I am interested in money changing and foreign exchange, I'd like to do something in the space. I'm asking; if you're thinking of or going on vacation, how and when do you change money? Do you use a dedicated forex company or your bank? Do you do it at the airport? Do you use a fx vending machine?<p>It's clear that the process of managing money is changing from an analogue to a digtal one. We know it's changing payments (Square, Bitcoin etc) - but money changing?
The answer does depend on where I am heading but in my experience I usually exchange a smaller amount at home (at a forex company) and later just withdraw from ATMs. This is especially convenient if you got a debit/credit card with no extra charge (beyond exchange rates) for withdrawing outside your country.<p>Exchanging at airports is usually a bad deal, worse rates than else where in my experience.<p>Forex is a rather regulated field, some countries more than others. There are always concerns about risk (robbery, fraud and so forth). For the most part you can pay with your card, so you no longer have to carry around very large sums of cash.
Most places I visit, I change a small amount of cash, enough for a cab from the airport at the other end and a meal/coffee - usually at the airport on the way out. Apart from that, I rely on credit cards and ATMs. That's worked fine for me over the last 10-15 years travelling from Australia to the US, UK, Thailand (mostly Bankok), Singapore, Hong Kong, & New Zealand. I've occasionally had one of my credit cards (Visa, Visa debit, and Amex) or one of my ATM cards (St George and ANZ) fail to work for me - but get that here in Australia too.