Best place to change foreign currency in Singapore:

UPDATE 20 Apr 2016: Changing Large Amount of SGD to JPY? View my experience here
UPDATE 23 Dec 2014: Cash or Credit in Japan? view my recommendation here
UPDATE 12 Nov 2014: SGD to KRW comparison of exchange rate here
UPDATE: view my currency exchange experience on my recent trip to Malaysia here

When travelling to Japan, one of my first questions was - Where is the best place to change Sing dollar to Japanese yen? From SGD to no matter which currency, be it taiwanese dollar, norwegian kroner or the US dollar, that is always the big question in a savvy's traveller mind.

I recently went on a trip to Norway and did a survey of 4 main sources of currency exchange - lucky plaza, at the airport and at the destination airport, just using my credit card.( Note: for my foreign readers, lucky plaza is one of the popular currency exchange hotspot in Singapore. ) I need to change SGD to Norwegian Kroner, and here are my experiences:

The rate from google was 4.65 kroner to 1SGD.

1. Money changers at lucky plaza : some carry the elusive kroner and some don't. For those which did, their range quote span as low as 4 to as high as 4.58.
2. At the airport : Only selected kiosks carry the kroner. Of the one I found which did, it offered a rate of 4.5.
3. At the destination airport (Oslo Gardenmoen) : The good news is all money exchange kiosks carry kroner this time (duh). The bad news is, the demand, or just the rate, for Singapore dollars is quite bad.
4. The rate at which the bank charges on my credit card was slightly better, at 4.52. 

My recommendation

If you have a substantial amount: 

Know your target rate, go to your preferred local currency exchange hotspot, I.e the Arcade, Mustafa, Chinatown, Suntec, Lucky Plaza, etc

If you just need a small amount (eg. less than $500): 

Change at the airport. Why? The time you spend making a trip to and finding the best rate at your local currency exchange hotspot will not really justify your savings.
(Advice from another reader on 27 April 2014: Some currencies like the saudi riyal(SAR) have limited quantities, so it is no guarantee that you can get your currency at the airport) 

For this trip, I only need to change SGD 500, thus it was an interesting experiment for me. Even though I was able to, and really tempted to lock in the 4.58 rate at the money changer, my greed got the better of me thinking I could get a better rate at the airport kiosks.

That said, my loss was a mere 0.07 x 500 = 35 kroner in other words close to S$8 (ok, not that mere after all, but still I spent 2 hours traveling and transport took $4). It is always a good idea to have some destination currency with you, even if you have your credit card.

The loss was minimal this time but I gained good experience on changing currency rates next time! Hope this was useful for you.

EUFASS