Best Money Changers In Singapore With The Best Exchange Rates

Planning a trip?

After booking your flights, accommodation and buying your insurance, the next brain-draining task would probably be money changing.

You might be thinking that an e-wallet is the way to go, but we’re sad to share that there are still places where we require cash.

In fact, the nearest example would be an attempt to top-up a Touch ‘n Go card at the booth machines after Johor Bahru’s Tuas custom, where e-wallets and credit cards are not accepted.

So, where are the best money changers in Singapore?

And which would give me the best exchange rates?

Look no further as we’ve got you covered.

Disclaimer: Rates are volatile and are subject to change. Please check with the money changer directly for the currency stock availabilities and the latest updated rates.

TL;DR: Best Money Changers in Singapore, How To Exchange Currencies, Best Time & Alternatives

Travel has resumed mostly as borders are reopening, and we’ve shortlisted the top three money changers outside of Changi Airport that have the best rates – money changers are said to be less favourable.

Disclaimer: The selections are as of 27 June 2022 and based on CashChanger’s rates. As exchange rates are volatile, they may be subject to changes without prior notice. The selected currencies are based on countries that are open as of June 2022.

Click here to jump:

• Currency exchange in Singapore
• Best time to change
• How to find the best exchange rates
• Alternatives to money changers

Before 2020’s Circuit Breaker, most of us would’ve headed down to the following places: The Arcade at Raffles Place, Lucky Plaza on Orchard Road, Mustafa Shopping Centre in Little India, Chinatown money changer at People’s Park Complex and Parkway Parade in Marine Parade.

These places are great, but unfortunately, near-zero businesses have led to the suspension or closing of money changers during the pandemic over the last two years.

Currency Exchange in Singapore And How Does It Work

1. Buy Or Sell? Which Column Should I Be Looking At?!

Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered on this. After all, you’re not the only one who hasn’t travelled in the last two years.

Here’s a very simple exercise to help you:

• Think of the foreign currency which you wish to change for as an ‘object’
• Ask yourself if the money changer is the buyer or seller of that ‘object’

Alternatively…

• If you are travelling overseas, you need to buy foreign currency from the money changer (You the Buyer, the money changer the Seller): Look at the “Sell” column
• If you are holding foreign currency and want to exchange it back for SGD, you are looking to sell foreign currency to the money changer (a role reversal): Look at the “Buy” column

2. Is A Higher Or Lower Exchange Rate Better For Me?

It really depends.

If you are travelling overseas and want to buy foreign currencies then a higher exchange rate is better. This means we can get more foreign currency in exchange for our SGD.

If you’ve just returned from abroad, you would want to sell your extra foreign currencies, hence a lower exchange rate is better. This means our foreign currency is worth more and that gives us more SGD back!

Say you’re still confused and need to picture this visually, use a currency exchange website or app that has an exchange rate displayed. Then, switch the currencies around to see the conversion rates of one to the other, and you’ll be able to see the rates and understand them better.

3. How Do Money Changers Earn Money?

They earn through the bid-ask spread, which is the difference between the buying and selling price of a currency.

Let’s use a popular currency pair like USD-EUR.

Assuming the exchange takes place in America, the base currency would be USD.

Buy Price: 1.1

Sell Price: 1.2

Joey is an American travelling to Europe and wants to buy 1,000 EUR. He pays USD$1,200 and gets 1,000 EUR.

Emily is an American returning from Europe and wants to sell her leftover EUR. She sells 1,000 EUR and gets back USD$1,100.

The difference of USD$100 here is the bid-ask spread and is the profit which the money changer earns.

4. Why Are Some Money Changers Able To Give Better Exchange Rates?

This boils down to supply and demand.

Have you ever walked into the Arcade at Raffles Place during lunchtime, especially now when borders have reopened?

The number of money changers packed into that place and the number of people looking to change money is mind-boggling.

For money changers in busy locations like the Arcade, Mustafa, or People’s Park Complex, the only way they can stand out amongst the competition is to provide the most competitive rates possible.

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What Is the Best Time To Change Money?

The short answer to this is… no particular time!

But, the days do matter.

Tip 1: Avoid The Weekends

Well, if you’re busy during the weekdays, most people are too, and they will be changing their money on the weekends.

The Foreign Exchange (forex) markets are opened for 24 hours a day from Monday through Friday, but they’re all closed on the weekends.

So whatever exchange rate that the money changers work with would be the last available quote on Friday.

When the markets re-open on Monday, there’s a chance that the currencies might open at higher or (even) lower rates.

In order to mitigate this, money changers will factor in a slight mark-up and the resultant exchange rates would be a little worse than what you should be enjoying.

Tip 2: Monitor And Buy Bit By Bit

Let’s say you’re damn kiasu and planned your overseas holiday a year in advance.

You can monitor the exchange rates month-on-month and compare them against the prevailing 1-year average exchange rate for whatever currency you wish to change your SGD to.

Besides this, you can also separate the amount of money you would like to change into batches, for example, 30% + 30% + 40%.

It’s a little like buying stocks during a market correction.

Since you can never catch when the price will hit the bottom, similar to how you can never catch the highest possible exchange rate, changing your money in batches ensures that you can at least enjoy some measure of good exchange rates.

Note: this really only matters if you’re changing a huge sum of money. If you’re changing $200 for a weekend in Bangkok then it might not be worth the time or effort.

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How To Find The Best Exchange Rate

Here are a couple of tools which you can use to find out which money changer gives you the best exchange rate:

CashChanger

This platform is real-time.

All you have to do is key in the currency you want and the site will list the money changers with the best rates.

Rates are updated regularly and can even be sorted based on the area and best rates so you can find the closest money changer to you.

Xe.com

Rated 4.3 out of 5 stars on the Apple App Store, you will be able to find a wide range of currencies available in-app.

The Xe app allows users to send remittances and similar to Google conversion and CashChanger, you will be able to get instant calculations easily.

If the money changer you’re looking at has a lower rate than this app, you may be better off with another changer.

Do note that the rates displayed in-app are market rates, which money changers will never be able to match (as that is the commission they earn).

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Alternatives To Exchanging Money Physically

1. Thin Margin

If you don’t have time to queue at The Arcade, you can always try Thin Margin, Singapore’s first online money changer licensed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).

Thin margin has a variety of currencies available (all listed here are available), but it might have the best rates.

The trade-offs here are simply, convenience and time-saving.

It’s a 24/7 service which allows you to order currencies online and have them delivered right to your doorstep.

They do deliver to most places in Singapore, but you should always key in your postal code while ordering, just to ensure that they do deliver to your housing estate.

2. Set up a Multi-currency Account and Use the Card

Although we agree that cash is still relevant in today’s world, contactless payment has been at the forefront since the pandemic.

There are new players in the digital multi-currency account field that allow you to save money on overseas e-commerce sites such as ASOS, eBay or Taobao.

These accounts usually offer the mid-market exchange rates across currencies (i.e. the midpoint between buying and selling prices of two currencies) that are used by large companies, and public and private sectors for large volumes of currency conversion.

If you could use these cards, you might be able to save more as some of the cards have 0% currency conversion fees.

However, these are some notes on the use of a multi-currency account:

• Your bank or card issuer may charge you a fee for adding money to these accounts.
• Overseas ATM withdrawals may still incur charges by partner banks. These fees are beyond the control of digital banks.
• Likewise, foreign merchants and retailers may also impose a Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC) fee.

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