Cargills Bank

The buying rate is the rate the bank buys at, so it is the rate you sell at. That is the one that matters when money is sent to you. The selling rate is the rate the bank sells at, so it is the rate you buy at. That is what matters before you travel. Banks name both rates from their own side of the counter, which is why they read backwards at first. The selling rate is always the higher of the two; the gap is the bank's margin.

Each bank sets its own rate from its own stock of foreign currency and its own margin. The gap between the highest and the lowest is real money. On USD 1,000 it is often more than LKR 3,000, which is why it is worth checking before you go.

Often not. Banks usually pay a little more for money that arrives as a transfer than for notes handed over the counter, and charge a little less for a transfer than for notes. The rates here are transfer (TT) rates, or a bank's cash rate for a currency it quotes only in notes, so changing cash at the counter will usually come out slightly worse.

The Central Bank of Sri Lanka publishes an indicative reference rate for the market. It is not a rate you can transact at, because no counter will trade at it. That is why it is shown separately and left out of the best-rate comparison.

No. Banks publish rates on weekdays only and keep serving Friday's closing rates through Saturday and Sunday, so a weekend figure is Friday's number rather than a new one.

We check every bank's published rate card every 30 minutes while Sri Lankan banks are open. Most banks reprice once or twice a day.