# Six charities to benefit from foreign coin and banknote conversion machines

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2015/10/27/six-charities-to-benefit-from-foreign-coin-and-banknote-conversion-machines/
- Published: 2015-10-27T16:41:04+00:00
- Author: Howard Lake

**The first in a range of automated foreign currency conversion machines opened 
in London’s King’s Cross yesterday, and included the option to donate the money 
to six charities.**

Fourex claims that UK citizens are holding on to up to **£3 billion in foreign currency
coins and notes**. We can’t exchange coins at banks, and low value notes are often
not worth the transaction charge. Yet UK residents make 58 million trips abroad 
each year, and 33 million tourists visit the UK, so the unrealised value of this
small change continues to grow.

This is why [Fourex](http://www.fourex.co.uk/) has produced a self-service machine
that can handle the conversion of **over 150 currencies**. You simply pour the coins
and notes in – there i no need to sort them first because the machine can recognise
coins in one tenth of a second – and you then receive the converted cash.

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You can choose to receive your money in **pounds, dollars or euros**.

 

![Fourex foreign currency conversion machine](https://www.fundraising.co.uk/wp-content/
uploads/2015/10/fourex-machines.jpg)

The first Fourex machine is at London’s Kings Cross.

 

## Benefiting charities

After you have deposited your money, you will be asked if you would like to donate
some, or all of your money to one of Fourex’s charity partners.

These are:

• London Transport Museum

• Unicef

• Ellenor

• Guide Dogs

• the Stroke Association

• Railway Children.

You can either round up, donate all of your money, or share your deposit between
all six charities. Your money goes directly to the charity you have chosen.

There is no fee to process coins donated to charities. The total value of your transaction
as displayed is donated to the charity of your choice.

 

## How does Fourex make money?

Fourex’s machines charge no commission or fee, just “competitive exchange rates”.
These are updated daily and displayed on the side of the machine. It buys and sells
currency into the market.

 

## Old currencies

You can also use the machine to convert out of circulation currency, like pesetas
and deutschmarks. The same applies to old UK currency too.

 

## Other charities?

The machines do not let you donate to other charities, just those listed.

However, the machines might prove useful to many other charities if they are the
only way their supporters can convert unwanted foreign or old UK coins and notes
into cash, which could then be donated to their favourite charity.

## Where are the machines?

There is only one machine at launch, in London’s King’s Cross station. But Fourex
have plans to install more in shopping malls, train stations, airports and cruise
liners.

 * **[Rathbone launches new charity investment fund](https://fundraising.co.uk/2016/10/20/rathbone-launches-new-charity-investment-fund/)**(
   20 October 2016)
 * **[What does a hundred million pound note look like?](https://fundraising.co.uk/2017/04/17/what-does-a-hundred-million-pound-note-look-like/)**(
   17 April 2017)
 * **[‘Love Me Tender’: Barnardo’s wants your old £5 notes](https://fundraising.co.uk/2017/04/29/love-tender-barnardos-wants-old-5-notes/)**(
   29 April 2017)

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