Nation's First Currency Clean-up: WeSwap Launches Currency Buyback Service in Partnership With Currency Online Group (COG)

LONDON, July 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Airports cashing in - £725 Million spent on giant Toblerones, fridge magnets and more at duty free 

An average £90 in excess currency is brought back from each trip, but what are we spending it on? 

£819 MILLION worth of foreign currency sitting in kitchen drawers and piggy banks across the nation 

A staggering £2.5bn in unused excess currency is brought back from our summer travels, only to nestle in coin-jars nationwide.  In a bid to rid ourselves of our spare foreign change, 29% of us spend it in duty free on Toblerone, novelty gifts and fridge magnets. In response, WeSwap launches the nation's first currency clean-up - an industry first partnership that allows holidaymakers to clear out their kitchen drawers, glass jars and travel wallets of unused currency from holidays past and load it back in GBP on to a WeSwap card, or donate it to charity.   

An average £90 in excess currency is brought back from each trip, totted up, a whopping £819 million worth of Yen, Euros, Dollars, Rupees and other currencies is currently stagnating unused in sock drawers and glass-jars across the nation.

Favourite ways to use our leftover £90 are: 

• 27% - 12 million - of us save our spare currency for our next trip
• 19% - 9 million - spend at duty free
• 10% buy gifts or souvenirs. Regional food specialties, fridge magnets, Toblerones, chocolates for the office and novelty souvenirs are top favourites
• Only 9% currently change it back
• 6% keep the currency as a souvenir, give it to friends or just leave in the hotel room

The initiative - launched in partnership with FX online delivery service Currency Online Group - responds directly to a nationwide survey around holiday money that today unveils:

• 60% of travellers - 27.1 million - over budget on the amount of cash taken for spending money on holiday
• A total of £2.5 billion in foreign currency comes home with us unused
• Roughly £90 is brought back in excess currency per trip 
• 65% - 29 million - of us say we're currently hoarding excess currency from previous trips abroad
• Totted up, £819m worth of currency is sitting at home in piggy-banks, coin jars and boxes under the bed right now
  

The launch of BuyBack in Partnership with Currency Online Group 

The service - launched today - enables WeSwap customers to send back spare foreign currency notes they have remaining following their holidays. The travel money provider then converts the currency back into GBP, and puts it straight back onto the customer's WeSwap account within a speedy three working days.

Major currencies are converted back to GBP at an extremely competitive 1 -2%, compared to the average high street average mark-up of between 6-7% for buyback services.