Selling Foreign Currency

Martynt74 · 6 Sep 2021 at 13:36

My dad has got a decent chunk of cash in Thai Bhat, Singapore Dollars and UAE Dirrums. He’s accumulated it on his travels and has maybe £5k in total.

He was asking me the best way to convert to either GBP or Euros. I think the SGD might be popular enough for a high street currency place but I doubt the others would be.

It’s at a point he doesn’t mind losing out on exchange costs. Just has accepted he’s unlikely to revisit these places for a while and so no point keeping it lying around.

Any suggestions from anyone that’s done this recently?

Martynt74 · 6 Sep 2021 at 15:10

Raymond Lin said:
For £5k, I would just do it all on the highstreet and get it done without the hassle. Sure it's not the best rate but it's safe, it's quick and honestly the relatively small amount, in the grand scheme of things, you might lose out on may be £100 total?

That was my thought. Do high street places trade in the lesser used currencies though?

The Singapore Dollars are worth around £3.5k I think so I think he’d be happy enough to just get that done.

Martynt74 · 6 Sep 2021 at 15:15

dLockers said:
I thought SGD was a closed currency? Or am I smoking something?

No idea. That would be a ballache though.

I might suggest he takes us all on holiday.

Martynt74 · 6 Sep 2021 at 15:17

dLockers said:
Winner - connecting flight via UAE to Singapore with a long weekend in Thailand!

Haha superb.

Just looked. The post office seems to do exchange.

In Spain at the moment with him. I’ll see if I can do it here. Otherwise I’m not sure the deal if I try and bring it all into the UK due to the value.

Martynt74 · 6 Sep 2021 at 15:25

dLockers said:
Your dad took £5k of random currencies to Spain on holiday?

I'd start asking the bigger questions...

Its best not to ask sometimes. Once he had about $10k in USD in a tea packet but then forgot where he’d put it and thought he’d lost it. Went to throw some rubbish out and found it all!

He does a lot of work in the Far East and I think sometimes gets paid in cash in various places.

Realising this post makes it sound even more suspicious!

EDIT. To clarify they live over here. Think he’s had this cash for around 5 years now just sat in a drawer.

Martynt74 · 6 Sep 2021 at 17:32

Just outside Manchester.

The Post Office suggests I can buy each of the 3 currencies. Will just wait till I’m home to see if they buy it back too.