Changing money in Poland

hi all :)

im travelling to Poland soon and wondered if anyone can give me a bit of information on changing money while im there....is it better to change all my pounds here in England??

or can i get zlotys with my visa debit card in Poland and what sort of exchange rate will i get??

thanks all

change money wherever you want - there wont be a great deal in it...

there are loads of kantors in most cities which will give you a fair rate... and loads of atms which take cards...

if you want to open a bank account and move a lot of money then thats a different matter...

thanks bubba...i was thinking about taking 200 zlotys to get me from the airport to the city ..then using my u.k visa debit card..

As long as you don't exchange the currency at PKO BP (especially in Gdansk) - I have and I can honestly say, I regret it. Customer Service is apparently not in high demand there..

The way I was treated.. I felt awful! And I got s*** for not having "Dowod Osobisty" even though I showed the customer rep. a Canadian Passport!. Brrr...

Thread attached on merging:
Changing money or ATM

When my sister was here last week she asked me what was the best, changing her Euros in a "kantor" or using an ATM?

Personally I always use ATM's abroad, because it is comfortable and to be honest I cannot be bothered to compare the final cost. But some tourists would go to the other side of the city to get a microscopic deal in a kantor.

What is your feeling about this?
As she was staying in the Old Town (where the kantors are indeed a pure crime) using an ATM made sense.
Other side - and she had a point - what is the point running all over town to get your Euros changed somewhere at a slightly better rate... There are so many better things to do during that time :)

Agreed.
Exchange offices in centrum and touristic areas tries to cut %10 if they understand you are a foreigner. Best option is using kantors in malls if you have to.

That could be a point. I heard the one in CH Arkadia is not too bad.

The Kantors are the best rates in the cities, but shop around as there can be big differences.

See the blog about Money

Those days are gone. " big differences " ? ...... I don,t think so.

I don't understand why people still use kantors. Taking money out of machines gives you a decent rate. Perhaps I'm just with a reasonable bank....

If the Polish national bank gave a better rate than the kantors, then this would put an end to them and exchanging money would become normal like in the west, not to mention the Polish bank would reap the rewards.

Because for example, British banks punish you heavily for taking out money from cash machines.

The Hitman, how wrong can you be, In Krakow for example there is always as much as 10% difference between the good and bad Kantors.


Why wouldn't you use Kantors, they give you the best rates at zero commission?

I even use them for large transactions, bringing cash from UK and changing at a Kantor, always gives me an even better rate than using any of the main Forex companies.

I ONLY use them for large transactions - because they can be negotiated with.

The quoted rates in a Kantor are always for £100, $100 etc. Go in there with twice, three times more and you can nearly always agree a better rate (as long as the person sitting in front of you has the power to make that kind of decision).

I changed a lot of money at kantors - always look around a few then haggle for an extra 2 gr. off their quoted rate.

The only problem I had was when I walked through a clothes shop with PLN 30,000 in my pocket - impulse buying!!