What is money exchange? This term can be used to describe any situation where money is exchanged from one party to another, or a conversion between currencies. For
example, Mr and Mrs Jones intend to go to St Tropez for their annual holiday. As they live in the UK, their local currency is the British Pound (GBP). The currency of St Tropez is the Euro (EUR) as it is located within France, in mainland Europe. Therefore, in order for Mr and Mrs Jones to be able to spend money in shops, restaurants and other retailers within St Tropez they will need some Euros. How much they wish to take is up to them – but what they will need to do is convert some of their pounds into euros. This is easily done but the Joneses have a number of options available to them.
These include going to a regular bureau de change at the airport and asking for a certain amount of euros. The person at the counter will tell them how many pounds they will need in order to receive that amount of euros – in other words, they will be given an exchange rate. This rate changes frequently and also varies according to where you go to exchange currencies. Mr and Mrs Jones know that the rate quoted to them at the airport is not the best deal around. They know that if they go online and search for travel money there, they will find plenty of high-quality exchange services which offer very reasonable rates and without extra fees and charges (such as commission).