Ways to Exchange Your Currency in the UK

If you’re a visitor to London, UK, and you need to exchange your currency for local currency, you need to know where to go and how to go about the transaction. 

How to Exchange Your Currency in the UK

Here are four ways by which you can exchange your currency in the UK safely and conveniently.

You can visit a bank or a building society and exchange your cash or withdraw money using your credit or debit card. You can go to any of the following banks for currency exchange in UK: Bank of England, Citibank, Halifax, Barclays, Bank of Ireland, HSBC, Nationwide or Bank of Scotland, among others. 

When you change your money at a building society or bank, you pay low fees. However, to be sure the bank will allow you to change money, take your passport along.

Either of these organizations will exchange your money. Before going in for the change, ask them about the fees they will take or commissions. You can also exchange your money at the bureau de change that you see at airports and ferry ports.

A post office is a convenient spot to change your money because you’ll find several of them all over not just London but the UK too. Plus, they remain open longer than banks do. Besides, you can call for your money online through a post office. The money will be ready for you to pick up from the Travel Money counter. As usual, take along your passport and your credit card with which you want to exchange the money. 

If your ATM card is linked with Cirrus, PLUS or Maestro, you can exchange your currency just about anywhere. However, for all the convenience ATMs offer, exchanging money from them could be risky, so if you do want to use an ATM, do it in a big bank, not in your hotel. 

To avoid paying excessive exchange fees, try to finish as much of your foreign currency in the UK before you head back home. When you try to exchange it again in your country, you stand to lose a lot.