Currency conversion - is it always this good?
 

I'm staying at a marriott in china and just converted USD for CNY at the executive lounge and they basically gave me the rate on xe.com - i can't remember what I paid for CNY at DTW - but I'm sure it was nothing close to the xe.com rate.

IMHO you should never buy your currency in the US as you are just asking for a bad trade. My experience in China is that the government regulates the currency exchange so you shouldn't get ripped off. However, in for instance Hong Kong the hotel exchange rates are generally terrible and you are much better off at a currency exchange. If you have an atm card that does not have service charges or Bank of America and use one of their partners atms ( China Construction bank in mainland) then you will get to within 3% or so of the published exchange rate which is pretty good.

so is this only china? or could I also get sweet deals in Europe; Australia; Japan; etc.?

D.

In any country, you should only get local currency through an ATM. My banks rebate ATM fees and the exchange rate is almost always Interbank rate or better.

If you're that far off, your bank is ripping you off. I'm not surprised Bank of America does this.

You're not getting sweet deals there, you're getting bad deals here.

China currency exchange is its own world.

If one have friends in China or Hong Kong, one almost never exchange in a public place or ATM. The black market rate is much, much higher. If one is in Macau, I find their exchange rates (in a bank) to be the best.