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During my last trip to HK, had a very unpleasant experience with a money changer there.
I waitde for my wife at the MTR as she was going to change some Hong kong dollars. So i let her do the walking and when she return, i was shock to see that the exchange rate to be S$1 to HK$4.62 which is a ripped off as the rate should be around S$1 to HK$5.2.
So i took my slip back to the money changer and asked her to return me the money which obviously she declined.
When i look at the board, the rate is extremely weird, big spread between the bid and offer rate. 4.76 and 5.96. This is a very big spread which is very unreasonable. I have been to many countries and never see something like that before and therefore, allow my wife to do the changing. She is not well verse is such matters and she accepted the rate and signed on the slip. So no choice, have to honour it. I had calculated, the "losses" for this transaction amounts to S$50, on top of whatever they are earning usually.
S$600 to HK$2856 (based on 4.76)
S$600 to HK$3120 (based on 5.2)
HK$3120 - HK$ 2856 = HK$264
Translate back to singapore dollars based on her rates= S$55.46.
Do be very careful when changing money. Please look at both the buy and sell and the rates should not be too big... around 3% to 5% should be ok... cos banks should only be around 1%...
For example today's rate for HK$ today buy at .1828 and sell at .1808
I waitde for my wife at the MTR as she was going to change some Hong kong dollars. So i let her do the walking and when she return, i was shock to see that the exchange rate to be S$1 to HK$4.62 which is a ripped off as the rate should be around S$1 to HK$5.2.
So i took my slip back to the money changer and asked her to return me the money which obviously she declined.
When i look at the board, the rate is extremely weird, big spread between the bid and offer rate. 4.76 and 5.96. This is a very big spread which is very unreasonable. I have been to many countries and never see something like that before and therefore, allow my wife to do the changing. She is not well verse is such matters and she accepted the rate and signed on the slip. So no choice, have to honour it. I had calculated, the "losses" for this transaction amounts to S$50, on top of whatever they are earning usually.
S$600 to HK$2856 (based on 4.76)
S$600 to HK$3120 (based on 5.2)
HK$3120 - HK$ 2856 = HK$264
Translate back to singapore dollars based on her rates= S$55.46.
Do be very careful when changing money. Please look at both the buy and sell and the rates should not be too big... around 3% to 5% should be ok... cos banks should only be around 1%...
For example today's rate for HK$ today buy at .1828 and sell at .1808
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