Exchanging GBP banknotes to Euros in London

[Kangol]

Bit of a long shot, but worth asking.
I have a few hundred British pounds that I won't be needing much of. Will be going through London on a weekend and it would be an advantage for me to convert most of it into Euros.

Anyone have any recommendations, or places to avoid, in central(ish) London where I can exchange them at a reasonable rate?

The other option would be in Geneva airport (am arriving there on the way to the alps) - guessing that would be a worse place to do so.

Any suggestions would be appreciated, thankyou!

 

[RooFlyer]

Apologies, its not what you were asking, but no possibility to pay for some accommodation with it?

 

[Kangol]

Apologies, its not what you were asking, but no possibility to pay for some accommodation with it?

That's what I was thinking originally, but accommodation is prepaid.
I doubt they would refund it to the card and let me pay by cash.

 

[drron]

When we were driving around the UK we found the easiest place to change money was at the Post office. The rates were fine and the same even in a tiny village. I would expect post offices in London would be more likely to have a sufficient number of Euros for you.

 

[AIRwin]

I would expect post offices in London would be more likely to have a sufficient number of Euros for you.

Some branches in London open on Saturdays

 

[SYD]

Slightly ironically the UK (certainly London) you can pretty much go cashless now. Although, using leftover cash on hotels and meals is a good way to burn through some.

I load up any small change on to my Oyster card.

 

[Kangol]

When we were driving around the UK we found the easiest place to change money was at the Post office. The rates were fine and the same even in a tiny village. I would expect post offices in London would be more likely to have a sufficient number of Euros for you.

Some branches in London open on Saturdays

Perfect! I will look this up.
Thankyou

 

[Zero]

The Post Office's rates are awful. However, for a few hundred £ it won't make much difference (especially if you don't have / want coins to make up an amount to the nearest note).

Since covid, London has not been good for bureaux de change. You used to be able to buy and sell euros for less than 1% spread either way.

Now the best rate for under £500 is with ACE-FX (book online to get a slightly better rate) in London Bridge station and Canary Wharf station.

The best rate for £500 or more is from Currency Online Group near Waterloo station. Spread seems to be around 2-3%.

Before covid, the best rates in London were found with a company called Thomas Exchange Global that had many branches around the city, but they went bust. The name still exists but they got taken over by another banknote wholesaler. I only mention them because they buy and sell €1 and €2 coins (in small amounts). Surprisingly, you can also trade €1 and €2 at Gatwick Airport.

If you wander along Edgware Road between Marble Arch and Paddington there should be a number of Arab-run exchanges. I've not been for years so no idea if the rates are any good these days.

The area around Queensway station also used to be a good place - in 2013 one shop bought €2000 off me for about 1% more than the spot rate at the time.

You can actually get better rates for GBP to EUR cash and vice versa in Poland (well mainly Warsaw) and many parts of Turkey, than you can in the UK or any Eurozone country.