Egyptian Pounds

The Egyptian pounds we ordered came in on Thursday last week. Bonnie picked it up on Friday. We requested all five pound notes but it didn't come that way. I think out of the 150 pounds we got 8 five pounders and the rest were larger. Now the biggest problem I have with this exchange is that the bank charged us a five dollars "service" fee for the Egyptian pounds. The whole transaction was only for $35 dollars that that equates to between 15-20%. Pretty stiff penalty for trying to be a good citizen. I realize that banks are in business to make money but this is just a little ridiculous I think. If they are going to charge that much they should have a minimum purchase amount even on foriegn currency. Of course this is just my opinion for what it's worth. I guess we should have taken the advice of a couple of seasoned travellers to take US dollars and exchange them when we get to the destination. We won't be so foolish again. Time grows short, less than three weeks.

Ordered Money Today

Went to the bank today and got 50 GBP for the trip. Thought is best to have some local currency in our pocket since we were going to arrive on a Saturday and likely the banks would not be open. I will check the exchange rate online before I close this update and let you know how badly we got ripped off by Well's Fargo. The exchange rate they gave us was 1.5445 dollars per pound. So 50 GBP was $77.23. The exchange rate listed on the web is $1.4823. So Well's Fargo charged an extra $.06 and the sign said they were buying GBP for $1.42. Looks like they take a 3% commission on all exchanges. Of course if I were changing a million dollars I would probably have gotten a better rate. But, alas, just after a little pocket change.

As suspected they didn't have any Egyptian pounds so they had to be ordered. I requested 150 EP in 5 pound notes but they said they wouldn't guarantee the denominations of the notes but would request 5 pound notes. They are supposed to be in Anchorage in 7-10 business days. That would make it the end of next week. That should be plenty of time. Obviously I don't know the rate for those notes yet. It's a pay when they come in kind of thing. I would guess it will be around $30 US, probably a little less. It really seems like we should have more than that but we are supposed to be picked up at the airport. There are always ATMs where we can get cash.

Must remember to contact the credit card companies and the credit union about our travelling so they don't cancel the cards. Probably should do that a week before we go.

Exchanging Money Again

Seems Wells Fargo Bank is about the only place in Anchorage that does money exchange. Called their customer service line today and talked with someone in the lower 48. He thought the bank would have GBP on hand in many denominations but that they would have to order Egyptian pounds, especially if we want specific denominations. I know the smallest note you can get Egyptian is 5 and I think the same is true of Great Britain. Smaller denominations are all coins. Probably won't get any coins on this side of the Atlantic just folding money. It's easier and lighter to carry. I'm sure we will get enough coins while we are at our destinations.

Taking local currancy with you.

After talking with a couple of people that have been to Egypt recently it seems that it may be worth your while to get quite a few Egyptian 5 pound notes to take with you if you are staying in a hotel or similar facility.

Everything seems to cost a dollar. Most small items can be bartered down to a dollar in the markets and gratuities are most often a dollar. That translates into 5 Egyptian pounds though a dollar right now is worth about 5.5 pounds in Egypt. (http://www.xe.com/ucc/) So you may be able to save some money by getting five pound notes before you go. I was also told that generally when the banks exchange you money in Egypt very few five pound notes are given out even if you ask for them.

Will find out the places in Anchorage to exchange for Egyptian pounds and find out the cost in the next few days. I will write more about this when I can confirm or deny the truth of the matter. But that won't be until at least the middle of March 2009.

Seems the GBP is up to $1.36 today.