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Who charges their buddy 15 USD exchange fees on 100 USD? :(

by zaik 1mo ago

rtpg 1mo ago
That's the wrong read. It's more that it's easy to understand. "I will give you a 100 dollar bill, please give me a 10,000 yen bill."
- oniony 1mo ago
  He must have been a very itchy man.
- piker 1mo ago
  Does seem within the range of “hit me back when I see you next week, buddy” though.
  - 0cf8612b2e1e 1mo ago
    shoobiedoo was now stuck with a locally useless $100 American. So, he was actually given a hassle to resolve of getting it converted back to yen. If the guy was so hot to not lose a dime, he could have said, “Loan me 10k yen right now, I will pay you back ASAP”. If the guy is in Japan with American currency, he likely knows the exchange rate and exactly the terms he was getting.
    - shoobiedoo 1mo ago
      yep. at that time, I would have had to take it to the exchange, with my passport, pay a fee, and barely break even. I really didn't think that needed to be said, but people always come out of the woodwork to convince themselves they are morally superior
      - piker 1mo ago
        No I wasn't saying that. It's close, but you mentioned something about making money on the trade, so I just added the observation. It's totally dependent on the relationship, really!
shoobiedoo 1mo ago
He literally put 100USD in front of me, said he forgot to get more yen before his trip, and asked for a favor. Am I really in the wrong from your perspective?
- xattt 1mo ago
  Yes, the move to do was to take a pair of scissors to cut down the 100 dollar bill to fair market value, and give the remainder back to your friend. /s
- itake 1mo ago
  If I was in that situation and I’d help my friend not try to make a buck off them when they are down. Between electronic transfer and just settle the debt later, isn’t really an excuse…
  - shoobiedoo 1mo ago
    Please explain how the situation I described is me "trying to make a buck". You're saying he regretted the terms he presented, and is forever resentful that I didn't drag him to a bank to look up the exchange rate at the time?
    - itake 1mo ago
      The economic term is "price gauging". You charged a $15usd (~15%) fee when your friend was desperate and willing, when the standard fee for such transactions is at best 0% and worst 5%.
  - Groxx 1mo ago
    It very much depends on the people and the relationship. Through many years, I've swung a few hundred$+ in either direction with a bunch of people, thousands with a couple. I much prefer zero stress - if money is tight, we just don't do expensive stuff, or steal the bill before they have a chance to pay. Mostly that means we stay cheap until we can safely cover multiple people if needed (running your safety-buffer low enough that you can't do that is a terrible idea anyway).
N_Lens 1mo ago
This is the kind of handwringing over $100 ethics I come to HN for!
- shoobiedoo 1mo ago
  [flagged]
  - deleted 1mo ago
    [deleted]
geysersam 1mo ago
It might have been a gift by his friend. You don't know the details, maybe the friend is more affluent, maybe op had already let him stay in his apartment and given him food and this was the friends covert attempt to even the scale without directly offering money.
deleted 1mo ago
[deleted]
justsomehnguy 1mo ago
You mean the cost of a couple of beers at the end of the day? OP clearly stated the situation was of a mutual benefit - friend got their Y now and don't need to bother with doing an exchange, OP got a few spare bucks which was a such big sum what it literally sat in the drawer for 5 (five) years.
omoikane 1mo ago
In 2021, USD to JPY exchange rate ranged from ~102 to ~115, and the average was ~109. The actual exchange rate could be a bit less depending on where you make the exchange, so 100 USD to 10000 JPY doesn't seem like that much off. (For example, I noticed that if I buy something from Amazon or try to pay for something using Paypal, the exchange rate they offered me is consistently worse than the market rate if I elect to pay with USD instead of JPY. The difference often adds up to a few dollars, even accounting for foreign transaction fees that my bank might charge.)

Who charges their buddy 15 USD exchange fees on 100 USD? :(

by zaik 1mo ago

Who charges their buddy 15 USD exchange fees on 100 USD? :(

rtpg 1mo ago

That's the wrong read. It's more that it's easy to understand. "I will give you a 100 dollar bill, please give me a 10,000 yen bill."

oniony 1mo ago
He must have been a very itchy man.
piker 1mo ago
Does seem within the range of “hit me back when I see you next week, buddy” though.
- 0cf8612b2e1e 1mo ago
  shoobiedoo was now stuck with a locally useless $100 American. So, he was actually given a hassle to resolve of getting it converted back to yen. If the guy was so hot to not lose a dime, he could have said, “Loan me 10k yen right now, I will pay you back ASAP”. If the guy is in Japan with American currency, he likely knows the exchange rate and exactly the terms he was getting.
  - shoobiedoo 1mo ago
    yep. at that time, I would have had to take it to the exchange, with my passport, pay a fee, and barely break even. I really didn't think that needed to be said, but people always come out of the woodwork to convince themselves they are morally superior
    - piker 1mo ago
      No I wasn't saying that. It's close, but you mentioned something about making money on the trade, so I just added the observation. It's totally dependent on the relationship, really!

shoobiedoo 1mo ago

He literally put 100USD in front of me, said he forgot to get more yen before his trip, and asked for a favor. Am I really in the wrong from your perspective?

xattt 1mo ago
Yes, the move to do was to take a pair of scissors to cut down the 100 dollar bill to fair market value, and give the remainder back to your friend. /s
itake 1mo ago
If I was in that situation and I’d help my friend not try to make a buck off them when they are down. Between electronic transfer and just settle the debt later, isn’t really an excuse…
- shoobiedoo 1mo ago
  Please explain how the situation I described is me "trying to make a buck". You're saying he regretted the terms he presented, and is forever resentful that I didn't drag him to a bank to look up the exchange rate at the time?
  - itake 1mo ago
    The economic term is "price gauging". You charged a $15usd (~15%) fee when your friend was desperate and willing, when the standard fee for such transactions is at best 0% and worst 5%.
- Groxx 1mo ago
  It very much depends on the people and the relationship. Through many years, I've swung a few hundred$+ in either direction with a bunch of people, thousands with a couple. I much prefer zero stress - if money is tight, we just don't do expensive stuff, or steal the bill before they have a chance to pay. Mostly that means we stay cheap until we can safely cover multiple people if needed (running your safety-buffer low enough that you can't do that is a terrible idea anyway).

N_Lens 1mo ago

This is the kind of handwringing over $100 ethics I come to HN for!

shoobiedoo 1mo ago
[flagged]
- deleted 1mo ago
  [deleted]

geysersam 1mo ago

It might have been a gift by his friend. You don't know the details, maybe the friend is more affluent, maybe op had already let him stay in his apartment and given him food and this was the friends covert attempt to even the scale without directly offering money.

deleted 1mo ago

[deleted]

justsomehnguy 1mo ago

You mean the cost of a couple of beers at the end of the day? OP clearly stated the situation was of a mutual benefit - friend got their Y now and don't need to bother with doing an exchange, OP got a few spare bucks which was a such big sum what it literally sat in the drawer for 5 (five) years.

omoikane 1mo ago

In 2021, USD to JPY exchange rate ranged from ~102 to ~115, and the average was ~109. The actual exchange rate could be a bit less depending on where you make the exchange, so 100 USD to 10000 JPY doesn't seem like that much off. (For example, I noticed that if I buy something from Amazon or try to pay for something using Paypal, the exchange rate they offered me is consistently worse than the market rate if I elect to pay with USD instead of JPY. The difference often adds up to a few dollars, even accounting for foreign transaction fees that my bank might charge.)