Vancouver Bullion & Currency Exchange

Always a pleasure working with VBCE! Good rates and staff are super friendly. Thanks guys!

I always come here when I need cash in other currency. Most of the time, I am here to grab USA Dollars but today is HK dollars. The place is quite busy during lunch time. I mean super busy. I waited 30 mins and they have all till open. Getting cash here is definitely cheaper than the bank especially if you have preferred customer rate.
Staff are very friendly. I highly recommend getting it here.

Wow! This is hopping today. All counters are open so the line is moving relatively quick! The only downfall is the heat in this place. It’s HELLA HOT!
This location and the one on Pender street are the only places I ever exchange money. Always good rates!

One of the worst mistakes a foreign tourist can make is to forget to bring the local currency… which is exactly what I did when I first entered Canada. Fortunately, it’s places like this exchange that made me feel less badly about my mistake!
What I love about this place is that it exchanges currency at almost exactly the same rate as you would find on Google plus NO handling fee! Aside from the occasional long line, the process is quick, hassle-​less, and friendly.
If you are an idiot tourist who forgot to bring Canadian cash like me or a smart tourist-​to-​be who plans ahead, this is your place for fair foreign currency exchange!

This place has more security cameras than a bank. Well, it’s pretty close to a bank considering it has money.
Parking around this area is a bitch but this location is quite busy anyways. On any Saturday, you’ll see people line up before the place opens like a boxing day sale is about to break out. Go early to find parking, have breakfast at McD’s around the corner come back in 15 mins after the door crasher lineup dissipates.
The staff is friendly and helpful. The rates are better than the money sucking banks. What more do you want?

Not the best rate, but the great customer service might be worth the difference. Speaking of rates, they’re still better than the banks but there are other places that do have better rates but may not be convenient due to their location eg. downtown vancouver.

This is THE place to go for exchanging your money! No fees, best exchange rates in town, excellent service, various locations. Let me say this again… no fees and BEST exchange rates in town! That’s all you need to know. The banks can’t even match these rates. Try and you will see! Super impressed, nice staff, very pleased by our recent transactions. From now on, my go to exchange place!

Very friendly and helpful service. Open Saturdays until 4 — great plus! Line ups are usually a few minutes long.

This pace is amazing! Super convenient location, super efficient service and best rates I can find for the smaller travel amounts that I exchange. I highly recommend this place over any bank or other currency place.

So after going to International Securities on Robson every time I’ve been to Vancouver, I decided to try somewhere new based on Unilocaler’s recommendations. I.S. On Robson has always been fine for me since it was so convenient and was open late. However, this time around we stayed outside of downtown and I wanted to see if I could get a better rate. This place is great! Came in around 2pm on a Thursday and there was barely a wait. They offer great rates and NO extra service charges at all. Staff is super friendly and quick. I only needed to exchange a few hundred USD to CAD, so it was pretty standard. I’d say I was in and out in 4 – 5 minutes. Only downside is trying to find parking in the area, but that’s no fault of their’s. A little hard to spot from the street, but they’re upstairs in a small shopping strip. On Granville, about one block north of 10^th. Sushi restaurant and cannabis clinic downstairs, this place is up the stairs next to a medical clinic and minimart type business.

This is way smaller than the Downtown location and this looks more hole in the wall, however, it is better to come out of the way to this location as there are less line ups since it’s not so central. Same great service as the Pender location. There is no mood and ambiance, therefore, for the short time that you are standing in line… it’s feels depressing. I came here to buy 300 euros at a decent rate of $ 471 for my trip to Spain.

I came here to change some Korean Won into dollars (more than $ 100 but less than $ 1000). The rate that they gave me, including any fees, was about 2.0% off the «actual» (Google) rate.
It was also basically empty (Thursday morning). Mention the preferred rate. I’ll be back whenever I have to change something into dollars. I don’t think their rates are that great for buying other currencies though, and for anything other than USD or EUR I generally just suffer my bank’s rate.

Banks are more competitive these days.
I used to use these guys for our business USD needs, but our bank came back swinging with super aggressive rates.
I needed some Philippine Peso so came here. As it wasn’t a huge amount, I made the mistake of not shopping around. The spread of the rate quoted seems quite high so I question it. The teller shaves off 1 basis point (only 0.01%). Not sure why he bothered, it’s minuscule.
I called HSBC after leaving and their rate was 3.5% to 4% better than VBCE. To put things in perspective that’s 350 to 400 bps difference. Now that’s huge.
Call banks first!

If I have a large currency conversion I use Custom House which involves FINTRAC paperwork initially to set up an account, but for smaller instant cash currency exchanges at favourable exchange rates, you can’t beat VBCE.
My husband travels a lot for business all over the world and I am usually the one to go do the exchanges before his trips. VBCE have all of the major currencies and a lot of exotic currencies, but once in a while I will stump them with an obscure request for something like Laotian Kip or Bulgarian Lev. I don’t think it is reasonable to expect them to stock every foreign currency, so I give them a pass on those.
Lineups are almost always a function of their clientele rather than VCBE employees. You know, customers wearing sensible shoes and fanny packs who have waited in line for 5 minutes yet don’t know what they want when they get to the window, or feel compelled to share the details of their planned 10 country European bus tour with the employee without regard to the lineup behind them. VCBE employees are usually pretty good about tactfully getting them to move along so bonus points for that. If you come at lunchtime you can expect a wait but you might be a little slow on the uptake if you did not anticipate the noon hour rush.

You walk in and it feels like nobody wants anyone to know they are there. Why? Maybe because everyone is hold a ton of cash and exchanging it for other currencies. Or they’re nervous because the line ups are extremely long during busy hours that they keep checking to see if others take notice to the fat purses or wallets and clamming up because they just want to get their uneasy transaction done and get out of there.
If you wonder why the specifics on the nature of people in a currency exchange that it’s because outside of banking, no regular person carries cash out in quantities. The shop has surveillance cameras and monitors that are watched over by a man in the back of the office staring at the same video screen patrons are looking out front.
I went to get some Cdn exchanged to US. I asked for the preferred rate and literally got a 0.001 advantage over the regular rate. Every penny counts! Other than the uncomfortable atmosphere, it’s a perfect place to get your money switched

I always come here (or their locations Downtown or Richmond) because I’ve heard from a few different sources that they have the best rate for personal transactions (by that I mean, I don’t know about corporate transactions in high amounts). I’ve never thoroughly investigated myself, but they certainly are better than the touristy places along Robson St.
I guess they must be doing well. They’ve taken over the space next door that used to be a pizza place, which made it just enough to contain the long lineup.

The best rate in the city for currency exchange… few times there is a line-​up, But parking in the hood can be an issue… Better rates than any bank in the city.

Tim L. made some moronic comments. (After my original post Roanna Z. msged me and said it was bad Unilocal etiquette to call people names. I guess that’s right, instead of that I’ll comment on others’ actions. Stop being so damn sensitive though).
«If you’re thinking of doing a USD conversion for a quick day trip to Seattle. It’s probably best you stick to using a credit card.»
Come on buddy. The credit card company will charge a premium of 2−3% (usually) to exchange for you — and what rate is that based on? It’s what THEY decide.
So if you have a choice to exchange at a place like Vancouver Bullion or to charge it to your credit card. Please exchange and save yourself a few dollars. Sheesh.
Now about Bullion. It’s not the BEST price you’ll ever find in Greater Vancouver (I have my special place in White Rock that I go to) but it is always competitive. Plus, I have a card that gets the service fee waived. It’s good to have a friend who works there, but I think you can probably get one if you asked or if you were a frequent exchanger.
How retail exchange outfits make money is by marking up the spread on the spot fx price. Service fees, which are usually pretty minimal anyway is just a bit of extra padding.
If you want the median price plus a small service fee and have time to exchange (a few days up to a week)
is a better way to go.

This place should rank high on your «to do» list before any international vacation. They always beat the rates given to you by banks and are head and shoulders above the fleecing you’ll get if you try to exchange money at the airport.
For example, on a recent trip to France, I exchanged Canadian cash to Euros and got a rate of about $ 1.52 and paid no fees. A traveling companion went to the kiosk at the airport for a rate of $ 1.62 plus a fee for the service.
There are no fees if you do your transactions in cash, so make sure to hit the ATM before you go in. They can also make your bars of gold into cash, so if you happen to have any laying around your apartment you know where to take them. They stock around 100 currencies. If they don’t have what you need they will order it for you in a couple days.
It’s a convenient location, right by a B-​Line stop near Broadway on Granville. It’s up a set of stairs near a couple cheap take-​out shops.

Whenever I travel I drop by here to get my currency. I find they are almost always more competitive with their exchange rates than any bank or Thomas Cook.
There is of course a service charge, so ultimately it’s only worth it if you’re taking a large amount out. So if you’re thinking of doing a USD conversion for a quick day trip to Seattle, it’s probably best you just stick to using a credit card.