Zero commission indeed sounds fishy, but what if there is a commission?
Inexperienced (euro-pampered) me went to a money exchange place that charged a fee because I know it costs money for them to have random icelandic kronar on hand so that's fair, then they don't need hidden fees right? I also knew the bank from name, it's a household name in my country.
Later at home I checked and I paid out of my ass for the exchange rate, never mind the fee on top...
I thought I was being clever by doing it at departure where you can compare and say no. At the destination airport, you have no choice but to exchange, everyone will need the local currency to pay for things and so I thought it's better to be prepared than potentially be paying the prices of the desperate. Yeah. No.
(A few hours of air time later, I learned that in Iceland you just pay by bank card for everything at iirc 0.3% fee and you don't need to exchange no cash.)
My personal way to do this is to check on the web what the rate without any fee is (search engine “100/however much you need eur to isk“) and then I make a mental note of that number. I go around exchange places and ask how much isk they’d give me for 100 eur all included. Makes it easier to compare them with each other without having to figure out whatever commission and fee structure they came up with, and gives me an idea of how far they are from the interbank rate.
An even better solution is to get a card like TransferWise (revolut are exploitative assholes and I don’t recommend enabling this employee exploiter) that charges very very reasonable rates so that you don’t even need to exchange or can use an atm if cash is required.
Inexperienced (euro-pampered) me went to a money exchange place that charged a fee because I know it costs money for them to have random icelandic kronar on hand so that's fair, then they don't need hidden fees right? I also knew the bank from name, it's a household name in my country.
Later at home I checked and I paid out of my ass for the exchange rate, never mind the fee on top...
I thought I was being clever by doing it at departure where you can compare and say no. At the destination airport, you have no choice but to exchange, everyone will need the local currency to pay for things and so I thought it's better to be prepared than potentially be paying the prices of the desperate. Yeah. No.
(A few hours of air time later, I learned that in Iceland you just pay by bank card for everything at iirc 0.3% fee and you don't need to exchange no cash.)