I was wrong. I had supposed that I would be able to rely on my credit card more while in Germany, but this isn’t the case. Most card readers here require a chip-and-pin (“smart”) card. They simply can’t read a credit card with a magnetic strip.
I’ve nearly exhausted my small stash of euros. I’ll need to exchange some of my $ for € if I want to continue doing fun tourist things, like eating.
Unfortunately, Germany isn’t big on independent currency exchange shops. Some banks and the tourist information office are the only places I’ve found in Cologne that will buy and sell cash. Without competition, their conversion rates are poor.
Currency exchange is much more competitive in Poland. Kraków exchange shops charged about 1% off the bank rate, which is extremely good. It’s what I got when I withdraw cash with my ATM card (back when it was un-expired).
Gdańsk had slightly worse rates (maybe 2% off the bank rate), but still bearable.
The tourist information office in Cologne, however, buys and sells around 3.6% off the bank rate. On top of that, they charge a 1% commission off the transaction, with a minimum of €4 per transaction. The effective rate works out to be about what it was back when the euro was strongest against the dollar last year. I’d have to change €400 (around $675 with today’s rates) for the commission effectively 1%. No way I’m going to change that much (not that I even have that much cash on me!). Banks seem to offer even worse deals.
So, changing $100 will get me around €65. That’s about €6 worse than if I had been able to use my ATM card. Of course, if I change more, the commission will cost less proportionately, but then it’s an even bigger waste of money. I should have done more research before leaving Poland. Changing dollars into złoty and then złoty into euros would have been less expensive in Kraków.
Bah. In the larger scheme, it’s not a lot of money wasted on currency exchange. I only need to make it until my Tuesday afternoon flight.
