5 Of The Top Currency Conversion Apps For Traveling
When traveling to another country, you're probably focused on the sights you want to see, where you're staying, and your budget for things like food, entertainment, and probably getting where you need to go. If you're heading on a whim, you'll need some apps for last-minute travel plans. Everything costs money, obviously, but if you don't know the exchange rate between your currency and that of another country, you will be in trouble.
That's where having the right apps on your smartphone comes in. If you can quickly convert between currencies, you'll know whether something is too expensive or too good to be true or if you should stop a money transfer immediately because you know it's too expensive at the moment.
With the right app, you can quickly find out how much something is worth in your currency. It can help you make decisions on things like the next hotel stop, whether that side adventure is worth it, or even find out the exchange rate when you need to send emergency cash from one country to another. Not that long ago, you had to trust that someone wasn't taking you for a ride, but now you can get apps that make it crystal clear just how much things cost. Check out these five apps that will make currency conversion a snap.
Xe Currency and Money Transfers
Xe Currency Converter (iOS/Android) is a favorite among apps in this category and for several good reasons. It has an intuitive interface, you can quickly switch between different currencies, and you can get the mid-market rates for more than 130 countries. This enables you to make informed decisions about larger purchases when traveling. It will also tell you what it will cost for someone to send you more money when you're far from home.
It's a great app for a student traveling abroad but also extremely useful for a business person who needs to track the currencies at home and in other countries. You can view live charts to track currency changes by the minute or even set it up to notify you when an exchange rate hits a certain valuation so you know when to pull the trigger.
One of the key features of any currency converter, especially when traveling, is the ability to access rates while you are offline. While you won't be able to check the exact rate, you can get a recent rate as a ballpark estimate, which might be enough to help you decide on a transfer or a purchase. After all, your phone isn't going to work in every area while traveling, so it's good to have a quick reference point in your pocket. It's important to note that the offline features are only available with the upgraded version.
Currency Converter Plus
Currency Converter Plus (iOS/Android) gives you real-time exchange rates from all over the world. Whether you're going to be traveling and want a handy guide for how much things are going to cost or just want to monitor exchange rates, this app has an easy-to-use interface to get the job done. One thing that's cool about this particular app while traveling is you can create a quick list of countries you'll be traveling in, so you can easily access the currency for your current stop on your trip. You can also change the theme of the app to give it a different look, and it has an included calculator so you can make quick calculations.
It's important to note that this app is a subscription service. While you can view the app's features for free initially, you'll need to pay either $3.99 per month, $14.99 per year, or $21.99 upfront for a lifetime subscription. It also displays frequent ads during the trial period, which is less than ideal. But let's face it, if you spend a lot of time traveling or monitoring currency exchange rates, having this app on your phone will easily pay for itself with how useful it can be.
Elk Currency Converter
With Elk Currency Converter (iOS), you can quickly calculate currency differences while traveling. What's neat about this app is it detects which country you're in currently, then displays that currency automatically so you can quickly find out the price of something even if you're waiting to pay at the register, for example. It's important to note here that in the free version, you can't enter exact numbers, and instead, it will give you a range of 10 numbers in your currency, showing you the values of the other currency compared to yours. In this way, it is great for ballparking values when you just need a place to look quickly, but if you're looking to monitor currencies for business purposes, this app will not be right for you.
What's cool about this app is it is extremely easy to use. It shows you 10 values in your currency on the left side and how much those are worth in another currency on the right. You can swipe to the left to multiply all numbers by 10 or to the right to divide by 10. This way, it will show you 10 rows of numbers from $1.00 to $10.00, and a swipe to the left will turn that into $10 to $100. Another swipe left changes it from $100 to $1,000, and so on. It doesn't have as many features as other apps in this category, but sometimes quick and dirty is all you need while traveling, and this is the perfect app for that. This app is free for the first two weeks, and you can buy it for $3.99.
Currency Converter Worldwide
When you're on vacation in another country, it can be difficult to make sense of how much things cost without knowing the current currency conversion rates. Currency Converter Worldwide (iOS/Android) makes that job much easier with support for more than 150 world currencies and real-time currency conversion right on your smartphone. All you need to do is type in the cost, pick the country you're currently in, and you'll instantly see how much it is in your currency.
What's great about this app is you can find out currency conversion rates while offline because the app will tell you the last known valuation for a specific currency. While it won't be entirely correct, it offers a ballpark estimate that can give you peace of mind when you're about to make a purchase abroad. You can also pin your favorite currencies to the top so that when you go on a multi-country adventure, you can have all the local currencies available as you pass through different locations.
My Currency Converter & Rates
With My Currency Converter & Rates (iOS/Android), you get an app that will give you currency conversions as you travel to different countries, and it also has the latest cryptocurrencies for easy access. It supports more than 150 currencies from around the world, so you'll be able to quickly find out how much something costs with your own money and make informed decisions while you're on vacation. All of the currency conversion rates are updated automatically, and you can switch to the currency rate of the country you're in as a starting point if you want to view the differences from the other side of the transaction.
The greatest thing about this app is that is totally free and gives you the basics of what you want when checking currency values away from home. You'll also be able to view graphs of how the valuation has changed over the last few days, months, and years. You can also set up a favorites list if you're going on a multiple-country vacation so you always know how your money stacks up in the country you're visiting. One drawback to this app is that it is ad-supported, but in our testing, it was pretty mild. Overall, it's worth checking out if you're looking for a free app to consult when you're abroad.