If you have an international debit or credit card, using it while out of the country is one way to make purchases and withdraw cash -- but doing so incurs transactions fee and, if you do use it at ATMs, fees for those machines as well. To avoid losing money unnecessarily, exchange your home country's currency for that of the foreign country you're visiting -- and calculate how much you expect to receive in return before you head to the currency exchange counter.

Items you will need

  • Calculator
Step 1

Look up your currency exchange rate, keeping in mind to find out what one of your currency buys in another. Visit a website that keeps track of official exchange rates -- x-rates, XE.com and OANDA are three examples -- and view the table. For example's sake, suppose you need to buy euros, and euros are trading at 1 USD = .7375 EUR.

Step 2

Count out all the money you plan to exchange. The amount of foreign currency you receive in exchange for your home country's currency depends on how much you give to begin with, so it's essential to know exactly how much you have.

Step 3

Multiply the amount of currency you plan to exchange by the exchange rate. For example, if you exchange 100 U.S. dollars for euros at a rate of 1 USD = .7375 EUR, expect to receive 100 x .7375, or 73.75 euros for your exchange.

Step 4

Subtract out any fees the exchange counter charges. Ask the associate before you begin the transaction whether his company assesses any transaction commissions -- some do; some don't.


  • After you're comfortable with doing the calculation by hand, determine the value of your exchange by inputting "## (currency one) in (currency two)" into a search engine like Google, Yahoo! or Bing. For example, input "500 USD in THB" to find out how many Thai baht 500 U.S. dollars buys.

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  • Currency parity image by Joseph Borg from Fotolia.com
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