Handling currency while on foreign travel

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 :)

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.