lsquare

Any suggestions for places with the best rates?

WorldLux

I'd withdraw euros in an euro country rather than buying them in London. There's no use for euros in the UK and ATMs are everywhere.

Scots_Al

britenbsas

I've always found these two to have the best rates (links below):

Thomas Exchange Global

Changelink

rcspeirs

UKtravelbear

WorldLux

That's somewhat bad advice depending on how much currency OP intended to change. The bureaux de change on and around Oxford Street charge as much as 10-15% on the market rate. Depending on how much the OP is changing, the OP might be better of looking for a shop with better exchange rates.

Worcester

If they are only getting €50, then equates to an additional cost of between €5-7.5 which may be less than the cost of travelling to a bureaux de change further away

Badenoch

The best rates I've received changing money in London is at small place in South Kensington called Bureau De Change at 112 Cromwell Road, north side just west of Gloucester Road.

jmd

:D!

To improve your euro rate with Thomas Exchange Global (different from Thomas Exchange), you need to book online at bestforeignexchange.com. You don't actually need to enter any information except a name, then just show the booking on your phone and state your name. No ID is required for exchanges under £2000 dealt solely in cash.

The improved rate is updated on the hour from 10am to 6pm on working days, at 10am on Saturday, so depending on your schedule, you can rebook at a different branch if the actual interbank rate changes.

I have to say, I've been using them for years and they have become much less flexible than they used to be. Before you could just rock up and they'd give you the better rate. Nowadays they will make you book it while you are standing in front of the counter.

Previously if I wanted to sell 95 euros to £, I could give them a €100 and they would give me the pounds and a €5 in change. They also used to accept dirty old torn notes.... and round the GBP amount to the nearest 20p in my favour. Now, even if the GBP amount I'm due is £99.99, they will insist on counting out £4.99 in coins "for the CCTV"; they won't let me give them 1p and get two £50s.

powerlifter

If the OP lives in London or the EU maybe he should look at the Revolut card. You can put pounds, dollars, and euros plus some other currencies. They exchange at the best bank rate with no markup I had one, but since I was living in the states they stopped closed all our accounts. I would carry Pounds and Euros on the card. It was nice to go somewhere to eat or buy something without worrying about DCC or exchange rate. You can order the card through the app. I have no affiliation except I wish they would hurry up and bring it back to the US.

dulciusexasperis

As is often the case, without background info, any answer is as good as any other in terms of throwing a dart at a dartboard. If circumstances warrant and you want to buy 50E then the advise to just go to the closest makes sense. If you want to buy 500E then the best advice would be to not do that at all as you would be better off buying on arrival in a Euro using country. Buying a small amount of local currency before leaving home makes sense if you are going to arrive somewhere on a Sunday or late at night etc. in an airport with no BANK ATMs. Otherwise even buying a small amount is not necessary.

Advise is always determined based on the circumstances and if you don't make it clear what the specific circumstances are, you leave it up to people to ASSUME what the circumstances are. That's just throwing a dart at a dartboard.

NickB

The OP did not ask for advice about what would be the best strategy to obtain euros but instead asked a precise question. Why not answer the question which was asked, rather than berating the OP for not asking the question that you think would be a better question? Maybe the OP has his/her reasons for asking that question. For instance, if the OP only has cards that have a +/- 3% loading on exchange rates (like many credit and debit card do), it may make more sense to change in London, where there are plenty of bureaux de change with rather good exchange rates, which would not necessarily be the case at his/her destination in Euroland.

Somebody else has mentioned https://travelmoney.moneysavingexpert.com/, which is an excellent resource that will enable the OP to find out whether there is a bureau de change with a good exchange rate at a location which is convenient for him or her and whether it would be worth his/her while or not to travel further to get a better rate.

Getting cash before travel is of course not the only solution but let the OP be judge of that .

lhrsfo

I'd agree entirely with this. It's saved me a fortune over the years.