Which number to see when changing money?

A beginner's guide to we buy we sell in currency exchange

Confused when comparing currency rates? 

Not sure how to interpret the two column of numbers : we buy , we sell?

I have not travelled for a while and found myself asking this question when changing to Indonesian Rupiah (IDR) in my recent trip to Jakarta. I thought it will be useful to share this information since I believe this question will be encountered quite frequently by people like me who does not do currency exchange often.

Click here for the best place to change currency in Singapore

Here are the 2 tips to remember when you are exchanging currency.

• Always look under "we sell"

>We sell is the amount that the money changer will charge you for 1 unit (or could be 100/1000 units) of the foreign currency.

• Then find the lowest number among the shops you are comparing

>Think as it from this perspective

: you are looking at the currency selling price and the smaller, the better.

Now, an example

I wanted to change SGD to IDR (Singapore dollars to Indonesia Rupiah) , there were 2 banks at the airport (Why change at the airport? Reason here )

So i looked under the "we sell" column

1st bank offered 0.109 the other offered 0.112. Which one should i go for?

I should choose the one offering 0.109, which means I will receive 1000 IDR for $0.109 SGD

To exchange for 1,000,000 IDR, I will hence need $109. (It will cost $112 if I went for the other bank)

So remember

look under we sell, and 

the smaller the figure, 

The better rate you'll get

Hope this was useful for you

EUFASS