Getting Ripped off Traveling from Currency Exchange Options
If you have ever traveled to different countries and had to exchange currencies more than likely you got a severely marked up exchange rate or short changed by contrast.
Whether you realize it or not every time you transact with a credit card (that doesn’t have international benefits) that isn’t your home currency the bank tacks on a 2–4% charge on purchases.
When you exchange at an airport kiosk you either pay an upfront fee up to X amount or give you a less than favorable exchange rate. The disparity between exchange rate at the kiosk and spot prices on average 8–10% but can be higher in some cases.
What if you want to exchange cash? Airport Kiosk’ are one area, but generally are the worst deal you can get. You can go to banks, money changers, hotels, currency exchanges, and ATM for most currencies. These exchange rates can vary in disparity from 2–10%
If your using the USD as your base currency the options are almost limitless but other currencies do not fare the same acceptance. But most foreign business will accept the USD even if it’s not their local currency and those include loan offices, restaurants, stores, bars, rental companies just to name a few. While paying in USD in Mexico can be convenient, your almost guaranteed to be taken advantage of by merchants that understand the exchange rates and verbally say rates or just give change back (also likely to give change back in their currency not USD)
Now these are problems that almost everyone that travels encounter’s daily and for essentially every transaction. These problems are often never pondered by people who don’t travel outside their country or who rarely do. While we all are living in a more global world where travel is normal and expected in most jobs, there should be some easier solutions besides getting a credit card specific for international travel don’t you think.
While the on and off ramps to crypto are still in its infancy, for example it still takes 7–9 days to ACH transfer FIAT to coinbase pro to buy Bitcoin (avoiding fees). These limitations should be alleviated by further development and solution implementation into the on-ramp infrastructure, as well as growing merchant adoption. With a more seamless transition from holding FIAT & Crypto and merchants being educated to accept multiple currencies. There is a lot of opportunity to for consumers to save.
While one of the main problems in bitcoin being the go to exchange point for other currency’s (crypto and fiat) is indeed its volatility. Most merchants wont gamble on having their accurately projected income be subject to 10–20% swings in valuation in the short term. It is harder for them to get loans without hammered down financials and most merchants currently accept it for either publicity or additional revenue not accounted for in the bottom line.
There are many stable coins currently in production and a few that are in circulation, however I’m sure most of you are familiar with Tethers murky proven reserves and the fact its owned by the exchange BitFinEx. But there are others that are looking to partner with banks or prove reserves with third party audits that will be redeemable at locations around the globe. Once there is a stable coin that merchants can instantly exchange any of X amount of cryptocurrency’s directly into a stable coin that will transfer either USD, Crypto, Stable coin. We can begin the implementation of merchants accepting crypto with no added risk than before, just a bit of education and setup to open another tunnel of revenue.
