Foreign Exchange Query

C

civic

Guest
Hi..

I've recently received a US$ cheque for 3k... I am heading to the US in a week or so and want $'s in cash... Any recommendations on how to avoid a double hit on exchange costs... ie. changing $'s -> €'s ->$'s again...

Cheers..
 
Hi Civic,

I think you might be bunched - to the best of my knowledge you cannot exchange dollar cheques for dollar cash, on a retail basis anyway, in the banks in Ireland.

Two reasons - 1. the cheque will have to clear before the bank is going to give you value for it (ie cash). Whereas this is not 100% efficient for Irish cheques it is an absolute nightmare for foreign cheques - when you lodge your USD cheque your bank has to receive the funds from the US bank before crediting your account - this can take two weeks or more as the process in not automated (well it did a number of years ago; the process may have improved since then but I doubt it)

2. Even if the bank would give you value immediately for your USD cheque, afaik all retail foreign exchange transactions in Ireland have to be done through the Euro; ie with euro as the base currency. Again, afaik the forde machines in the branches are programmed to do this automatically and there is no way around this.

The only option that I know of is if you have a USD denominated account in Ireland - in that case you can lodge and withdraw equivalent amounts of dollars, minus any transaction charges for lodging the cheque. However, this facility is mostly used by business customers who receive and pay out large amounts of US dollars. If you knew someone with such an account they may be able to help you.

To make matters worse if you held on to the cheque until your trip to the US I don't think you would be able to cash it at an American bank unless you have a US bank account as some of their banking laws seem to be even dafter than ours! - I was once told I couldn't open an account with the Bank of New York because I didn't have an account. When I pointed out this fundamental flaw in their business model I was told "Hey honey, I just work here whaddya wan me to do bout it".

Now all of the above is purely personal experiences and is not backed up with any hard physical evidence or links to surveys ;) (I can't post in LOS yet but I am reading the debates in there with great interest - just ya'll wait till I hit the magic 50 :D )

Hope this helps

efm
 
I have a USD account with Anglo Irish. The minimum deposit is $2k I think, and you can get short notice accounts. Might be worth investigating, but don't let on that you will be lodging the money and then withdrawing it shortly after, and also enquire can you withdraw cash, or do they issue a cheque or a draft, and where can you change this for cash (the may have an arrangement with a retail bank). There are no charges on this account.
 
civic said:
Hi..

I've recently received a US$ cheque for 3k... I am heading to the US in a week or so and want $'s in cash... Any recommendations on how to avoid a double hit on exchange costs... ie. changing $'s -> €'s ->$'s again...

Cheers..
Click to expand...
Do you have any friends in the US who trust you enough to hand you over the $3k and you could endorse the cheque to them?
 
If you go to the US you might be able to cash the check at the bank on which it is drafted but get ready to bring 2 picture id's, get fingerprinted and have a long interview. But that would require a big bank like BoA, Citi, Chase and not one of the regional or even one for Citi Texas or other local flavors of the big ones.

Check cashing places might help too but they will charge you a very high % of the amount.

The best might be to hand it over to a friend of yours with $ account and let him/her cash it for you. If their bank is accepting a 3rd party check, most of them don't.
 
Good Morning,

This may not answer your original question... however, I'm a kiwi who sends € to NZD. I was using the Bank of Ireland and to be honest felt like I was being ripped off (with their FX - their service is great)... So I searched for the alternatives..and found Fexco international payments. Check out their website - www.fexcoonline.com Now the exchange rate I'm able to get direct through the transfer desk is fantastic.... you just need to ring and see if they accept payment in USD... Example: Bank of Ireland 1.68 and Fexco 1.75 I made an extra $140 of my euro's and didn't pay any more to do it....worth a shot to use them rather than accepting the banks rates.

Enjoy the rest of the week :)
 
Thanks folks... my time was limited so i lodged it into CC account... $ Holding accounts had various restrictions - minimum opening balances and ~10 days to open... I'm with BOI.. but they weren't very helpful.. basically saying ..tough..
 
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