Currency exchanges?

Stragus

As many other sellers, I accept payments in GBP to cover the (pretty low) BrickOwl fees. And once again, I have received waaayy too many payments in GBP for my needs before I could pause that currency (now with 420 GBP in PayPal).

I'm wondering, since PayPal's exchange rates are atrociously bad, is there anything like a marketplace of people exchanging currencies as "to friends and family" no-fees PayPal transfers? Google didn't turn up much, but it seems like something a lot of people could benefit from.

(Alternatively, if there is a reputable UK seller with USD or CAD to trade for these GBP, we could do that swap...)

BrickGenie

British friend of mine here in the Netherlands transfers all his GBP to Bitcoin and back to Euro's to avoid exchange fees. He swears it's the most economic way to do it but it seems kinda risky...

Stragus

Bitcoin, eh. I'll have a look, that could work.

Thanks!

robernat

@Stragus Is it worthed to keep any other currency then your own? Sure there is a small conversion fee on the BO fees (if you pay from another balance), but does that warrant hundreds of GBP's in your account at a much higher cost when you transfer 'balance' from GBP to CAD before you can move it to your bankaccount? For the buyers it makes no difference I believe, they just shop in their currency on BO and 'pay' and you get the equivalent in your currency, no sweat...
Also checkout Ripple Coin (XRP) in stead of Bitcoin, at first sight much more stable in the long run, but I don't know a thing about the conversions there... Right now I've just started to get interested, much more to read LOL.

Stragus

@robernat I know :), it's rather silly to try saving 3% in currency exchange for BrickOwl fees, and ending up with hundreds of GBPs to convert.

There's still potential in the idea of exchanging currencies between individuals, without going through the exchange rates of banks or Paypal...

robernat

@Stragus I'd help you out instantly, you know that, but for me that wouldn't even be remotely possible, I only accept Euro as it's easier for bookkeeping, and because of the bookkeeping it would be hard to 'justify' such odd money flows :-D
Be carefull with it anyway, and only trust people you know, particulary when using 'for friends and family', as you know, transfers like that are not refundable, so if anything goes wrong with your 'partner', you'll be unprotected...
Virtual money seems a good idea, even better if you find the right one and can leave the cash on there for a while (might give some extra profit).
Right now there is a downfall on Virtual Money (alltough XRP seems stable as it works differently compared to any other virtual coin), doesn't mean it will remain like that forever...