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Hi,
I am travelling to Egypt in a couple of weeks.
The exchange rate is apparently around 63 Egyptian pounds to one GBP.
I cant however find a place to buy them at a rate higher than 45.
Has anyone else experienced this recently?
Is it better to get Egyptian pounds there ? Do you know roughly what rates Id get there
Many thanks
Craig
I’d get them there if required, same as I do everywhere else, just pull them out of an ATM. I use card wherever possible to avoid having a wad of cash on me.
It’s been a long time since I went, but pretty sure we used US dollars mainly as their currency was so unstable.
It might be worth getting a few quid just in case you struggle on the first day. I'd just take some out at the airport cash point on arrival. Just make sure you have a fee free card to do it. As mentioned US dollars are widely accepted but you'll be better with Egyptian pounds for taxis and restaurants.
Wise are currently doing £1 = 63.1 EGP at the time of writing.
When I was going about 15 years ago it was the done thing to take USD to buy your visa at the airport. At the time it was $15. Don't know if that's still a thing.
Sign up for a card like Starling or Revolut and take cash out there maybe.
We did a Nile boat all inc. two years ago, didn't take any with us, got a couple of hundred GBP worth at the ATM in the airport for tipping and souvenir shopping etc.
just looked on revolut, FX rate is 62.81 to £1 to buy (63.58 to sell to £1), you can set up a pocket, not that i'd bother,
just withdraw cash out at airport, with monzo and/or revolut (chase et al) the first £200-250 a month of withdrawals is fee free and Fx rates are so much better than regular high street uk banks,
Its a bit out of date as i went 35 years ago, we got dollars and exchanged those to egyptian pounds out there.
Anywhere with an "unusual" currency - not Euro or USD, certainly anything with high inflation or uncertain politics, you'll get a terrible rate to either buy or sell in the UK.
My travel plan is always to use an ATM on arrival - even if it has high charges for withdrawal it will be cheaper than UK bureau. For 'emergency money' a handful of US dollars in cash - a couple of 50's and maybe another 50 in small notes. That will enough to cover you for long enough to get to a bank. I finally tried to use my emergency cash in rural Cambodia last December (where a lot of stuff gets priced in USD and there are cashpoints which dispense dollar notes). They were incredibly fussy about the notes that they'd take - they only really wanted completely crisp notes - and my 50s were rejected as they were too old (!). Managed to spend them at a museum entrance in the end. Strangest thing was paying in dollar and getting a mix of dollar and local currency in change - checking change was a mental arithmetic challenge.