currency

[wolfegizmo]

I was going to get some local currency for London, Stockholm, and Copenhagen from American Express. Before I do that, however, does anyone know if we could just use Euros in those cities?

[socrmom]

I would suggest using the ATM in London, They are everywhere. Our ship, Constellation, had a bank on board with all the currencies except for Russia, Estonia, and Poland. These countries happily accepted dollars as well as Euros. We used the ship bank to trade in dollars for local currency. We usually charged everything so often didn't get the local currency. We even took a public bus from Helsinki to Porvoo and the bus accepted Mastercard. It was only 8 euros per person.

[travelingmcmahans]

There are ATMs as soon as you land at airports in London - no point in paying $15 to AmX. You get the best exchange rate that way. Just make sure you have a 4 number PIN code.
Sweden isn't on the Euro, and neither is Denmark, so you would just need to use local ATMs in each city. Just take a few minutes to figure approximately how much you need. [url]www.xe.com[/url] has a currency converter to help with that.

[olderpilot]

Generally speaking, you need local currency for public transportation. Some shops do price in local currency and Euros and occasionally USD. Copenhagen taxiis will take credit cards, but we found they much preferred Danish crowns.

As mentioned above ATM's are everywhere - and you certainly get the best exchange rate using them.

Of course it is wise to advise your bank you will be using your credit card/ATM card overseas.

[FeegleGirl]

I live in London and can tell you that you will need British pounds here. USD and euros are rarely accepted anywhere, but you can use cards to pay for most things (not for taxis though). Get some cash out of an ATM as the other people have already suggested.

In Denmark, Sweden and Norway you will need their local currency, which is not the euro.

[wolfegizmo]

Thanks everyone for their replies!!! I really appreciate your responses!!

[cruznliz]

Travelingmcmahans: Why do you need a 4 digit PIN number? Our ATM card uses a 5 digit number. Will I be able to use that in the Baltics? :confused:

[nny92825100]

Be sure to let your ATM card provider know you are going on travel, where and when. You may still have a little problem with them locking up fund as it might appear suspicious. We did not have trouble, but our cc got locked up. We had notified Citibank of our travels and they still locked it up. Good thing we had a second card with us. We had to call in to get it unlocked and from the ship that can be a fortune so we waited until the end of the cruise and called from England.

Use ATM's in all the ports, figure out what you need and go from there. We used our debit card from the the credit union and did not pay an exchange fee. They just took the money out of our checking account at what the exchange was listed in the paper. It worked out great. There are ATM's all over all the Baltic ports except Russia. Tallin has one right before you get into olde town.

[travelingmcmahans]

[quote name='cruznliz']Travelingmcmahans: Why do you need a 4 digit PIN number? Our ATM card uses a 5 digit number. Will I be able to use that in the Baltics? :confused:[/QUOTE]
That is just someting that all my guidebooks have always noted. Our card uses 4 and we've used it all over Europe with little to no trouble. You should probably check with your bank on this matter, you'll need to contact them to notify them you're using it overseas anyway.

Here's a couple of links you may find useful...
[url]http://goeurope.about.com/cs/currency/a/atm_use_europe.htm[/url]
[url]http://www.ricksteves.com/plan/tips/moneytip.htm[/url]

Have a great trip!

[jeanb]

Socrmom,

You mentioned that the Constellation has a bank on board. Does it cost the same on the ship to change USD into a country's local currency as it would in using an ATM in the country?

[cruznliz]

Travelingmcmahans: Thank you so much for the articles. I printed them and we will study them. :D

[nny92825100]

I don't know about the Constellation, but the Jewell has an ATM machine and charges $5 to use.