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I visited a small country in my last vacation. I ended up bringing a bit of money back because I was in a hurry I thought it would be easy to exchange back at h

I visited a small country in my last vacation. I ended up bringing a bit of money back because I was in a hurry I thought it would be easy to exchange back at home, even at worse rates. I live in a big city after all. Of course, I was very wrong. I spent an afternoon Googling every possible incantation only to get useless AI generated text, travel agency sites or simply unrelated content. I was about to accept my loss when I tried Kagi. The first page showed an exchange that accepted the currency. Very far from me and with terrible rates, but still. Anecdata and all, but the fact is that I'm using Kagi more and more and it's winning my trust and good will fast.

odysseus 3y ago
What many people do in this case is to keep the money for the next time you visit the country. (or as souvenirs)
- tambourine_man 3y ago
  It would have been an expensive souvenir. And I don’t travel all that much. Also, inflation and even outright currency replacements are somewhat common in smaller economies.
mike_hock 3y ago
This sounds like an ad for Kagi, though.
- wiether 3y ago
  Why would Kagi pay someone to promote them on HN when there's already dozens of praise everyday here? Even as a happy customer, I can see how suspect this praise can be, but remember that HN is exactly who Kagi was created for. And I don't remember having spend $10 a month on something that had that much impact on my daily life. It's _just_ a search engine, but I do about 50 search a day, and having great results each time while the other one is giving me more and more garbage results is huge. So I completely understand why people satisfied with Kagi can be noisy about how great they think it is.
- tambourine_man 3y ago
  You mean my comment? It’s not. I have no relation with them other than a free account. I think 2005-2010 Google was peak web search. It would have given me an obscure blog with the top 5 currency exchange offices. Kagi gave me one single crappy result, but it was still, sadly, better than what 2024 Google can do.
withzombies 3y ago
As an aside, many full service banks can exchange foreign currency for you. For example, Bank of America does (https://www.bankofamerica.com/foreign-exchange/exchange-rates/ https://www.bankofamerica.com/foreign-exchange/exchange-rate...). You can also order foreign currency prior to your trip and they'll mail it to you.
- kiwijamo 3y ago
  Interestingly in my country many full service banks have dropped foriegn currency services. They did that during the panademic but never returned back to offering that again. I suspect they make so much money from Visa/Mastercard commissions that they'd prefer people paid with card rather than cash.
  - tambourine_man 3y ago
    Yeah, a decade or so ago I’m sure I could have found one much easier. The only thing widely accepted is dollars and euros, now.
- tambourine_man 3y ago
  Right, it’s the same here. I learned that the hard way. If I ever need cash for traveling again, this is the way. I much rather use credit card if I can, however. But this place didn’t even had cell phone signal, so accepting anything other than cash was impossible.

odysseus 3y ago

What many people do in this case is to keep the money for the next time you visit the country. (or as souvenirs)

tambourine_man 3y ago
It would have been an expensive souvenir. And I don’t travel all that much. Also, inflation and even outright currency replacements are somewhat common in smaller economies.

mike_hock 3y ago

This sounds like an ad for Kagi, though.

wiether 3y ago
Why would Kagi pay someone to promote them on HN when there's already dozens of praise everyday here? Even as a happy customer, I can see how suspect this praise can be, but remember that HN is exactly who Kagi was created for. And I don't remember having spend $10 a month on something that had that much impact on my daily life. It's _just_ a search engine, but I do about 50 search a day, and having great results each time while the other one is giving me more and more garbage results is huge. So I completely understand why people satisfied with Kagi can be noisy about how great they think it is.
tambourine_man 3y ago
You mean my comment? It’s not. I have no relation with them other than a free account. I think 2005-2010 Google was peak web search. It would have given me an obscure blog with the top 5 currency exchange offices. Kagi gave me one single crappy result, but it was still, sadly, better than what 2024 Google can do.

withzombies 3y ago

As an aside, many full service banks can exchange foreign currency for you. For example, Bank of America does (https://www.bankofamerica.com/foreign-exchange/exchange-rates/ https://www.bankofamerica.com/foreign-exchange/exchange-rate...). You can also order foreign currency prior to your trip and they'll mail it to you.

kiwijamo 3y ago
Interestingly in my country many full service banks have dropped foriegn currency services. They did that during the panademic but never returned back to offering that again. I suspect they make so much money from Visa/Mastercard commissions that they'd prefer people paid with card rather than cash.
- tambourine_man 3y ago
  Yeah, a decade or so ago I’m sure I could have found one much easier. The only thing widely accepted is dollars and euros, now.
tambourine_man 3y ago
Right, it’s the same here. I learned that the hard way. If I ever need cash for traveling again, this is the way. I much rather use credit card if I can, however. But this place didn’t even had cell phone signal, so accepting anything other than cash was impossible.