when traveling outside of your own country watch for country specific fees for example prior to july 2020 cuba charged a 10 tax on tourists buying cuban convertible peso cuc with u s dollars 1
bid ask spreads in the retail forex marketcurrency exchanges earn their money by charging customers a fee for their services but also by taking advantage of the bid ask spread in the currency the bid price is what the dealer is willing to pay for a currency while the ask price is the rate at which a dealer will sell the same currency for example ellen is an american traveler visiting europe the cost of purchasing euros at the airport may be quoted as follows the higher price usd 1 40 is the cost to buy each euro ellen wants to buy eur 5 000 so she would have to pay the dealer usd 7 000 suppose also that the next traveler in line has just returned from her european vacation and wants to sell the euros that she has left over katelyn has eur 5 000 to sell she can sell the euros at the bid price of usd 1 30 the lower price and would receive usd 6 500 in exchange for her euros because of the bid ask spread the kiosk dealer is able to make a profit of usd 500 from this transaction the difference between usd 7 000 and usd 6 500 