Where to change US$ to Polish currency?
Apr 18, 2012, 1:06 pm
#16
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Centrum and Świętokrzyska are on the other side of the Palace of Science and Culture: follow the metro construction and you'll be there in no time. There's a very good kantor along Świętokrzyska which I go to quite often: I'll post the address when I get it.
On airport kantors: if you absolutely MUST exchange at the airport, and it's not late at night or early in the morning, go to the Bank Pekao counter at sector A/B (old Terminal 1, at the check-in hall). There's a kantor right across from it: you'll get my point quite quickly as to where you'd want to exchange money when you compare the rates.
Last edited by Akiestar; Apr 18, 2012 at 1:13 pm
Apr 19, 2012, 1:58 pm
#17
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Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Japan
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Dworzec Centralny, better known as Warszawa Centralna, is only two minutes on foot from the IC. The underpasses there have kantors with good rates.
Centrum and Świętokrzyska are on the other side of the Palace of Science and Culture: follow the metro construction and you'll be there in no time. There's a very good kantor along Świętokrzyska which I go to quite often: I'll post the address when I get it.
On airport kantors: if you absolutely MUST exchange at the airport, and it's not late at night or early in the morning, go to the Bank Pekao counter at sector A/B (old Terminal 1, at the check-in hall). There's a kantor right across from it: you'll get my point quite quickly as to where you'd want to exchange money when you compare the rates.
Centrum and Świętokrzyska are on the other side of the Palace of Science and Culture: follow the metro construction and you'll be there in no time. There's a very good kantor along Świętokrzyska which I go to quite often: I'll post the address when I get it.
On airport kantors: if you absolutely MUST exchange at the airport, and it's not late at night or early in the morning, go to the Bank Pekao counter at sector A/B (old Terminal 1, at the check-in hall). There's a kantor right across from it: you'll get my point quite quickly as to where you'd want to exchange money when you compare the rates.
In my experience, the best Kantor is easily found at either Galeria Mokotow or Galeria Arkadia. These are two easy to get to large shopping malls (google map them....). The Kantor chain is called "Apollo", and they are open from when the malls open (0900 or 1000 I think) to 2200 at night.
I usually ask the taxi to stop at Mokotow (pronounced "mo-ko-tov") on the way into town - there's a parking bay for taxis and they are happy to wait for you.
The rates are as good as you will get, and they are trustworthy. If you have to change several thousand, ask for a better rate - you can usually get a spread of only 2 points for Euros (i.e a difference of only 1/2 a percent between the buying and selling rates). No commission, of course.
The clerks may not speak great English, but enough to do the job.
And yes, if you change any money with the Kantors at the airport, you deserve the rate that they give you...
D.
I usually ask the taxi to stop at Mokotow (pronounced "mo-ko-tov") on the way into town - there's a parking bay for taxis and they are happy to wait for you.
The rates are as good as you will get, and they are trustworthy. If you have to change several thousand, ask for a better rate - you can usually get a spread of only 2 points for Euros (i.e a difference of only 1/2 a percent between the buying and selling rates). No commission, of course.
The clerks may not speak great English, but enough to do the job.
And yes, if you change any money with the Kantors at the airport, you deserve the rate that they give you...
D.
Apr 25, 2012, 8:12 am
#18
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Apr 26, 2012, 6:19 am
#19
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Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Japan
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I just got back from there, was easy to find. The woman in there was friendly but spoke no English. In any case, rate was good, transaction was painless and thanks for the tip^
Apr 26, 2012, 7:21 am
#20
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everbody says "the rate was good" how come no one posts the rate and the charge for the transaction? my etrade rate is bank exchange +1%, with no atm fee. this is not like talking about your income or your sex habits, this is useful informat.
Apr 26, 2012, 7:31 am
#21
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Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Japan
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No problem, didn't think anyone was interesting since it obviously fluctuates on a daily basis. I exchanged 50 Euro and the receipt states : Euro 50 , Kurs ( guess means rate of exchange ) 4.17, Wartosc ( means Polish currency ? ) 208.50. There were no other charges, at least not printed on the receipt. And I got 208.50 Polish Zloty.
There you have it.
There you have it.
Last edited by Exleftseat; Apr 26, 2012 at 7:41 am
Apr 26, 2012, 8:00 am
#22
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Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Japan
Posts: 5,577
One point to add to it, today's official rate of exchange is : 1 EUR=4.17806 PLN equals 50.00 EUR=208.899 PLN. That's pretty darn unbelievable, IMHO. I can't remember exchanging at any other country where I got such a good deal. Usually it's way off.
Apr 26, 2012, 9:41 am
#23
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Poland is quite good in that respect, that's true.
The day's official exchange rate is fairly meaningless: what counts is the rate at the point in time when you actually made the transaction - the currency fluctuates during the day, potentially quite a lot.
what does give you an indication is the spread - the difference between buying and selling rates. for changing 50 Euros it doesn't really matter too much where you go. The spread should usually be about 1-2% or so.
D.
The day's official exchange rate is fairly meaningless: what counts is the rate at the point in time when you actually made the transaction - the currency fluctuates during the day, potentially quite a lot.
what does give you an indication is the spread - the difference between buying and selling rates. for changing 50 Euros it doesn't really matter too much where you go. The spread should usually be about 1-2% or so.
D.
Apr 26, 2012, 10:23 am
#24
Original Poster
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Japan
Posts: 5,577
Poland is quite good in that respect, that's true.
The day's official exchange rate is fairly meaningless: what counts is the rate at the point in time when you actually made the transaction - the currency fluctuates during the day, potentially quite a lot.
what does give you an indication is the spread - the difference between buying and selling rates. for changing 50 Euros it doesn't really matter too much where you go. The spread should usually be about 1-2% or so.
D.
The day's official exchange rate is fairly meaningless: what counts is the rate at the point in time when you actually made the transaction - the currency fluctuates during the day, potentially quite a lot.
what does give you an indication is the spread - the difference between buying and selling rates. for changing 50 Euros it doesn't really matter too much where you go. The spread should usually be about 1-2% or so.
D.
What I was trying to say that the "official" rate of exchange is fairly meaningless when exchanging currency, let's say at an airport. What
my bank gives me ratewise for a wire transfer from lets say Euro to Dollar
is quite different than what I can expect to pay at FRA airport or any U.S.
airport for sure. As is the fact for many other currencies. At WAW airport they wanted much more unfavorable rate than what I paid at the Kantor I got recommended.
Remember, we are talking Tourist exchange rates here, not "real" exchange rates. That's why I was pleasantly surprised.
Apr 26, 2012, 10:27 am
#25
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Last edited by Akiestar; Apr 26, 2012 at 10:33 am
Aug 16, 2017, 3:23 am
#26
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I went to Świętokrzyska 18 on Monday morning at 0910 but it had not yet opened despite the opening time of 0900.
Checking on quantor.pl, Kantor Diament at Świętokrzyska 34 had the best rates so I walked on. In the following 5-10 minutes, the PLN had risen by a few pips so I "lost" 4 zloty(zlote?)
I actually wanted to exchange 2000 euros to US dollars while keeping a bit of PLN for local spending. Pawel, who works there and speaks English well, didn't have enough US dollars so I tried a kantor at Świętokrzyska 32. The cashier there also spoke English well although she decided to write down numbers instead of saying them, which is easier after all.
All this time I was refreshing xe.com on my phone. The EUR/USD rate was 1.182 at the time, and the overall rate I got was 1.174, so a loss of 0.7% (or US$16 on the 2000 euros) on interbank.
This is pretty great considering that I had to go through an intermediate currency. It is probably only possible to do better in Thailand where you might lose less than $5 - and if they had and you took thousands of $1 bills, you would actually profit by $9... not worth it I suppose
