What to do with all those foreign currency & coins

Road warriors who travel frequently and globally for business will quickly end up with a wallet full of foreign paper and coin currency. Although this is less of a problem for travelers to Europe now that most of the continent has adopted the Euro, ending up with a wallet full of different currencies, with some like the Vietnamese Dong being less readily convertible than others, is still an issue faced by frequent business travelers to Asia. Moreover, although its easy to obtain foreign currency in open economies like Hong Kong, some Asian countries make it difficult to exchange their currencies for so called “hard currencies” while still in their countries. Furthermore, currency exchanges often will not accept coins and if its only a small amount of currency, it may not be worth exchanging it back into your home currency.

Hence, the Asian Wall Street Journal’s travel section recently had an article (What to Do With Foreign Money) with several useful tips about what to do with all of that foreign money. Tips included shopping at the airport, donating it to charity (specifically Unicef's "Change for Good" program), giving it to other travelers as gifts or, if its retired currency from pre-Euro days, sending it in to the Currency Commission for Euros, US or Canadian dollars.

However, one important consideration left out by the article is to remember to keep enough local currency handy to pay the airport departure tax as some airports in some Asian countries will only accept local currency or perhaps US$ or Euros. If a currency exchange or bank at the airport is not open at the time you are in the airport, they may not allow you into the boarding area!

Otherwise, if you plan on a repeat trip to the country you are visiting, keeping enough leftover local currency from your last trip handy will save you the hassle of trying to find an open currency exchange or bank on your next visit – especially if you are arriving late.