Put Leftover Foreign Currency on Your Starbucks Gift Card
The days of running around the airport like an old sheriff at noon, with coins jingling in your pockets, are over, my friends.
If you are about to return home from an overseas trip and you still have some money left over, but the thought of stopping at one of these exchange offices fills you with existential dread, don’t worry. You have another option, especially if you’re an avid coffee drinker: load excess dough onto a sleek, easy-fold Starbucks gift card.
This tip is provided by the Recomendo newsletter:
Here’s a tip I haven’t tried yet, but sounds like a great idea. When you leave another country and still have local currency, take it to Starbucks and load it onto your gift card. You can use the card later in the UK, USA, Canada, Australia, Mexico and Ireland.
One thing to note: in the US, the minimum amount that can be loaded onto a new gift card is $ 5, so there is probably a similar minimum in other countries. Of course, if you already have a Starbucks card loaded on your phone, you can probably use your pounds, euros, or whatever to fund that account instead.
The nice hidden benefit of this is that you don’t have to pay any currency exchange fees . The money will obviously be locked up for use at Starbucks until the end of the century, but if you’re forever indebted to theprovocatively delivered green siren anyway, why not?