Banks and Changing Money
Exchange rates vary somewhat from place to place, and it's best to use the main tourist offices and banks when you want to change money. American Express in Budapest offers low rates, while the private exchange offices, whose top rate is for exchanges of large sums only, charge a high commission. Providing you produce your passport, changing money or travellers' cheques is a painless operation, and can be done at any bank or regional tourist office, or at the majority of large hotels and campsites. Note that banks often close quite early, however, before 3pm on weekdays and even earlier on Fridays. Keep the receipts if you want to engage in the expensive process of exchanging forints back into hard currency when you leave Hungary: at road checkpoints, fifty percent of any remaining forints can be re-exchanged up to the value of US$50. The advantages of changing money on the illegal black market are negligible and, in any case, scalpers are skilled at cheating. In a few towns you might come across Automatic Currency Exchange Machines , whereby you insert your foreign currency in return for Forints. The exchange rate is not particularly favourable but it can be a convenient method if there is nowhere open.
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