Quote:
Originally Posted by Stardrifter_WA
The answer was a little perplexing. For AUD10,000 I get USD10,035 
I would have thought that I would get closer to the exchange rate of 1.03 which should make it around USD10,000 but no, the bank only gives you 1.0035, as of today. What a rip off. I mentioned that the exchange rate is 1.03 something, so why don't I get that and bank didn't have an answer.
So, why have an official exchange rate, if you cannot actually buy at that |
Hi Peter,
I keep close tabs on exchange rates and was only looking at the
Commonweath Bank cash/Travel Money card sell rate earlier today
and indeed it was 1.0035, which is exactly what you received.
In fact, during the last few days it was below parity so your timing
was good.
The flip side of the coin is the buy rate, which for cash today from
the Commonweath Bank was 1.0902. For International Money
Transfers from the same bank it was 1.0781.
So there is a lot of "cream" the banks skim between the buy and sell rates.
For manufacturers who import materials at the sell rate but
export finished product at the buy rate, the banks do well out of the
two transactions and opening up the currency markets to everyone is a
major reform that is needed to help improve productivity, but I digress.
As Malcolm correctly pointed out there is no such thing as an
"official exhange rate".
The rate you see on television is commonly known as the mid-market
rate, averaged between the market sell and buy rates.
If you use a credit card billed in Australian Dollars to buy
something overseas, banks such as the Commonweath will also charge
an additional fee to the card holder of about 2.9995%. That's on top
of the low sell exchange rate they provide.
Enjoy your trip.