Handling currency while on foreign travel

@allknowing (130088)
India
June 20, 2012 12:26am CST
Handling currency while on foreign travel is an art. Before the common Euro currency was introduced each European country had their own currency and if one undertakes a European tour consisting of several countries together which I did, it does call for a bit of presence of mind. One cannot keep any balance of the currency of one country while leaving for another country and so also one needs to be adept at conversion. While one could do reasonable amount of shopping say with 10 UK Pounds one needed thousands of Liras while in Italy. I bought a soft stone artifact in Italy for 50,000 Liras which when converted to Indian Rupees those days was about Rs. 2500/- Not being able to finish my money of a particular country I am left with so many coins of each country! How did you handle this rather complicated job of handling currency while on travel?
2 people like this
11 responses
@ram_cv (16513)
• India
20 Jun 12
The simplest way to handle this situation is to use Credit Cards or currency cards. Credit cards are accepted by most of the establishments in Europe and hence it is pretty useful as then there is no left over currency. Of course, you are at the mercy of the credit card agency to determine the currency rates which usually are higher than prevailing rates. The other option is currency cards. This is good if you have a fixed budget in mind and so you do not need to worry about the currency rates for each transaction. At the end of your shopping you can go back to the currency card agency and exchange the remaining amount for your currency. Cheers! Ram
@allknowing (130088)
• India
20 Jun 12
So you were not in the same boat as I was. All the same were you comfortable shopping when at a glance you would not know if the product was worth buying at that price?
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@ram_cv (16513)
• India
21 Jun 12
I am not a instinctive shopper. Usually I would do a lot of research on what I want to buy and which malls/shops are giving the best prices and just go there and get those items. Only for my kid, I would usually buy toys based on how they look at the shop and usually they are not too expensive. Cheers! Ram
@allknowing (130088)
• India
27 Jun 12
When one is in a foreign country there is an amount of disorientation in that it does confuse tourists in some way. Doing research is a good idea.
@Porcospino (31367)
• Denmark
20 Jun 12
I remember the time before the Euro. Travelling was more complicated at that time because every country had their own currency. My own country is not part of the Euro zone and there are some of the European countries that didn't join the Euro zone either, but it is definately easier to plan a trip around Europe today. When I have some Euros left after a trip I simply spend them in other country including the coins. If a country has their own currency the coins can be a problem, because it is not possible to exchange them. I might bring back a few coins as a souvenir, the rest of the coins I leave in the hotelroom (tip for the maid) or give them to beggars. I think it is better to give the last coins away instead of bringing them back to my own country where I am unable to use them. There are also countries you aren't to take the local currency with you whem you leave. My father experienced that once and he bought so many presents and souvenirs before he left because he wanted to spend the last money before he left. In some countries you are allowed to take the local currency with you, but it is impossible the exchange the currency outside the country, so you only have 3 choices. You can give the last money away, you can spend it on souvenirs and presents or you can bring it back to your own country as a souvenir.
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@allknowing (130088)
• India
20 Jun 12
When I am in a foreign country my mind does not work the way it does back home. And so thinking of giving away those coins to the maids in the hotel or the beggars on the streets would never occur to me!. Most importantly while shopping how does one calculate the value of a product when it is quoted in a currency that you are a stranger to? I remember when I was returning from my US holiday I had to board a plane at Frankfurt. While waiting at the airport I decided to have a cup of tea which they said would cost me 3 dollars which when converted to Indian Rupees would work out to around Rs.150/- - a huge price to pay for a cup of tea and this I was able to know at the tail end of my holiday!
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@Asylum (47893)
• Manchester, England
9 Nov 12
I have used a great number of European currencies prior to the introduction of the Euro, but I always stayed in one country, which made it relatively easy to manage. I should imagine that it would be extremely difficult having to change each time you crossed a border. The currencies would be easy enough to understand, but the problem would be how much of the local currency to purchase for each country. Obviously if you did not spend all the currency then there would be a further loss involved due to the exchange rate.
@allknowing (130088)
• India
10 Nov 12
When one is on a package holiday where the stay in a particularly is for a few days, getting in and out of countries and having to deal with new currency atleast to me it has been a bother. I do have some change from all these countries which I have now taken them as collectors' items!
@wiccania (3360)
• United States
20 Jun 12
Most travel experts actually recommend, if it's possible, that you use credit cards when traveling to foreign countries. Apparently credit card companies get the best exchange rates, for starters. Also you're not left with a bunch of loose bills and coins when you're done. But if you do find yourself arriving home with a bunch of money from other countries, you can either use it as a souvenier, or call around to different travel angencies and banks. Some of them will actually exchange the money. I had a friend years ago who received as a gift from someone she knew in the UK 80 British Pounds. She took it to a travel agency and they exchanged it for her, it ended up being something like $120 American.
@allknowing (130088)
• India
20 Jun 12
I am not comfortable with credit cards and I am sure there will be many more like me. I did carry travellers' cheques which I encashed at certain bank counters as soon as I arrived in a particular country. While shopping however one encounters the problem that I have highlighted. In order to know whether it is a good bargain one has the tendency to convert the price of a certain product in the currency of a country that one belongs to and that is where one can get confused. Each country has different conversion rates!
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@taura2p (349)
• Romania
21 Jun 12
I found it very difficult when I travelled abroad to handle foreign currency. I always had to calculate how much money would it cost in my currency, I had to be very very attentive to each coin, its value and sometimes I spent many minutes in a shop just trying to find the right coin or banknote.
@allknowing (130088)
• India
21 Jun 12
When one is in a foreign country one gets disoriented and everything becomes an effort to understand and more so the currency part which does confuse one. Although there is readiness to spend on shopping it helps matters if one knows whether something is worth going in for. Which part of the world did you travel? Was it on business or holiday?
@allknowing (130088)
• India
21 Jun 12
I have travelled to lots of places. I am from India and here I have covered a good portion of India. India as you know is a large country. I have been to 7 countries in Europe - France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, UK (London), Holland, Belgium. I have also been on a package tour of US and a luxury cruise in the Bahamas by the Sovereign of the Seas. I spent a couple of days in Canada too. My last holiday was in Australia and New Zealand. So you can imagine how disoriented and confused I would be specially when it came to currency! In Italy they only deal in thousands of lira. I paid 50,000 Lira for a soft stone artifact which when converted to Indian rupees it would be Rs. 2500/- But it was fun.
@taura2p (349)
• Romania
21 Jun 12
I went in Spain and Italy, both for fun. In Spain, it was quite easy to me, because I have a friend who has been living there for some years now, and she helped me a lot with my shopping. In Italy, on the other hand, we were a group of about 50 Romanians, and we all found it very hard to go shopping. We had to calculate all the prices in Romanian currency, and that was not easy... But still, this did not affect the fun we had. How about you? Where did you travel?
@BabyCheetah (1911)
• Australia
21 Jun 12
Well I had to use Euros, Pounds, Crowns, Dinars, Candian and US dollars whilst on my trip last year. It was easy for me because I just have a Visa debit card and the transaction fee for withdrawing money was $2.50. So each country I went to I just withdrew straight away and tried to work out how much I'd spend and need. I'd just keep the leftovers as souveneirs or for the next time I travelled. My grandmothe went to Italy this year so I gave her my leftover Euros to use :)
@allknowing (130088)
• India
21 Jun 12
It is the process of spending foreign money where the conversion rate is not there on one's finger tips that could cause a bit of uneasiness. Withdrawing money is no problem at all. It is dealing with strange currency that makes one feel like an illiterate! With the introduction of Euro all those coins that I have collected are now souvenirs!
@allknowing (130088)
• India
21 Jun 12
Now you get it. I was covering 7 countries at one go. You can imagine how confusion confounded I was!
• Australia
21 Jun 12
Ahhhh I see what you're getting at. That does get confusing at times, when I kept looking at things to buy I had to try work out how much it would be in Australian dollars. Yeah we have Lira and Deutchmarks here haha :)
@Asylum (47893)
• Manchester, England
19 Oct 12
I have used many of the pre Euro currencies, Spanish pesetas, French francs, Italian lire, Dutch guilders etcetera so I know what you mean. Fortunately I have only visited one country at a time, so I never had the problem of accruing a vast amount of coinage. Nevertheless, there was the factor that you would need to change the currency back once you arrived home, so that meant losing due to exchange rates twice for each holiday. Over previous years I have only had this problem with Morocco, Poland and the Czech Republic because the majority of trips have been to the European Union and I never bother to change Euros back to Sterling.
@allknowing (130088)
• India
20 Oct 12
Those who travel now will have less hassle specially to Europe where there is the Euro. I have quite a bit of loose coins from many European countries. May be after a few years it could have vintage value!?
@maximax8 (31055)
• United Kingdom
21 Jun 12
I traveled around Europe when I was 18 years old and indeed in those days each European country had its own currency. I began in Finland with the Finnish Mark and was unsure of the exchange rate when I arrived in Austria. I had traveler's checks and many different currencies. I tried to spend all that particular currency before leaving each country. I traveled around the world when I was 20 to 21 years old. I had US dollars, Australian dollars and currencies used in South East Asia. It was not easy to exchange Australian dollars in Sumatra. They preferred US dollars. For my last trip I took US dollars, Euros, British pounds and my two bank cards. I used the ATM machines in Argentina, Chile and Brazil. I even used US dollars in a craft market in Chile. I was delighted that they accepted US Dollars. Arriving back in Argentina I went to an exchange money office and asked to exchange my left over currency from Chile and Brazil. I got the Argentinian currency for my last couple of days. I used some of it to get so currency for Uruguay for our day trip there by ferry.
@allknowing (130088)
• India
21 Jun 12
I don't think that I was that confused while travelling as I was reading through your response! Indeed a whole lot of currency handling there. While US dollars were accepted everywhere but not in France. It was the last leg of our travel and some who had no Fr. Francs with them could not eat at a particular hotel. I was lucky. As it is, one does get disoriented while in a foreign country and the currency plays a role there.
@pergammano (7682)
• Canada
20 Jun 12
Spend! spend! Throw caution to the wind...abandon all practicality and leave those little coins in their Homeland! When I am on holidays..a true one, so is my mind, and practical side (otherwise I am not on holidays)..LOL! The leftover currency goes in the outstretched hand, of some cute little "muffkin"! It's part of the "feel-good" holiday abandon! And I just trust my senses for quality! You know the old expression, "a fool and his money, soon will be parted"..that's the "holiday me," as I spend my entire life being practical!
@allknowing (130088)
• India
20 Jun 12
As I have just commented above when one is in a foreign land it is not the same as when one is in one's home land and things don't strike such as leaving those coins behind! Spending, throwing caution to the winds is the only way one can enjoy a foreign holiday but not knowing the value of a product since one is new to that currency does make one feel a bit uneasy.
@marguicha (214294)
• Chile
26 Jun 12
I don´t use paper money anywhere except for some small amount of change as it´s too dangerous. My credit card takes care of changing the currency and letting me buy anything I want within my budget. When I go to another country, I do a round up change from my money to the currency of the country I.m visiting so that I can have an idea if I can pay for some things.
@allknowing (130088)
• India
8 Jul 12
I am somehow not comfortable with credit cards but I do have a debit card. I always carried travellers' cheques which I needed to encash at any bank in the country I visited. To know if a product is expensive or cheap I had to quickly convert the cost into the currency of my country which was not easy. And visiting several countries at one go can mess up these conversions!. In Italy for example they only deal in thousands of Lira I had bought an artifact made of marble and I paid 50,000 Lira which when converted to Indian Rupees it was just Rs. 2500/-
@Torunn (8609)
• Norway
8 Jul 12
I never really found it complicated :-) The one thing that could be annoying was to find somewhere to exchange money or cash out your travellers cheques. And sometimes you'd be stuck with coins in all kinds of currencies, and you can't change them back so you'd end up with quite a lot of money that you can't use. I kind of miss it though, euro all over the place is a bit like the Eurovision song contest when everybody sings in English. Sure, it's nice to be united (although we're not yet here in Norway) but that doesn't mean we all have to be the same :-=) Maybe it is because I like doing calculations in my head. The one currency that confuses me is the Icelandic krona. It's called the same as the Norwegian krone, but it's not worth very much so at the first glance, everything seems quite expensieve.
@allknowing (130088)
• India
8 Jul 12
I have always travelled taking package holidays and there is a representative from the agency that travels with us who will take us to the banks where we need to encash our travellers' cheques. The problem for me specially in Europe was in those days every country had their own currency and having taken this tour that covered 7 countries at one go meant I had be careful with conversions. The tendency to convert the cost of a product into one's own currency is but natural but not easy!