Finally a way to change money to different currencies without commission.
Revolut is an online bank account which allows you to hold balances in different currencies. You change your money between them at the market rate without commissions.
After having done this you can withdraw cash, pay by MasterCard or even send money to other bank accounts via BICs/Swift.
There are limits on cash withdrawals and card spending, the cash withdrawal being the tightest. You can take out 200 unit (e.g. Eur/USD) per month and spend 6000 units per month on the card before commissions are charged. I found this fine though, I just spent on the card and used the cash for emergencies but if you need a lot of cash it’s not that great.
You have to pay a small delivery fee for the card but this is it for fees at the basic level. There is a premium level which you pay a monthly fee but I haven’t used this (this relaxes some limits but have not needed as yet)
The system works well particularly if you spend via card. The limits per month for card spending are 6000eur for example but only 200eur for cash withdrawals
I have used this mostly in Spain for purchases and payment. It works well although you might need to help hotel owners a bit with the payment. Their machines will ask if you want to convert from pounds (base currency) so make sure they don’t select this!. Unicaja works for cash withdrawals although there have been reports of some spanish banks still charging commissions so use Unicaja!
Enjoy, well worth it!