Universal de Cambios SA operates on Calle Mesonero Romanos, a few minutes from Sol and Gran Vía. We buy and sell foreign banknotes and travellers' cheques against euros.
The sign that says zero commission is usually true and almost never the point. In currency exchange the price is the spread — the gap between what a counter pays for your notes and what it charges for the same notes — and a bureau charging no commission can still be the most expensive on the street. This page explains how to read a board, including ours.
None of this is specific to us. It applies at every counter, in every airport and in every tourist street in Europe, and knowing it is worth more than any particular bureau's rate on any particular day.
An exchange establishment operating in Spain is required to make its buying and selling rates and its charges publicly visible, and to give you documentation of the transaction. If you cannot see the numbers before the transaction, do not do the transaction.
Not the rate. The amount you will actually receive or pay once the rate, any commission and any minimum are applied. Ask for it, then decide. A counter that resists giving a total figure has told you what the total figure is like.
Convenience is a real product and it is priced. Changing a small amount on arrival and the rest elsewhere is usually cheaper than changing everything at the first counter you see.
When a card terminal or a counter offers to convert into your home currency, the conversion rate is set by whoever offers it. Declining and paying in euros is usually the cheaper choice, and it is always worth asking what rate is being applied.
A narrow business, deliberately. Everything outside this list belongs with a bank.
We take foreign banknotes and give euros, at the rate and charges displayed at the counter at the time of the transaction.
We provide foreign banknotes against euros for travel. Ask about availability for less common currencies before making a special journey.
Handled against euros or foreign notes, as our corporate object provides. Bring identification.
Because they move during the day and a figure published here would be wrong by the time you read it — which would be worse than publishing nothing. Rates and charges are displayed at the counter, and you are entitled to see them before any transaction. Telephone if you want an indication before travelling across the city.
No, and this is the most common misunderstanding in the business. The spread does the same work as a commission and is easier to disguise. Compare the total euros you receive, which folds the rate, the commission and any minimum into one number.
Bring it. Exchange businesses in Spain are subject to anti-money-laundering obligations and identification may be required, particularly above certain amounts. This is ordinary compliance rather than an obstacle, and a counter that never asks anyone for anything should give you pause.
The widely traded ones, generally yes. Less common currencies may be unavailable or carry a wider spread, and some are difficult to place at all. Telephone first rather than crossing Madrid on an assumption.
Currency exchange at establishments open to the public in Spain is subject to authorisation and supervision by the Banco de España, alongside anti-money-laundering obligations. We do not publish registration numbers here; verify any exchange business, including this one, through the Banco de España directly rather than relying on a number printed on a sign.
Decline it. Street exchange is where short-counting, sleight of hand and counterfeit notes occur, and there is no premises to return to when the count is wrong. A rate that beats every counter in the city is the advertisement for the problem, not a bargain.
Calle Mesonero Romanos runs between Gran Vía and the Puerta del Sol. Rates and charges are displayed at the counter.