This app can help you save big when you exchange leftover currency

How many times have you found yourself with unused local currency after a trip? When it happens (it happens to all of us), your options are usually to:

  1. Change the currency back to USD or your home currency at an airport exchange desk
  2. Gift the currency to someone you know traveling to the same place
  3. Keep the currency/do nothing and absorb the loss

Well, now there’s another option. CashSwap is a free app for Android that connects travelers at the same airport looking to exchange money before or after a trip. Instead of relying on a bank exchange rate, which is usually not a great deal, CashSwap users can match with users looking for the currency that you’re getting rid of. Because CashSwap is not a bank, the exchange rate available on its peer-to-peer platform is generally better than what you’ll find at a traditional airport desk. The app charges only a flat $3.99 fee per transaction. And CashSwap estimates that its service saves users an average of nearly 30% per transaction.

Here’s how it works, once you’ve registered (for free):

  • Open the app and let the app determine the airport you’re in
  • Enter the currency you want to exchange and the currency you want to get back
  • Enter how much you want to exchange
  • Pay the flat $3.99 fee
  • Select an offer to exchange local currency and arrange to message with your match to find a place at the airport to meet (the app will offer suggestions for safety)

There’s a limit of $2,000 USD in exchanges per person per day, but it’s hard to imagine that you’d hit that limit often.

Where CashSwap works

CashSwap currently works in 12 U.S. airports:

  • Atlanta (ATL)
  • Chicago O’Hare (ORD)
  • Denver (DEN)
  • Dallas-Ft. Worth (DFW)
  • Houston (IAH)
  • Indianapolis (IDN)
  • Las Vegas (LAS)
  • Los Angeles (LAX)
  • Miami (MIA)
  • Newark (EWR)
  • Orlando (MCO)
  • San Francisco (SFO)

How to exchange leftover currency with CashSwap, in video

Here’s more on how easy it is to exchange leftover currency with CashSwap:

YouTube video

More on spending money abroad

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