FNTN

Introduction.

It’s that time of year when, before you know it, you’ll be rushing around trying to get a good deal on foreign exchange rates for your foreign vacation cash. For sure, going to some foreign countries for your vacation and businesses like taxi cabs might only want to see are your American dollars to be paid with. However, when traveling abroad just as many other places, like major hotels and stores through to small shops or markets, will only accept the local currency. So, just what are your options for getting hold of foreign vacation cash?

Foreign vacations mean exchanging dollars for foreign currencies.

High Street Banks and Exchanges.

If you want to end up with not the best deal in foreign exchange, which is the term for converting your dollars to a foreign currency, then visit your bank or one of the High Street exchanges that you’ll find in most towns across the USA. The problem with using these for your foreign currency is that they have to pay for all the costs involved in running the bank or store, which means they have to make a pretty hefty profit on the Forex, Forex is the abbreviation used for foreign exchange. Just about the only circumstance in which using a High Street Bank or store to get your foreign currency is worth considering is if your internet access is down and you’re about to leave on your vacation and desperately need that foreign currency.

Don't expect a good Forex deal at your local bank.

Get your foreign exchange online .

Presuming your internet access is OK, even if you’re at the airport about to depart and are using a smart phone, you will always find a better foreign exchange deal online than through a High Street Bank or store. Working online the foreign currency you need can be transferred immediately into your account, so that you can then pay bills with your bank or credit card or, if you prefer, withdraw cash in whatever amounts you need from an ATM at your destination. Whilst you may well find that your own Bank online might offer you a better Forex deal than if you’d walked in to the Bank’s offices in your home town, there are also many independent online Forex companies able to offer great deals in foreign currency exchange. Providing you are able to leave a day or two between ordering online foreign currency and the date of your departure – even an online Forex company can deliver foreign cash to your door before you leave. Meaning that you can have some of the foreign currency in your account for access later on and some cash in your hand for when you arrive at your foreign destination.

You're better off online for your Forex!

Do your own Forex.

If you’re a regular traveler abroad, either for business or pleasure, then you could alternatively think about setting up your own Foreign Exchange business. Today you can download software packages that will enable you to keep tabs on the foreign exchange markets so that you can decide for yourself exactly when the time is right to exchange your dollars into that foreign currency. Being your own Forex trader will also put you an advantage when you want to convert any unspent foreign cash back into dollars, again all you have to do is wait until the price is right and trade your foreign currency back into dollars. Being your own Forex trader doesn’t require you to have any specialist Forex knowledge as the Forex software can be set up to run fully automatically, all you need to do is set the parameters you want to trade in and wait for your computer to alert you to the foreign currency trading conditions you’ve been waiting for.

Euro notes and coins for a European vacation.

Peer-To-Peer Forex.

The problem with the Forex trading described above is that it really is for those who travel abroad regularly and need foreign currencies in large amounts, typically $10,000+. However, that’s not to say that you are stuck with using the usual online foreign exchange outlets. If you’ve heard of peer-to-peer (P2P) lending – then it’ll probably be of little surprise to hear that you can now get hold of foreign exchange on a P2P basis. P2P Forex systems are simply websites that connect people with one currency, say US dollars, seeking to exchange it with another currency that someone else is holding. So, supposing you want to exchange $5000 into euros for a trip to Europe, the first step is to register with and create an account in the P2P Forex website. Then, through the P2P Forex website, you look for someone in Europe wanting to buy dollars for their trip to the USA, agree a price and make the exchange through the P2P Forex system. How good is this system? Well at the time of writing the best offer on one P2P Forex website to convert $5000 to euros was €3620.65 – giving an exchange rate of $1=€0.724130. At the same time the best High Street exchange rate was $1=€0.700902 which would have yielded just €3504.51 for your $5000!