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Loading...By Shon Alam, founder of Bidwedge
When you come back from holiday what do you do with the local currency that you still have in your pocket or purse? There is a good chance that you will put it into a drawer or perhaps a special container and tell yourself that you will use it when you next travel to that country. Some organized people even put the spare cash into carefully labeled envelopes and file them away for future use.
But what happens when you travel abroad again? Quite often you may find yourself at the airport kicking yourself because you have forgotten to bring the spare notes with you. Just when you need them to give a tip to a taxi driver.
Image: Pexels
This is not just conjecture. A recent survey from M&S Bank published in November 2019 revealed what happens to UK travelers’ leftover foreign currency.
It found that £3 billion in unused foreign cash currency is sat in drawers of UK households and that each year, on average, travelers return with £1 billion in various denominations in cash, plus around £1bn is spent each year by UK travelers‘ using up’ currency in their departure airport before returning home.
For larger amounts, buyback schemes, and even just taking the hit and changing your unused currency at the airport when you get home, are options. But beyond that, and especially for small amounts, there isn’t an easy, cost-effective solution – so the cash sits in a drawer and gets ‘wasted’.
What Can Be Done About This?
Now, rather than letting those spare notes gather dust, there is a simple way that travelers can avoid wasting their leftover cash.
Bidwedge lets you create a free account, state the amount of currency you have and then they’ll tell you the price they will pay for your currency. If you agree, you post your currency to Bidwedge and the agreed amount will be paid directly into your bank account. There are no additional fees, postage is free, and all transactions are insured. The aim is to make this an easy process. In addition, they even pay in advance on all GBP value of £30 and less. Bidwedge’s Currency Buy Back is currently available for Euros and US Dollars and starts as low as 10Euros or $10.
Bidwedge is independent of both banks and currency wholesalers, putting their community of users at the center of the platform. They say you now have no excuse for hoarding your spare Euros and US Dollars. The next time you are tidying up, have a look at how much you have hidden away and collected all those spare notes. You can then add them up and ask Bidwedge to let you know how much sterling you can get. You may very well have enough to give yourself a nice treat. You’ll also be putting the foreign cash back into circulation. That has to be a good thing all round.
Shon Alam is the founder of Bidwedge. Bidwedge makes it easy to change your left-over cash currency back into Sterling, for even the smallest amounts.
The views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any other agency, organization, employer or company.
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