How To Make Money From Your Leftover Currency Exchange

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Hands up who has leftover money from their travels! I’ve got a drawer just like you, with a sizeable amount of leftover currency exchange coins, notes and god-knows-what-year-that-went-out-of-date currency.

Every time I get back from a destination with my leftover currency exchange, it gets placed in that drawer and that’s it. The currency is pretty and nostalgic to look at from time to time but surely we can do better? It got me thinking…Can I do something with my leftover currency exchange? Even better…can I make some money from it for myself or charity? I’ve found a way.

leftover currency exchange

How To Make Money From Your Leftover Currency Exchange

With a little bit of good old internet searching, I’ve come across the British company ‘Leftover Currency’. If you don’t live in the UK; no sweat. I checked and they are happy to help travellers from all continents exchange their leftover currency exchange. An exciting find as banks wouldn’t accept this!

Leftover Currency Exchange

Getting My Leftover Currency Exchange Together

Digging into my drawer I found some fantastic leftover currency exchange! Going on The Mongol Rally has a big part to play in this collection (we went through 21 countries!). I have American dollars from this. Yet, I’ve got currency from my adventures in El Nido in the Philippines, Singapore, eating my way through Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, Cambodia and my motorbike escapades in Taiwan.

I have leftover currency exchange from my Sak Yant Tattoo in Thailand and a ton of euros from my amazing trip in Ireland and backpacking through Europe. There are coins in there from my 3 months of studying Jiu Jitsu in China and some wonderful notes from my solo female trip to Bangladesh.

When I asked my Dad to have a look in his drawer, things got real interesting. He has a ton of old British coins, Spanish pesetas, German, Italian, American, Canadian and Portuguese leftover currency exchange. Time to see if a) these currencies can be exchanged with the Leftover Currency site and b) what they’re worth!

Making Money From My Leftover Currency Exchange

The process of turning your leftover currency exchange into money is very easy with Leftover Currency. Use the search bar to look for what you want to exchange or click on the ‘exchange by currency’ button to see what is currently available to cash in. Let’s have a look at American dollars to see what’s possible shall we? These are the first results when I typed in America:

Leftover Currency Exchange

I have some 1 American dollars kicking about. Clicking on this takes you to a page where you can read all about the note, check out its beauty and if you want to sell it, you can add it to your ‘Wallet’.

Leftover Currency Exchange
Leftover Currency Exchange

Yep, I’ll take that thank you very much. Just click on ‘Add To Wallet’ to collect all the currency you’re selling in one place.

Keep doing this for all of your currency and when you’re finished click on ‘Cash in now’. Confirm your currencies. Fill in your details online. Choose a payment method and confirm. Make a note of the reference number and you’re all good!

There’s no minimum or maximum amount that you can send and they say that you will get payment within 5 days of sending your leftover currency exchange.

I Don’t Want To Sort Through My Leftover Currency Exchange

I get that and this company does too. If you send your money in the post to them with an exchange form, they will sort your currency for you free of charge. I do recommend you check your currency yourself though. Some currencies I thought they would surely want to buy are currently not on their site.

Postage Costs For Selling Your Leftover Currency Exchange

If the total in your ‘wallet’ amounts to less than 20 GBP, Leftover Currency suggest just popping it in the mail as normal. However, anything over this and it’s advised to get recorded or special delivery. Postage costs are definitely something to take into consideration! You’ll be paying for postage so make sure you’re still making a worthwhile profit.

Feeling The Love For Charities

Leftover Currency add 5% to the exchange value and they pay for your postage costs so if you’re a charity, you’re in good hands here!

Some Tips On Exchanging Your Leftover Currency Exchange!

1. The Money Is Where The Big Boys Are

Looking more into exchanging leftover currency, it seems that if you have old notes which have gone out of print or big notes which are currently on the market, you’re going to make the most money. Some prices were awesome for large, rare notes but I unfortunately don’t have any of those in my pocket.

leftover currency exchange

2. Some Currencies Are Not Available To Exchange

Leftover Currency currently exchange leftover travel money for more than 50 different currencies, both circulating and obsolete. Unfortunately, some currencies I have just couldn’t be cashed in. Bangladesh, Malaysia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Taiwan, China, Russia and most of the Philippines were off the list. I have a ton of euro coins but Leftover Currency are only looking for 2 euro coins right now.

Hopefully, these options will be available in the future. The site is not very old (around a month young) so I’ll be watching these guys to see how they grow and if they will cater for travellers like me more in the future.

3. Maybe You Should Hold On To Your Leftover Currency Exchange

If you are a traveller like me and planning on going back out there for your next adventure, it might be best to save your leftover currency exchange. After going through all of my leftover money, the best prices I currently found are for my dollars. With the state of Brexit right now, dollars are a good currency to have whilst travelling. I’m going to keep those dollars for now.

Regardless, I’ll be keeping an eye on Leftover Currency and hope to see their selection widen!

What Are You Doing With Your Leftover Currency Exchange?

Comment Below!

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