Currency Exchange

Just use your debit card in the first ATM you see. cheaper and simpler.

Let me get this straight, you have just realized you 'kinda sorta' need to chance some money?

Dear oh dear.

Thank you libbyh! That's what I figured, just wanted to double check. Jstutu, just a joke, just realized I waited too late to order through the mail :)

Most banks do currency exchange as well. Although changing US dollars in NZ will be cheaper than trying to buy NZ dollars in the USA IMO.

And when people say more expensive, they often have no idea, because currency exchange has numerous ways of charging :-)

Why order through the mail? Most banks would carry the currency. But the easiest, cheapest way to do this is to use an ATM in NZ.
But check 3 things:
- That your bank has an agreement with a NZ bank. If so, use their ATMs and you will save on fees
- That your bank knows you are going. If not, they may see strange foreign transactions and cancel your card
- That your card will work in foreign ATMs. In a rare number of cases some cards are incompatible.
Also, if you use your credit card as an ATM debt card, this won't work in foreign ATMs, so only take the dedicated ATM withdrawal card.
But, even when doing all this, I always get a couple of hundred before arriving, just in case I land and discover my card won't work, or the ATMs are down. Grab some at the airport on arrival.

Hi

I want to travel in new zealand the next year, and I m intersted by that

thanks

I would not go into any country without a wad of their cash in my pocket. More than once going into places like Australia, US and Chile with a UK/Irish card I have chucked the card into the wailing wall and had it rejected. This occurs because the bank sees it as an irregular activity and then you've got to get on the blower to them and rah rah. I think you are doubly at risk as a seppoe since there are occasionally reports on here of US cards being rejected, sometimes because the US system is such a backward wasteland you don't have Chip and PIN. Advise your bank you are traveling as well.

In short, have some kiwi bucks in your sky rocket before you leave the US would be my advice to avoid the risk of standing in Auckland International without a penny to your name.

I would think it is perfectly sensible that if i landed in a new country, that i would have a little of their local currency, say enough to get me into town.

Say the shuttle, cab or bus fare at least?

I also make my first destination a cash machine to make sure all systems are go. But I'm a neurotic little fecker at the best of times and I've been burned four or five times.