BOS is a POS

200 U.S. Dollars = 98.0921085 Brittish Pounds
(courtesy of Google calculator)

Sorry to start this week off with a rant. It's no secret that the dollar to pound exchange rate is shite and keeps getting worse. I needed to change some money today and decided to only change enough to last me a couple weeks, so I wouldn't accidentally overspend (which can easily happen when you have a thick wallet). I went to the shopping centre after class and approached the Bank of Scotland. I asked for the current exchange rate, and was informed that it is about 2.188. Yikes, just yesterday it was about 2.14! No thanks I said, and walked next door to inquire the same question. I asked about 5 places what the rate was, because (for some reason) there was a row of travel agencies and other exchange bureaus next to the bank. All of them had rates between 2.2 and 2.3, some had commission fees for traveler's checks, so it looked like the BOS was my best bet. I return to the teller and signed my traveler's cheques. 86 pounds?? What? Unexplicably, the total to be paid to customer was 5 pounds less than the sterling value. I ask if there was a fee because they were traveler's checks. Oh no, there's no fee. Then why is there five pounds fewer? Oh, it's because you're not a member of the bank. Do you want me to proceed? Oh, too bad, I already have. See, it's already gone through. I guess I should have told you that before. Ha. You didn't want that $10 anyway, right? Fucking hell. Doing a little arithmetic reveals that the effective rate of the BOS is... ta dah: 2.315. In other words, worse than ALL of the other places I had decided not to go. And that, my friends, is why Bank of Scotland is a Piece of Shit.

I know 5 pounds is nothing to quibble over, and I certainly realize there a lot of people in worse financial positions than myself. But this episode really irks me because I try to be sensible with my money and I actually shopped around to try and find the best rate. I'm just tired of being ripped off.