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Currency in eastern Europe


Osnab

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In Hungary, the local currency is the forint.

In Romania, it's the New Leu (which is fun to say.)

In Serbia, it's the dinar.

In Croatia, it's the kuna.

 

Sheesh. Do I need to get the local currency for each of these places, or do they accept dollars or euro? I'm going to be in Croatia for 1/2 day and want to tip my guide, but hardly want to get $5 worth of kuna and don't want to run to an ATM and end up with extra kunas that I didn't use.

 

Anyone have any advice on how to handle this? Thanks in advance!

Felicia

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In Hungary, the local currency is the forint.

In Romania, it's the New Leu (which is fun to say.)

In Serbia, it's the dinar.

In Croatia, it's the kuna.

 

Sheesh. Do I need to get the local currency for each of these places, or do they accept dollars or euro? I'm going to be in Croatia for 1/2 day and want to tip my guide, but hardly want to get $5 worth of kuna and don't want to run to an ATM and end up with extra kunas that I didn't use.

 

Anyone have any advice on how to handle this? Thanks in advance!

Felicia

For tipping guides in Croatia, I think they'll be happy with 5 euros (or even USD). Similar in Serbia and even Hungary. But if you're going to be spending money in cafes or shops, you ought to get some local currency.
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Make sure when you tip in € or $ that you give the guide bills. Often the locals cannot change coins at their bank. It happens to us all the time in Turkey that a waiter will ask us if we can change a pile of 1 Euro coins for a banknote.

In higly touristy places (like Dubrovnik) you can find places where they will take Euros, but in most of the normal cafes, public restrooms etc you do have to pay with local currency.

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Make sure when you tip in € or $ that you give the guide bills. Often the locals cannot change coins at their bank. It happens to us all the time in Turkey that a waiter will ask us if we can change a pile of 1 Euro coins for a banknote.

In higly touristy places (like Dubrovnik) you can find places where they will take Euros, but in most of the normal cafes, public restrooms etc you do have to pay with local currency.

 

Thanks UKBayern and MaxBuck. I think now I will take dollars and tip in dollars, but since I'm spending some time in Budapest, I will take their currency.

 

I just always try to avoid acting like "It's a DOLLAR" or "I'm AMERICAN" so our way is always right. I cringe just thinking of that mentality. Thanks again.

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I took Euros (coins and small bills) for all of our tips.

 

I had forints, and RON (for Romania) - and then took some money out at an ATM if I needed it.

 

Just DON'T get money exchanged at the airport... the handling fees are much larger than they are at an ATM. Made that mistake once - never again!!!

 

My thread on our trip did mention where I needed local currency - and how I accessed what I needed. This may help.

 

Fran

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If you plan to tip in USD, make sure the bills are newish. I would get the forints , the conversion is just too difficult. Even if any cafe takes €, it's very likely they will give you change in the local currency, and often a very poor exchange rate. ATMs are all over, it doesn't take long, and handling some of the currency is part of the fun of traveling.

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Have been thinking about getting the credit card with pin and chip ( my bank offers it) - but my TA said that no one that she has booked to Europe said they needed it. She asks when they get back

Any comments or words of wisdom? Thanks.

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Have been thinking about getting the credit card with pin and chip ( my bank offers it) - but my TA said that no one that she has booked to Europe said they needed it. She asks when they get back

Any comments or words of wisdom? Thanks.

 

My brother and his wife and 2 kids are on a Globus tour which started in London, went to Paris and has ended in Rome. He got a credit card specifically for this trip and then learned he had to have a PIN, even tho it's a credit card, not a debit card.

 

Almost in panic-mode, because the PIN was possibly going to arrive in "7 days", meaning the day before he was to leave, we decided to let him use my credit card because I knew my PIN, in the event he needed one.

 

I haven't spoken to him about this while he's been gone (the PIN has yet to arrive, 2 weeks after the promised date!) but he's not had to use my card once and he has not been required to use a PIN for his credit card.

 

YMMV, but that's the current scoop in Italy, England and France.

Felicia

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I took Euros (coins and small bills) for all of our tips.

 

I had forints, and RON (for Romania) - and then took some money out at an ATM if I needed it.

 

Just DON'T get money exchanged at the airport... the handling fees are much larger than they are at an ATM. Made that mistake once - never again!!!

 

My thread on our trip did mention where I needed local currency - and how I accessed what I needed. This may help.

 

Fran

 

I just went back to your original trip report and re-read what you wrote about the currency. I think I'll mirror what you did.

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Have been thinking about getting the credit card with pin and chip ( my bank offers it) - but my TA said that no one that she has booked to Europe said they needed it. She asks when they get back

Any comments or words of wisdom? Thanks.

 

Having a chip cc definitely helps, when using kiosks to buy train tickets, metro tickets, etc. Nearly all US credit card with chips are chip and signature, not chip and PIN (even if you have a PIN for ATM use, it's not exactly the same as the European chip and PIN system). But, we have chip cards from both AMEX and JP Morgan (Visa); they both worked flawlessly in machines throughout Europe, including 2 weeks in Germany and Austria last month. We were not prompted for a PIN once. Insert the card, press the green "accept" button, payment goes through... Awesome! :D

 

When paying in restaurants, stores, and other similar places where there's a live person, the US magnetic stripe CCs generally work. They may look at you funny, or balk about it, but their machines usually can handle stripe cards. It comes down to whether you need to use unattended kiosks, or whether all of your cc transactions will be with a live person. We tend to go off on our own a lot, and tend to use unattended machines frequently; the chip card has been invaluable to us.

 

In several years of international travel, I've been required to use a PIN twice: once in Norway, with a non-chip AMEX, and once in Iceland with my ATM card to buy gas at an unattended station, after none of our CCs would work in the pump. Since getting the chip cards, no issues.

 

We just got a Bank of America Travel Rewards Visa with a chip to replace the JP Morgan one (the latter charges an annual fee); unfortunately, we have to wait until next year to try this one in Europe... :mad:

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Thanks for such great info to those who took time to respond.

My current visa has a pin that I used at ATM in Italy 5 years ago. So it appears that it should be sufficient. It is a pin I assigned to use at ATMs. So, if I am able to use my current card in ATMs, I should be ok!

However, if I want more flexibility- for local kiosks for train/busesa chip would be best.

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Have been thinking about getting the credit card with pin and chip ( my bank offers it) - but my TA said that no one that she has booked to Europe said they needed it. She asks when they get back

Any comments or words of wisdom? Thanks.

 

I have a Capital One VISA card with no chip or pin. I have never had a problem making a purchase except in Barcelona when I went to buy tickets from a vending machine to Montserrat. I then just used cash.

 

I just returned from a trip from Istanbul to Bucharest to Budapest and used my credit card along the way with no problems. If I did not see a credit card symbol on the store window (showing that they accept those cards) I asked. There was one store that charged a little extra for me to use my credit card, and I accepted those terms because I did not want to find an ATM for local currency.

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We had our credit card denied twice this March in France because it did not have a chip, and the scanner could not read magnetic strips. Once was at a parking lot, (making it a real pain to get out) and the other was an at an ATM. I've since ordered a card with a chip, and recommend it if planning on doing a lot of shopping or use of credit card.

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We have found that the determining factor is almost always whether the payment location is staffed, or unstaffed.

 

Locations that are staffed use different machines, which (almost) always (in our experience thus far, always) have two reading mechanisms - one for chip cards, and one for stripe cards. You insert the card differently to read the magnetic stripe vs. reading the chip. To read the magnetic stripe, you swipe the card through the reader, just like we do here at every store nowadays. The people staffing these machines are not always familiar with magnetic stripe cards, however...

 

To read the chip, you inert it partway into a DIFFERENT slot that resembles an ATM (though the card doesn't disappear all the way into the machine). The device locks the card in place while reading it; this takes 5-10 seconds. Then you either enter your PIN, or if you have a chip and signature card with no PIN, you press the "accept" button to confirm the charge. Only then can you remove your card. A receipt will print, and you sign. These slots also resemble the ones at the pumps at gas stations - except you leave your card in while the payment is being processed.

 

In our experience, unattended kiosks in parking lots, train stations, etc. only have the latter type of slot for CCs. A few of these will still read magnetic stripe, but many will not. I remember that the London underground machines, and the ones in Lisbon, would read stripes (as of 2 years ago), but the Paris ones would not; neither will the ones in Oslo. You can get around this by using bills in some machines; others will only take coins which would be a challenge if you're buying a 100-euro train ticket... These machines are extremely variable - from country to country, station to station - and some stations have multiple types of machines that each accept different payment types! Just because it's the EU, doesn't mean it's homogeneous... ;)

 

Bottom line(s): 1 - if you're going to use the train/metro, and want to buy tickets on your own from an unattended kiosk, you should read up on the specific country you're going to and see if a non-chip card or cash will work. There are usually staffed stations where you can use cash; they may not be in every station and the lines may be horrible - once at CDG the lines for RER tickets were 20+ deep; we used our chip card at a kiosk and were done in a minute. (2) if you're ONLY going to use your card in stores, restaurants, etc - you will very likely be fine with only a magnetic stripe card. But, you may have to tell / show the cashier how to use it...

 

I don't think we'd be able to travel the way we want to without a chip card at this point.

 

Incidentally, I read your ATM card issue with some trepidation - have not yet encountered an ATM that required a chip card. That could be a problem! We use BofA and whenever possible, its Global Alliance network. Was it a bank ATM, or a freestanding ATM in a store, gas station, etc?

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In Hungary, the local currency is the forint.

In Romania, it's the New Leu (which is fun to say.)

In Serbia, it's the dinar.

In Croatia, it's the kuna.

 

Sheesh. Do I need to get the local currency for each of these places, or do they accept dollars or euro? I'm going to be in Croatia for 1/2 day and want to tip my guide, but hardly want to get $5 worth of kuna and don't want to run to an ATM and end up with extra kunas that I didn't use.

 

Anyone have any advice on how to handle this? Thanks in advance!

Felicia

 

When we were in Hungary last September, we found we were able to use our Euro's. We also had Forint's with us, but had we known the Euro was accepted, we wouldn't have bothered with Forint's. We've only been to Hungary one time, but this was our experience. The exchange rate between the two might have not been the best (I don't remember), but at that point I would have rather paid more and only had one currency to deal with.

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Just want to share some info for Bank of America customers regarding foreign currency.

 

I used to go to the American Express Travel office nearby and get enough currency for our first day of travel.

 

Now I simply order whatever currencies I need ONLINE at Bank of America. It is so much easier! They are able to get all foreign currencies and have it delivered to the local branch near us.

 

We just get enough of each currency to get us through our first day of travel, then we use ATM's for the remainder of our trip.

 

It works well for us.

 

Here is a link:

https://www4.bankofamerica.com/forei...y/index.action

 

Enjoy your travels!

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When we were in Hungary last September, we found we were able to use our Euro's. We also had Forint's with us, but had we known the Euro was accepted, we wouldn't have bothered with Forint's. We've only been to Hungary one time, but this was our experience. The exchange rate between the two might have not been the best (I don't remember), but at that point I would have rather paid more and only had one currency to deal with.

 

I agree, having one currency to fiddle with would be easier. I haven't decided what to do. I just got off the phone w/ Visa and they said they have not heard of anyone having a problem if they don't have the chip on their card, except at the unmanned kiosks, but if that's the case, you just enter the PIN and you're all set.

 

Still think I may carry a small amount of forints and more euro. I will always use euro, as it will not be my last time to travel to Europe.

 

Thanks again.

Felicia

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I agree, having one currency to fiddle with would be easier. I haven't decided what to do. I just got off the phone w/ Visa and they said they have not heard of anyone having a problem if they don't have the chip on their card, except at the unmanned kiosks, but if that's the case, you just enter the PIN and you're all set.

 

Still think I may carry a small amount of forints and more euro. I will always use euro, as it will not be my last time to travel to Europe.

 

Thanks again.

Felicia

 

Felicia, I just returned from a similar cruise a month ago. I went with US$ and Euros (left over from a previous European cruise). I started in Istanbul and got Lira there since we were there for several days. Don't think you are going there???

 

I used Fran's (Franski's) recommendations on using Euros. Quite frankly, other than Istanbul and Budapest, I spent very little money. I did get between $10 and $20 of local currency in every country, but only because I wanted some to bring home as a souvenir. I used $10 and $20 bills at a currency exchange to get that. I know that the exchange rate was not that good, but it was a small amount of money, so I didn't care. I used some of it to purchase a drink or an ice cream during the small amount of free time that we had after the included tours.

 

We had 3 days in Budapest, so I got Forints there from the ATM machine.

 

One thing that I did do, and it helped, was to print a pocket conversion chart for the different currencies that I would be using. I did one for each country that we visited. It was small enough to carry in my pocket. I used XE Currency Converter (http://www.xe.com/currencyconverter/).

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One thing that I did do, and it helped, was to print a pocket conversion chart for the different currencies that I would be using. I did one for each country that we visited. It was small enough to carry in my pocket. I used XE Currency Converter (http://www.xe.com/currencyconverter/).

 

That's a good idea. Thanks for that link.

Felicia

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I agree, having one currency to fiddle with would be easier. I haven't decided what to do. I just got off the phone w/ Visa and they said they have not heard of anyone having a problem if they don't have the chip on their card, except at the unmanned kiosks, but if that's the case, you just enter the PIN and you're all set.

 

Still think I may carry a small amount of forints and more euro. I will always use euro, as it will not be my last time to travel to Europe.

 

Thanks again.

Felicia

 

 

Carrying a small amount of forints would probably be a good idea. We came home with extra euro's but we know we'll use them in the future.

 

We used our MC and Visa a couple of times to get cash from ATM's and all we needed were PIN numbers. I am not even sure what the chip thing is.

 

We also ended up getting Euro's from our boat. We used our AMEX. I think we were charged 10%, which is high, but we ended up hiring private guides for several cities and needed more Euro's than we could get out of an ATM machine each day. This was on Uniworld. Not sure if they all do this or not on the other lines.

 

Hope you have a wonderful time on your cruise!

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