How To Exchange Currency To Leva
Leva
Euros, Pounds, Lira, Dollars to Leva – it’s in the currency exchange that you stand to lose. Banks have been set up by the world leaders as the great whipping boys of the world’s financial woes.
It’s all very convenient for politicians to point most of the blame at banks. It makes us all feel better. Whether we worked hard, saved what we could.
Or spent more than we could afford to – no worry, we hear, it’s the Banks fault.
But let’s not forget that apart from lending money, Banks have many huge fee earning activities that will continue to provide risk free, no capital required and high margin returns. The one that concerns me today, is foreign exchange.
Foreign exchange is the one that gets me when I least have the time to deal with it. Yet I should know better. Knowing we generally lose at least 2.5% and often 10% for changing our money should be motivation enough.
But guess what? It can be a lot more.
So here some simple rules:
- don’t change your currency at the airport
- do use proper Banks
- euros are quick and easy to change to lev
- aim for €1 = 1.95 levs (€1= 1.95583 Leva)
- ATM’s charge flat fees – but be careful of poor rates and extra charges
- some credit cards charge extra fees and offer poor conversion rates
- don’t use the Bansko money exchange booths
- somw Bansko ATM’s do not accept MAESTRO cards – Societe Generale does
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Do you have any Bulgaria money exchange experiences you can share? If so, then please comment below.
