Chile Forum

I leaving Chile in a couple of weeks and will get my last pay check right before I go and was wondering what best to do with it. I'm an English teacher so it's not very big but I'd like to get it into GBP in the most ecomonical way. As far as I can see there are three choices (but i don't know there may be more):

Convert it straight into GBP in Santiago, if so where?

Convert it into dollars in Santiago and then from dollars into pounds when I return to the UK. If so where in Chile gives good rates?

Take it home and convert it when I get home.

Are there any other sensible alternatives?

I'd convert it at a cambio in Santiago, the Chilean peso is a currency that your UK bank would probably have to "buy" for you, whereas in Santiago, several cambios will have it on hand. Avoid the AFEX chain of thieves. Luckily for you the GBP is in the hole right now.

Yes, great time to buy pounds.

My Chilean bank is able to convert directly to pounds and send a wire transfer as GBP. Another option is sending a CLP wire transfer to xe.com and having them deposit the money in Sterling in the UK, which for me avoids HSBC charging 15 quid or so just for putting the money in my UK account and gives a slightly better rate. I don't think you necessarily even need an account to have a bank send a SWIFT transfer overseas (at least that was true when I worked in Australia 13 years ago), though you would need to sign up with xe.com to use their service, which isn't trivial.

In my experience, you're likely to get a better rate for GBP in Chile than in the UK, where conversion rates tend to be several percent at the best of times and you can really pay through the nose for changing "obscure" currencies.

Cheers,

James.