in Central America). A few years ago when I decided I wanted to go to NZ & OZ the New Zealand and Aussie dollar were pretty weak in relation to the US dollar. The Aussie dollar was trading at around $1.50 for every $1 US and the NZ dollar was trading as high as $2.03 NZ to every $1 US (this was my best trade) so I was literally doubling my money in New Zealand by buying it when it was “on sale”.
Buy Foreign Currency When It’s Cheap
I have been doing this on and off over the past couple years and now a I have enough NZ & Aussie dollars for me to travel for a month or two and I can just leave when one of my airline robots tells me about a good fare down under. If I were to buy that same foreign money today I would literally lose money on buying the Aussie dollar (the Aussie dollar is stronger than the US dollar) and now $1 US is only worth about $1.20 NZ. I have created quite a bit more travel abroad with the same money here in my own home country. I literally created something out of nothing. $1000USD today would buy $995 AUD as opposed to $1500 AUD a couple years ago.
4 Ways To Buy Foreign Currency
1. Travelex is the best one here in the US for mail order cash. You place the order online and it shows up on your doorstep within like 48 hours. I have done this several times.
2. Go to a local mall kiosk or bank to see if they sell foreign money. I have done this a few times but they almost always try to up-sell you and be kinda pushy so I like ordering online better I think. I have done this several times.
3. Buy it at the airport or train station. This is for suckers who like to give their money to banks. I have done this several times.
4. The last and least conventional way is to trade foreign currencies with other humans instead of a central banking facility. If you are part of the occupy movement, this is right up your alley cause you cut the banks out of their profit (I’m not an occupy’r I just like to screw banks). I find that the best place to find people who need to buy local currency is at the airport when I am waiting to leave to go abroad. If you’re headed to Barcelona, find a flight coming in from the Euro Zone and ask to buy money from the people coming off of that flight. They probably need US dollars if they are in the US and you need their money. See how the bank makes money by looking at the above pic I took somewhere in Europe. You can both save some of the difference if you create a human currency exchange and help each other out at the same time. This one can be a little confusing so I’ll make an entire post on it later. I have only done this twice thus far and it was at my hostel the first time and an airport the next.
I also had a bit of an experience with a Hungarian money changer as soon as I got off of the train in downtown Budapest. I was a little sketched out at first but I was with a friend who was watching me the entire time so I wasn’t too worried about getting robbed.
