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Euros in Hungary and Slovakia


MalibooNewYork
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We take out as little cash as possible for things like tips, snacks, etc. Mostly we use credit card as much as possible, especially one that doesn't charge foreign transaction fees. Only credit cards that might not be accepted readily are American Express, Diner's Club and Discover....their merchant fees are too high.

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In Budapest, if a place will accept euros, you will not get a good exchange rate. IMO pay with a credit card that doesn't charge a foreign transaction fee or get cash from an ATM. Our hotel, the Marriott, has an ATM machine in the lobby.

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I'll pay with a credit card as much as possible. But i was thinking primarily about small purchases as I have run into situations where the merchant won't take a cc when the amount is small. I'll probably never be in this part of the world again and didn't want to have currency left over that is useless to me.

An aside: my cc was hacked this Monday by someone in the UK who bought rugby stuff so I hope everything goes smoothly with my new card.

Thanks for taking the time to answer my question. I appreciate it.

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I'll pay with a credit card as much as possible. But i was thinking primarily about small purchases as I have run into situations where the merchant won't take a cc when the amount is small. I'll probably never be in this part of the world again and didn't want to have currency left over that is useless to me.

An aside: my cc was hacked this Monday by someone in the UK who bought rugby stuff so I hope everything goes smoothly with my new card.

Thanks for taking the time to answer my question. I appreciate it.

 

New card should have chip and pin making it a little harder to hack.....for now anyway.

 

Key to cash is to figure out how much you're likely to need each day in local currency for the two of you and then only take out that much. We usually figure prices for drinks and snacks (ice cream, coffee, etc); possible taxi fare; tip to waiters, admission to a museum or local attraction; and like you mention the odd souvenir that doesn't cost enough to put on a credit card. Anything we have left we leave on the bed for the housekeeper or give to the last person we deal with at the airport...or drop it in a charity box. Except for Euros....those we just bring home and save for the next time.

Edited by Hydrokitty
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Since we were going to be in Hungary for 4 days on our river cruise, the first stop we made we went to a bank and used our ATM card to get forients. As Hydrokitty suggests, we did a little figuring as to what we would need for tour guide tips, incidental food purchases, and withdrew just over that (next whole number allowed to be withdrawn).

Edited by Shmoo here
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Some ATMs in Hungary will allow you to select the denomination of currency that you what. I requested and received small bills since I had read that small shopkeepers may be reluctant to give change for a large bill.

 

That's a good point, Nancy....we found in Prague the ATM near our hotel only gave out big bills $50 (local currency) and it was not only hard to break them, but we were concerned with having big ones left over. We wound up going into the bank each time and breaking them.

Edited by Hydrokitty
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That's a good point, Nancy....we found in Prague the ATM near our hotel only gave out big bills $50 (local currency) and it was not only hard to break them, but we were concerned with having big ones left over. We wound up going into the bank each time and breaking them.

 

We went into the bank connected to the ATM we used. They wanted to charge us a fee for breaking the large bills into smaller ones. They recommended going to the local grocery and buying a few things to break one. That worked out fine, since we were going to buy some soda and snacks to have in our room onboard.

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We went into the bank connected to the ATM we used. They wanted to charge us a fee for breaking the large bills into smaller ones. They recommended going to the local grocery and buying a few things to break one. That worked out fine, since we were going to buy some soda and snacks to have in our room onboard.

 

I'm old enough that I still harbor the illusion that banks are in the business of handling money, but it increasingly isn't so. One B&B landlady in France told us that to get a supply of 1 and 2 Euro coins for making change, she has to file a written order with her bank. They explained that they don't carry money!

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We went into the bank connected to the ATM we used. They wanted to charge us a fee for breaking the large bills into smaller ones. They recommended going to the local grocery and buying a few things to break one. That worked out fine, since we were going to buy some soda and snacks to have in our room onboard.

 

That works too!! The bank attached to the ATM we used didn't say anything about a fee for breaking the large bills THEY gave us!! :D But buying snacks in a local supermarket is a great alternative!!! I will remember that on my next cruise and buy some local raspberries/strawberries/blueberries to have with my cottage cheese for b-fast....ship doesn't have berries on the b-fast buffet because they're so perishable.

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In Budapest, if a place will accept euros, you will not get a good exchange rate.
True for some vendors, not true for others IME.

 

I purchased some stuff in Budapest using euros and got a better price than I would have in forints. (I was actually given the choice of paying in euros or forints - I checked the current official exchange rates and paid in the currency more favorable to me.)

Edited by MaxBuck
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We were in Budapest about three weeks ago. When we could, we used our AmEx card, which has no foreign transaction fee. But Budapest, like our home town in Durango, has merchants and service providers who do not except AmEx due to its higher fees, so we had to use our Visa some and it does charge these fees. Got our Visa bill just the other day, and these fees totaled $6 and change! A small price to pay for the convenience, considering the cost of the trip.

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We went into the bank connected to the ATM we used. They wanted to charge us a fee for breaking the large bills into smaller ones. They recommended going to the local grocery and buying a few things to break one. That worked out fine, since we were going to buy some soda and snacks to have in our room onboard.

 

We had a similar problem. We ordered Swiss Francs and got two $200 bills!!! Seriously? I know it's expensive in Switzerland, but that was ridiculous. We found that our hotel's front desk was the best place to get large bills like that broken down. They even gave us the smallest of change - like 50 cent pieces for the bathrooms.

 

We found that the clerks in the grocery stores got annoyed with large bills. We went to 5 grocery stores in the first 3 days. Most people (especially in Europe) pay with their ATM or credit card and cash was treated like an oddity, so try the hotel's front desk first.

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We had a similar problem. We ordered Swiss Francs and got two $200 bills!!! Seriously? I know it's expensive in Switzerland, but that was ridiculous. We found that our hotel's front desk was the best place to get large bills like that broken down. They even gave us the smallest of change - like 50 cent pieces for the bathrooms.

 

We found that the clerks in the grocery stores got annoyed with large bills. We went to 5 grocery stores in the first 3 days. Most people (especially in Europe) pay with their ATM or credit card and cash was treated like an oddity, so try the hotel's front desk first.

 

That was the problem we had in Prague...ATM only spit out $50 bills and nobody wanted to give us that much change.

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