Where Can I Exchange Foreign Currency A Complete UK Guide

Posted by: Ian • 10 Dec 2025

So, you've just come back from a fantastic trip abroad, but now you’re left wondering, where can I exchange foreign currency? In the UK, your main options are usually high street banks, dedicated bureaux de change, and specialist online services.

Banks can feel like the easy choice if you’re already a customer, but they rarely accept coins. That’s where our fast, easy, and hassle-free online service really shines—we provide the best home for your leftover holiday money, including all those mixed coins and even old, out-of-circulation notes. Our service is 100% guaranteed and trusted by major UK brands.

Your Quick Guide to Exchanging Foreign Currency

We’ve all been there. You get home from a trip, unpack your bags, and find a pocketful of unfamiliar coins and a few leftover banknotes. More often than not, this collection of foreign currency gets tucked away in a drawer, forgotten and unused. Many people just assume it’s too much of a faff to exchange, especially the coins, but turning that forgotten cash into pounds is much easier than you might think.

The trick is knowing which service is the right fit for what you have. Do you only have pristine banknotes in a major currency like Euros or US Dollars? Or is it more of a mixed bag of coins and notes from various countries, some of which might even be obsolete? Each scenario has a best-fit solution, and for mixed currency, a specialist service offers a fast, easy, and hassle-free way to cash in.

Finding the Right Exchange Method

To make your decision a bit clearer, let's break down the most common places to convert your foreign coins and banknotes. Your local bank might seem like the obvious first port of call, but you'll quickly find they almost never accept foreign coins. Bureaux de change, often found at airports or in supermarkets, are handy for notes but can come with less competitive rates.

This is where specialist online services come in. We are specifically set up to handle the tricky stuff—the mixed coins and old currency that everyone else tends to turn away, and you don't even need to sort your coins.

This quick decision tree helps you visualise your main options based on the type of currency you're holding.

A flowchart showing options for coins: if you have them, use an online service or a bank.

As you can see, having foreign coins is the main deal-breaker. If you need to exchange foreign coins, a specialist online service is almost always your most effective and hassle-free choice.

To help you decide where to exchange your foreign currency, we've put together a simple table comparing these options at a glance. Whether you care most about convenience, cost, or the type of money you have, this will point you in the right direction before we dive deeper into each method.

Currency Exchange Options at a Glance

This table offers a quick comparison of common places to exchange foreign currency in the UK, highlighting their key features and drawbacks to help you make a swift decision.

Exchange Method	Best For	Accepts Coins?	Typical Fees	Convenience Level
High Street Banks	Existing customers with major currency notes.	Almost never.	Varies; can have handling fees or less competitive rates.	High (if your branch offers the service).
Bureaux de Change	Quick, in-person exchange of popular banknotes.	No.	Often higher commissions or wider spreads.	Very High (airports, city centres).
Airport/Station Kiosks	Last-minute, urgent exchanges.	No.	Usually the least favourable rates and highest fees.	High (but at a premium cost).
Online Exchange Services	Mixed foreign currency, including coins and obsolete notes.	Yes.	Lower overheads often mean better rates.	Medium (requires posting your currency).

Ultimately, the best choice hinges on what you have. For simple, common banknotes, a bank or bureau might do the trick. But for that forgotten jar of mixed coins and old notes, an online specialist is your best bet for a fast and hassle-free exchange.

Where Most People Go to Exchange Currency (and Why It's Often a Mistake)

When you think, "where can I exchange my foreign currency?", your mind probably jumps straight to the most obvious places. The high street bank you've used for years, or maybe one of those brightly-lit bureaux de change you see in airports and supermarkets. It makes sense. They feel familiar, established, and safe.

These places are certainly convenient if you’re looking to swap a tidy stack of popular, current banknotes like Euros or US Dollars. Walking into your local branch seems like the easiest way to get the job done. The problem is, this convenience is often an illusion, masking some serious drawbacks that you only discover when you get to the counter.

The simple truth is that while these options are visible everywhere, they aren't set up to handle the reality of leftover holiday money. Their business model is built around high-volume, straightforward exchanges. The moment you present them with something a little out of the ordinary, their system falls apart.

The Problem with Banks and Bureaux de Change

Think of it this way: your local supermarket is perfect for the weekly shop, but you wouldn’t go there for a specialist cut of meat—you’d find a proper butcher. Banks and airport kiosks are the supermarkets of currency exchange. They're generalists, and their biggest weakness is their flat-out refusal to deal with what most travellers actually bring home.

Here’s what almost always happens:

No Foreign Coins Accepted: This is the big one. For a bank, the cost of sorting, counting, and shipping foreign coins back to their home country is far too high to be profitable. So, they just don't do it. You'll be told they can't exchange foreign coins, leaving you with a pocketful of metal that's worthless in the UK.
Old or Obsolete Currency is a No-Go: Found some old French Francs or German Deutschmarks in a drawer? A traditional bureau won't even look at them. Their systems are only designed to handle current, circulating banknotes.
You'll Get a Poor Exchange Rate: Convenience always has a price. Airport bureaux de change are infamous for offering dreadful exchange rates. Your own bank might be a little better, but it's very rarely the most competitive rate you can find.

This isn't just anecdotal; it's a clear pattern across the UK. Data from the Bank of England shows that while over 60% of us use banks for currency exchange because they feel secure, the rates often include hidden spreads of 2-4%. Meanwhile, the airport and city-centre kiosks, which serve around 25-30% of travellers, can have spreads hitting over 5% to cover their prime locations and on-the-spot availability.

What to Expect if You Visit in Person

If you still decide to try your luck with your banknotes, go prepared. For any half-decent amount, you'll need to show ID like a passport or driving licence to comply with anti-money laundering rules. Be ready for a wait, too. It can be a slow process, often involving queues and paperwork, especially at a busy bank branch.

The real issue with traditional currency exchange is that it's completely disconnected from what leftover travel money actually looks like. These places are only good for one thing—current banknotes—and will turn away the jumbled mix of coins and old notes that most of us end up with.

This is exactly why it pays to know all your options. For a full breakdown, check out our guide on the best places to exchange foreign currency, which compares every method side-by-side. For most people, especially if you need to convert foreign coins and banknotes together, these old-school routes are a dead end, forcing you to look for a specialist who can handle it all.

The Modern Solution for Leftover Currency

We’ve all been there. You get back from a trip, unpack your bags, and find a random assortment of foreign cash in your pocket. Queuing at a bank only to be told they won’t exchange foreign coins, or getting a dismal rate at a last-minute airport kiosk, is a familiar frustration. But what if there was a way to sidestep all that hassle?

The answer is a modern, specialist online service built for convenience and real value. These platforms are a world away from the high street, offering a process designed specifically for the kind of currency most of us actually have left over: a jumble of notes, coins, and sometimes even obsolete money. It’s the perfect fix for anyone wondering where can I exchange foreign currency without the usual runaround.

Hand-drawn image showing an envelope, coins, a smartphone, and a checkmark for secure online currency exchange.

A New Approach to Currency Exchange

It's important to know that not all online currency platforms are the same. Many are geared towards large, digital money transfers for sending funds abroad, which is great for that purpose but useless for physical cash. Specialist services like ours, on the other hand, are built from the ground up to handle your physical leftover foreign currency.

We use a simple and secure 'post-and-verify' model that completely changes the game. Instead of you trekking to a branch, your currency travels to us. This approach isn't just fast and easy; it also means we can exchange money that would otherwise be rejected.

This model is ideal if you’re looking to:

Exchange foreign coins from all over the world.
Convert foreign coins and banknotes together in one simple transaction.
Cash in old, out-of-circulation currency that's no longer legal tender.

The whole process is refreshingly straightforward. You just pack up all your unwanted currency—no need to sort it first—and post it to us. Once it arrives, our experts take care of everything and give you a full valuation.

Why a Hassle-Free Process Matters

Let's be honest, the biggest reason that jar of foreign coins is still sitting on your shelf is the perceived effort. The thought of separating different currencies, trying to identify old banknotes, and then finding a place that will even take them is enough to put anyone off. Our service is designed to remove every single one of those barriers.

Our core promise is a 100% guaranteed, hassle-free service. There is absolutely no need to sort your coins. Just send us the entire collection, and we'll do the hard work, turning that forgotten clutter into real cash in your bank account.

This commitment to simplicity is what makes the post-and-verify model so effective. We’ve created a system that requires minimal effort from you but delivers maximum value for currency that traditional exchanges would simply turn away. You can find out more about how to exchange foreign currency online with our secure and easy process.

Trust and Credibility You Can Count On

Sending money through the post might sound a bit different, but it’s a secure and established method relied upon by countless people and organisations. Our credibility is built on trust, proven by our strong partnerships with some of the UK’s most recognised names.

We are the trusted currency exchange partner for:

Major UK Charities: We help them process foreign currency donations, turning small coin collections into significant funds for their causes.
National Supermarkets and Airports: These organisations trust us to handle the foreign currency collected right on their premises.
Police Forces: We are the chosen service for processing foreign currency recovered or seized by police forces across the country.

These partnerships speak volumes about our reliability and the security of our service. When you exchange foreign coins and notes with us, you’re using the exact same fast, easy, and dependable system trusted by major institutions. It’s a modern solution that finally gives a practical answer to that age-old question of what to do with your leftover holiday money.

Unlocking the Value in Foreign Coins and Old Notes

Every traveller knows the feeling. You get home, unpack your bags, and find that familiar handful of foreign coins and a few stray notes lurking at the bottom. The first instinct for most is to chuck them in a "holiday jar," assuming they aren't worth the bother of exchanging. The big question of where can I exchange foreign currency suddenly gets a lot more complicated with this leftover shrapnel.

This is where the real challenge begins. While your local bank or high street bureau is more than happy to take crisp, current banknotes from major countries, they tend to draw the line at anything else. The second you show them a pile of mixed coins or an old, out-of-circulation note, you'll almost certainly be turned away. But that doesn’t mean your currency is worthless—far from it. You just need to find a specialist who understands its hidden value.

A jar of mixed coins, a magnifying glass, an arrow, and growing stacks of golden coins.

Why Banks Say No to Your Coins

Ever wondered why your bank gives a flat "no" when you ask to exchange foreign coins? It all comes down to simple logistics and economics. For a huge financial institution, handling coins is an incredibly inefficient and expensive headache.

Just think about the work involved:

Sorting: Every single coin needs to be sorted by hand, separated by country and value.
Counting: The sheer volume of coins makes counting them a nightmare, prone to mistakes.
Repatriation: Once sorted, all those heavy coins have to be securely shipped back to their home country, racking up huge transport and insurance bills.

For a bank, the value of the coins just doesn't justify the massive overhead needed to process them. It's a business decision. They stick to high-value, easy-to-handle banknotes, which leaves a huge gap in the market for anyone with leftover change from their travels. This is precisely the problem our service was built to solve.

The Hidden Treasure in Your Drawer

It’s not just modern coins that get left behind. Lots of us have old, pre-Euro banknotes tucked away—think German Deutschmarks, French Francs, or Spanish Pesetas. They often turn up during a clear-out and get dismissed as little more than historical novelties. The truth is, this obsolete currency can still be worth a surprising amount.

Don't make the mistake of thinking old currency is just paper. Many national central banks will still honour their old notes indefinitely. Our specialised service knows exactly how to redeem this currency, turning what seems like a historical artefact into real pounds.

Our expertise means we can convert foreign coins and banknotes that others simply won't touch. We have the systems in place to process everything, making us the perfect solution for that messy, mixed collection you've been hanging onto. You can find out more about how we unlock the value of your leftover foreign coins with our simple service.

A Hassle-Free Process That Works for You

We get it. The main reason people don’t exchange foreign coins and notes is because it seems like too much effort. That’s why we’ve designed our process to be unbelievably fast and easy. There is absolutely no need to sort your coins or spend hours figuring out which notes are still valid.

Our simple, 100% guaranteed process works like this:

Gather Your Currency: Just collect all your foreign cash—coins, notes, old and new.
Send It to Us: Pop it all in a package and post it securely.
Get Paid: Our experts sort it, value it, and send your payment directly to you.

It's a completely hassle-free solution. We are trusted by major brands, including UK charities, supermarkets, airports, and even police forces, to handle their foreign currency collections. This speaks volumes about the trust and credibility we’ve built by providing a reliable and efficient service.

The scale of currency exchange in the UK is enormous; Bank of England data shows that around £87 billion in foreign currencies were transacted in the UK in a recent year, highlighting just how important it is to have sophisticated and accessible exchange solutions. You can dig deeper into the UK's currency exchange landscape with insights from the Office for National Statistics.

So, the next time you stumble upon a stash of foreign money, remember it’s not a lost cause. It’s an opportunity waiting to be unlocked.

How to Get the Best Value for Your Foreign Currency

Getting the most out of your leftover holiday money is easier than you might think. While it's tempting to just accept the first rate you see, a few insider tips can make a big difference to how much cash you get back.

The secret is to look beyond pure convenience and understand what really affects your payout when you need to exchange foreign coins and banknotes.

Let's start by tackling the biggest value-destroyer out there: the airport kiosk. While incredibly convenient, exchanging your money at the airport is almost always a bad deal. Their rates are notoriously poor because they have a captive audience of last-minute travellers. You're simply paying a massive premium for that on-the-spot service.

Understanding Exchange Rates and Hidden Fees

To truly get the best value, you need to know about the 'mid-market rate'. Think of this as the "real" exchange rate that banks use with each other. It’s the rate you'll see if you Google a currency pair. No consumer service will offer you this exact rate, but the closer you get, the better the deal.

Many places hide their fees within the exchange rate they offer you. This is known as the 'spread'—the difference between the price they buy currency for and the price they sell it at. A wider spread means less money in your pocket. The key is to find a service that's upfront about its rates, with no hidden commissions or handling charges.

The most valuable action you can take is to bundle all your leftover foreign currency from different trips into a single exchange. Instead of dealing with small amounts separately, consolidating everything maximises your return and simplifies the entire process.

Practical Tips to Maximise Your Payout

When you want to convert foreign coins and banknotes, a little preparation goes a long way. Here are a few simple steps to ensure you're not getting short-changed:

Avoid the Airport: As we've said, this is where you'll find the worst rates. If you can, plan ahead and exchange your currency before or after your trip.
Compare Rates Online: Don't just default to your high street bank. When researching currency exchange rates, a good interactive calculator can be a brilliant tool to help you compare your options effectively.
Look for Zero Commission: Always seek out services that don’t charge extra fees on top of the exchange rate. What you see should be what you get.

Our service is built around these exact principles. We offer a transparent valuation in one fast, easy, and hassle-free step. You just send us all your mixed currency—with absolutely no need to sort the coins—and we provide a fair valuation based on competitive rates.

It's a 100% guaranteed process, trusted by major brands like charities, supermarkets, and police forces, all designed to put the most money back in your hands. To get started, simply visit our homepage.

Giving Your Leftover Currency a New Purpose

When you're trying to figure out where to exchange foreign currency, sometimes the best answer isn't about getting cash back in your wallet. For many, the real value lies in giving that money a new life by donating it to a great cause. It’s a fantastic way to handle leftover currency, turning that forgotten shrapnel into vital support for those who need it most.

That little handful of foreign coins you have might not feel like much, but when you put it together with collections from thousands of other people, it adds up to a serious amount. In fact, many of the UK's best-known charities depend on these small donations to fund their incredible work, and you can donate foreign coins to charity easily.

Turning Small Change into a Big Impact

This is where our service really shines. We are the trusted partner for many major UK charities, helping them turn foreign coin charity donations into usable funds, efficiently. They gather the currency, and we provide the fast, easy, and hassle-free service to convert it. It’s a powerful example of how our reliable, 100% guaranteed process helps turn forgotten change into positive change.

Our partnerships go well beyond the charitable sector, proving just how trusted our reputation is:

Major Charities: We process their currency collections, turning jars of coins into life-changing donations.
Police Forces: We're the go-to service for handling and converting foreign currency recovered across the country.
Supermarkets and Airports: We manage the currency collected in their donation boxes, making sure it gets to the right causes.

These relationships highlight the trust and credibility we’ve built over the years. When you use our service to exchange foreign coins and notes, you’re using the exact same reliable system that these huge organisations count on.

By choosing to exchange foreign coins for a cause, you're not just clearing out a drawer; you're joining a collective effort that makes a real difference. It’s a simple, powerful way to give your leftover currency a new and meaningful purpose.

So, while getting cash for your leftover foreign currency is a great option, remember that donating it is an equally valuable choice. Our straightforward process makes it simple for both you and our partner organisations to convert foreign coins and banknotes into meaningful contributions.

Ready to turn your old currency into cash or a charitable donation? Our fast, easy, and hassle-free service is trusted by the UK's biggest brands. Learn how simple it is to get started by visiting our homepage.

Got Questions About Currency Exchange? We’ve Got Answers

It’s completely normal to have questions when you’re sending money, especially if you’re trying a modern online service for the first time. We want you to feel totally confident, so we’ve put together some straightforward answers to the most common queries we get.

Our goal is to clear up any worries you might have about how to convert foreign coins and banknotes with us, so you know exactly what to expect from our fast and hassle-free service.

Is It Really Safe to Post My Currency?

Absolutely. Sending your currency to us is just like posting any other valuable item, as long as you do it right. We recommend using a tracked and insured service like Royal Mail Special Delivery, which protects your package every step of the way.

This is the same trusted, 100% guaranteed method used by major UK charities and organisations that handle large volumes of cash donations. We give you simple instructions to make sure your parcel is secure, giving you total peace of mind.

How Is the Exchange Rate for My Currency Decided?

We believe in being completely upfront. Our valuation is based on current market rates, giving you a fair deal. The big difference is that high-street banks simply won’t take coins or old notes, but our entire system is designed specifically to handle them.

Because we process such large volumes of currency, we can offer competitive rates for money that would otherwise just be collecting dust in a drawer. Before we do anything, we'll send you a clear valuation for your approval. No surprises, no hidden fees.

The core of our service is transparency. You'll see a clear breakdown of the value, with no hidden fees, ensuring you know exactly how much you're getting back for your leftover foreign currency.

What if I Have a Big Mix of Currencies, Coins, and Notes?

That’s perfect! In fact, that’s exactly what our service is made for. The best part? You don’t need to do any of the sorting yourself.

Just gather up all your leftover cash—coins, notes, old and new, from any country—and pop it all into one package. Our expert team will take care of the entire sorting and valuation process for you. It’s the easiest way to turn that jumbled collection of foreign money into British pounds.

This is why we’re trusted by major brands, including national charities, supermarkets, airports, and even police forces—our system is built to handle messy, mixed-up currency with zero fuss.

Ready to finally cash in that jar of forgotten money? At We Buy All Currency, our fast, easy, and 100% guaranteed service turns your leftover coins and notes into pounds with zero hassle. Visit our homepage to get started today!