: Changing £ to Euros !! the conpeople !!

[Big Pete]

: Changing £ to Euros !! the conpeople !!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi

Just a little interesting con !! which seems to be rife along the Mallorcan Coasts

As you may be aware i have just come back from a visit to Mallorca As it was all booked in a rush the last thing i worried about was getting Euros , as i had some 100 Euro or so left over from the last trip 3 weeks earlier ..

Well after a couple of days of being there it came time to change some £ to Euros again , so first stop was at the Hotel reception who had a very flashy hand written sign saying "Money Changiod hereio" so i say to the young Senorita " Ola canio changio 100 quidio to Euros por Favor ? and iffyio cannio how muchio will i gettio ?" She said "128 Euros " ? Hmmmmmmmm i thought thats pretty naff !
it was 1.41 exchange in good old First Choice shop up the town in England .

So i declined and said "thats crappio so no grathiosio " and left .

Went along the main front which has a host of flashy Change shops and outside i spy 1.44 exchange on a board .. That will do for me i say to Mrs BP soon get us some money and then we can grab a drink or 2
So in i go and i say " Ola youngo senorita , canniyou changio 100 English Quidio ? and what will you give me ? " She says " 1.44 . so i think lovely that will do for me ..
i pass over my 5 x £20 notes she gives me back 127 Euros !!!!! I say "Excusio Miss sharp senorito who thinks i am thick or something Now i didnt get a O level in maths or nothing but £100 at 1.44 should give me 144 Euros !! She suddenly then shows me some small writing at the very bottom of the sheet of paper with some Spanish about % handling fee ..
Not impressed as you can imagine and so i grab the 5x £ 20 notes back and give her the Euros back .. I then start to inform her that her practise is bordering on illegal stealing at which point her earlier English is somewhat now lost and pretends to not understand a word i say ..

Of i trundle to the next one , illuminated sign and a big sign saying NO Commision ! Thats the one for me i say , and the Exchange rate is 1.46 so i am thinking yippee at last ..
In i trundle and this time i think i shall cover all the angles so i say " Ola if i give you this £100 English cash can you tell me what you will give me back in Euros ? " She says " 1.28 rate so 128 Euros " ?? Now i show her the sign outside and she says "But we have to make charges " So i point out the No Commision sign and stuff !!" she says " Its not commision its handling " So again i am not impressed
As i am leaving a nice young couple are entering the building and the woman says " is the rate no good here then ?" i then proceed to explain the rip off they are pulling and she has a look of shock on her ! Her Husband well i assume its her husband looked pretty tired so may be ! lol .. Anyways he says " we have used this last few times it has the best rate we get 1.46 and says no commision ! " They had changed ammounts like £75 at a time and never noticed just took the word of the cashier ..

Well after being in Alcudia here many a time i knew there was one sweet older Spanish lady doing money exchange and what you see is what you get , so i took them with me way down the bottom of a side road off the main front line shops , i bet they was getting woried after 10 minutes walk lol.
Anyways there she was with her sign outside 1.44 exchange rate , still in business thank god or it would of been embarrasing !!

In we trundle i give her my £ 100 and sure enough i get back 144 Euros everyones a winner They proceed and change £ 120 worth and are very happy ...

So the morale of the story if you want to make quick money get a small shop stick a silly rate above the door , and wait for the silly Brits to come in and profit on money exchanging LOL
No serious now watch them Spanish some of them are damn sneaky buggers right ...

[oddball]

Same the world over , you stupid , i make money , you smart , i lose nothing , plenty of stupidoes in this world .

[Stravinsky]

They are like that all over Spain, there is for instance only one exchange kiosk in Benidorm that actually gives you the rate that is shown outside the kiosk .... shocking.

[Big Pete]

Originally Posted by Stravinsky

They are like that all over Spain, there is for instance only one exchange kiosk in Benidorm that actually gives you the rate that is shown outside the kiosk .... shocking.

Well its about time the law stopped it ! must be millions of tourists ripped of every summer

[Stravinsky]

Originally Posted by Big Pete

Well its about time the law stopped it ! must be millions of tourists ripped of every summer

Yep .... but its Spain, and this is the kind of thing you have to get used to. One of the many many things that you will come accross that you wont agree with but you will have to learn to accept.

[oddball]

Did you see what the Americans(sorry,some) are doing to the Canadian shoppers flocking to buy now the dollar is at par ?Giving exchange as low as 60 cents US to the CDN dollar, now thats how to love your neighbour !!!!
Colin

[Stravinsky]

Originally Posted by oddball

Did you see what the Americans(sorry,some) are doing to the Canadian shoppers flocking to buy now the dollar is at par ?Giving exchange as low as 60 cents US to the CDN dollar, now thats how to love your neighbour !!!!
Colin

Heh heh .... they never seem to have been the best of friends do they!

[FX Specialist]

Hi All

One thing to remember is that no matter how you change your money someone will always make something out of it...
It's how transparent they are about it and how much they make that is important.
Our company motto is 'We beat the banks'

To give you an example of that I had a client transacting yesterday, they were changing USD to EUR and the rate they got from me was 1.41

Later in the day I was depositing 2 cheques into my personal account, I read my banks 'day' rate (they set it in the morning and it remains the same all day) the rate on USD > EUR was 1.30!!!

I was agrieved - however it makes our company look good. And though we didn't make as much out of it as the banks did, my client got the best.

Now - to operate a change bureaux it's slightly different, in some cases there are only 1 or 2 around so they don't have much to compete with and do as they please.
Sometimes there are so many that it goes good or bad - either they all compete to make the rate better in their place (most of the time - they still make around the same with hidden fees!) or it can be bad and they can all agree with eachother to keep similar rates (this does happen!)

Lastly, depending on the amounts you change - you will receive good or not so good rates. This doesn't really include the bureaux as they keep the same rate.
However with FX companies, the more your changing the more you can get for your money.

Kind regards

FX Specialist