I am a US citizen living in the SD area. I received a large check in Euros today. If I deposit the check at a local bank, they will require converting to USD since the local banks do not support having accounts in Euros. The banks I checked all charge a hefty fee for this currency conversion, sometimes as much as 9% of the balance. This bank currency conversion fee works out to thousands of USD, so I’d like to find a way to cash the check with a lower fee if possible. I am open to getting Euros bills directly without a currency conversion, opening a Euro account that can deposit the check, or other non-traditional options. The critical factor is minimizing fee, not whether the balance is in Euros or USD.
Does anybody have suggestions for the best way to minimize fees when depositing this check? By the way, I realize that my situation does not fit that well with the theme of the forum. I posted because I’m hoping that persons on the forum who are knowledgeable about currency exchange trading in general will also be knowledgeable about my situation.