Getting Euros in Switzerland and Liechtenstein

[Klazu]

On Tuesday we'll fly to Switzerland, where we are going to spend 12 days traveling around the country (our small summer holiday). Our trip will go through cities like:


Zürich
Basel
Interlaken


Vaduz


Chamonix
St. Louis

From all of those cities it would be nice to get as many euros as possible, so I was thinking what would be the best way to obtain notes? As Switzerland and Liechtenstein are both surrounded by Euro countries, so I would imagine their banks having lots of euro notes. But does anyone have experience on how willing they would be towards swapping notes? What about hotels and money exchange offices?

We are also going to visit France (Chamonix, St. Louis) and Germany (Weil am Rhein) shortly and in Germany I expect no problems in swapping notes. What about in France? Any idea which banks would be willing to swap euros into euros in France? When I last time was in France, I unfortunately had no time to visit banks, so I don't yet have any experience on how co-operative the French banks are. So all tips are welcome.

[Phaseolus]

It's relatively easy to get euros in Switzerland and Liechtenstein. Just make sure before paying that they would give you euros back...

Regarding French banks, it's relatively hopeless !

Just don't even dream of exchanging one single bill...

I have been to German banks and French bankers should follow extensive training courses in Germany about welcoming customers...



But I know that they are a couple of very active users in Saint-Louis !

[Klazu]

Thank you for the hints. I'll try my best there. I just withdraw 10 and 5 that I'll try to exchange there. Let's see how it goes. We will visit also Austria and Southern-Germany, so at least there I hope to be able to change more notes.

[yli]

Last year I have been to Liechtenstein and Switzerland. It was on a sunday, so no change to visit a bank (what would be the best source go get as many as possible notes)
But I got some euros in Liechtenstein. One time at a petrol station near Austria, where they had a dubble cash system (Swiss Francs and euros). So I paid with euros and got euros back. Same thing happend on a petrol station near the Liechtenstein - Swiss border in Switzerland.

My other notes in Liechtenstein I got from a supermarket, where I could pay in euros - but got my change in Swiss Francs. After that transaction I could change 2 for one (I saw they had it).

At a small restaurant in Switzerland (quite near the Liechtenstein/Austria - Swiss border) I wasn't luckey - they didn't had any euros.

The same trip, but another day, I changed my swiss francs to euros in Stein (AG) near the german border. It was 20 euros, which I changed to 2x and . I didn't try to change euros to euros.

[vermeer]

Most railwaystation have an exchange and especially those that have also an airport as Geneve and Zurich. My goldmine was the railwaystation of Sankt Moritz.

[lazza]

I've managed to enter notes in a few cities in Switzerland (Basel, Zurich, Geneva, Kreuzlingen), but these are all obviously very near to the borders with Euro countries. I also entered 3x in Liechtenstein back in 2007 when I made a special trip after a meeting in southern Germany, and then nearly missed my flight home!

For most of these, I have simply exchanged my final CHF back to EUR before I leave, but in Basel, a few banks don't seem to mind if you change Euros up or down. I also used the Euro ATM at Zurich station (in the information centre on the platform where my train arrived in from Germany).

[Joc]

In Saint-Louis you could try your luck to swap notes at the big Caisse d'Epargne Bank on the main square. I have never tried it personnally, but this is likely to be the "least uncooperative" bank.

Also one positive fact in Saint-Louis compared to the rest of France is that due to the large numbers of German and Swiss in shops, who typically always pay in cash, and are accepted without any issue, even to pay small amounts, and even do not create too much trouble in the largest supermarkets.

Have a nice trip and good luck, I hope you will find one of the 3000+ notes I entered in the area

[Klazu]

Thanks for all the the tips given! We had a wonderful time in Switzerland and I must say that the Alps were absolutely incredible to see and explore for two weeks! As planned, we drove around Switzerland and also shortly visited Liechtenstein, Austria, Italy, France and Southern-Germany.

I managed to get notes from all of these countries! In Switzerland and Liechtenstein my strategy was to exchange one , 100€ into CHF and 100€ back in . This request was granted everywhere, so in total I managed to get 83 notes in Switzerland and 50 notes in Liechtenstein. I find these numbers a success, although I found no hits.

It was relatively easy to receive small euros in every part of Switzerland, but often one needed to pay 5CHF fee for the transactions. In Liechtenstein I visited Liechtensteinische Landesbank, which didn't take any fee, but the exchange rate was a bit worse there.

We also visited Austria (Feldkirch), Italy (Courmayeur) and Southern-Germany (Lörrach, Weil am Rhein) shortly during our stay and in all of these countries I had absolutely no problems exchanging money! The service was just superb in every bank and I didn't need to pay any fees. In France swapping euros wasn't that easy, but believe it or not, I managed to change money twice in a French bank! In Chamonix-Mont-Blanc two banks changed in total 200€ into , which I would call a job well done. Unfortunately elsewhere in France I received only few notes from gas stations and stores.

Back to Berlin I brought the following pile of fivers: 480 notes, if I'm not mistaken. Let's see if anyone manages to find any of those later on...

[debemaks]

Very good Klazu! I got some Euro in Switzerland! Everyone accept euro, you have to ask for euro as changeback!
Usually all rest areas in motorway accept and give euro back
http://it.eurobilltracker.eu/notes/?id=22010542
http://it.eurobilltracker.eu/notes/?id=50480776
No problem as well in airports.
http://it.eurobilltracker.eu/notes/?id=45317892
You can also get euro back while skiing in bordercrossing resorts
http://it.eurobilltracker.eu/notes/?id=15951058
http://it.eurobilltracker.eu/notes/?id=27764798
I got euro at the border with italy for the vignette
http://it.eurobilltracker.eu/notes/?id=21946765
...but this not happened on Schaffausen from Germany to Swiss

[groentje]

Very easy to change CHF into EUR and back, there are banks on every street corner in Switzerland, so to speak And even in quite some train stations you can change.
Never tried changing EUR into EUR, though.

[Phaseolus]

Very easy to change CHF into EUR and back, there are banks on every street corner in Switzerland, so to speak And even in quite some train stations you can change.
Never tried changing EUR into EUR, though.

I do usually change EUR for EUR on motorways gas stations at the cashier of the bar. With a big smile and asking politely, people in switzerland tend to be very polite too !

[groentje]

This might work for train stations and hotels, too. Don't have a car, so I have little experience with petrol stations.