Thread: I can't change my Canadian money anywhere. PLEASE HELP!

Hi guys, im new here and, i hope this is the appropriate forum to ask this question but im not sure where to post so i figured i can post here.

Here's my situation, just landed in Panama about 4 days ago, i made the unfortunate mistake of not changing my Canadian currency to US prior to arriving here.

I landed at Tocumen on Saturday evening and right away i noticed that there was nowhere to change $ as usually found in almost every airport in this planet, the banco at the airport was closed, thank god for the HSBC atm for allowing me to withdraw cash right away.

I brought a bit of Canadian cash with me and since then have had much trouble exchanging, i've been to 5 banks already and all have told me that i need to have an account open with them first before i can exchange currency.

That's cool, but then i found out how complicated it is to open an account here, definitely not as easy as i thought. I have already undertaken this process but it will probably take me a good week or two before i have all my paperwork forwarded from home in order to open an account.

Went to some spot called Ital exchange or something and they tried to give me 0.76c to the US Dollar, the Canadian dollar was trading slightly above the US dollar that day so i just laughed myself out of there.

So ya im in a bit of a pickle, do you guys know of any place i can change my $ and not get raped in the process without much hassle like in most places in the world?

I am a well seasoned traveller and have never experienced such frustrations in currency exchange anywhere in the world.

Please help me with some advice to a fresh newbie in Panama who doesn't speak any espanol!

Thanks!

It's even hard to exchange euro's down here :S When i was here first time i had the same problem, so i been using atm's that time. However, i have seen some shady exchange offices in El Cangrejo, around Veneto Hotel, but i have no idea how theyre rates are. Most likely not very good, since its so hard to exchange around here, but give it a try. Goodluck!

Unfortunately -- there's not a lot of competitions for currency exchange. And any rates you get will be "rape rates". It's certainly not like Vancouver where they charge you a fraction of a %.

If you can -- just keep using your ATM card or credit cards.

Someone told me the casino changes money, can anyone confirm that for me?

And thanks for the replies so far guys.

im not sure im not much of a gambler, but in and around the street i just mentioned u'll find 3 casino's too, so just go there and ask everywhere and look at whats the best option! pls let me know what u come up with.

will do!

You can always go back to Canada. Go to Scotiabank and complain. Scotiabank is a Canadian International bank with their roots in Nova Scotia and have their main office in the same place as the Canadian embassy. Get a bunch of Canadians to start waving some flags at the embassy and protest to attract attention to your cause. Then when you find out that no one cares, you can go and find some Canadians who are heading back to Canada and see if they will buy your money at par........Bobbo

I know this resonse is a bit late, however I use the western union office next to the venneto, they have given me good rates on euro as well as pound, not changed canadian but cant see it being any differnt.

DONT USE THE CASINOS their rates are a joke