The Euro Explained for Travelers

What is a euro? What does a euro look like? What are the Euro bills? What do the bills look like? This video helps answer a lot of the basic money questions that travelers to Europe may have.
visit Europe, travel Europe, travel advice for Europe,
Filmed in Obidos, Portugal
Copyright Mark Wolters 2013

[illiminatieoverlordgurglek]

I just turned my wallet upside down and looked at the coins. I have Dutch, Spanish, Greek, French, Belgian and Austrian Euros! Got to love European pluralism! :D

[Iamwatchingyou]

Keep in mind that notes higher than €50 are often rejected, especially in smaler shops. Because their is simply not enough change when you show up with €100, €200 or even €500 when you just buy something for a few euros.

[MyYTwatcher]

If you exchange your money for Euro *always!!!* ask for smaller notes. Never take higher note than 100 €.
Higher notes are not needed as you will normally spend smaller amounts (for Americans - how often you pay your meal with 500 $ note...). Many shops wont accept higher notes because they may not have enough money for exchange. And last but not least higher notes (200 and 500 €) have bad reputation of being favourite subject to forgery.

[nimmen]

Actually, it's pretty logical.

0, 01 0, 02 0, 05
0, 1 0, 2 0, 5
1 2 5
10 20 50
100 200 500

[tihk]

The cash thing depends a lot where you are in Europe. In Scandinavia cards are definitely more common way to pay than cash but Eastern and Southern Europe cash is still preferred.
And also it's good to know that in some countries, at least in Finland and Netherlands, 1 and 2 cent euro coins are not in use and the prices are counted to closest 5 cent.

[woltersworld]

Glad I can help. I agree with the airport exchange. Its OK if you need cash right away but best to wait awhile before getting the bad rates and service charges. Thanks for the nice comments! Mark

[scmager]

Be careful when withdrawing Euros from an ATM with a debit card. If you have a daily withdrawal limit (say $500), don't forget to calculate the equivalent in Euros, and be careful to stay within that limit. I overlooked this while in Vienna last year, and attempted to withdraw 400 Euros (while thinking "dollars") at one time. Of course, the ATM would not process the withdrawal, but the monitor didn't indicate why, except to say "request refused" or something like that. I tried this several times, at several different ATMs, always getting the same result. This made me think that my bank had stopped payment. It took a lot of wasted time, and a very, very expensive long distance call to my bank (including being put on 'hold"), only to find out that all I had to do was request a smaller amount. Live and learn!

[Hotspurs]

Hey Mark,

I live in Ottawa and all my dads family lives in Portugal, my grandmother lives in Obidos it is a nice little village and the Mercado Medieval is so cool I went there last summer.The rest of my dads family lives in Lisbon. Muito obrigada para os vídeos muito bons !!!! :)
E muito bom trabalho !!!! :)

[markhancock]

As a British viewer just a reminder that not all the continent (or EU) uses the Euro. As well as the UK other countries keeping their own currency include: Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, Sweden, Poland, Czech Republic and Hungary. Some of these (like the  Scandinavian countries have very different value to the base unit.
I would agree with the comments about larger Euro notes. They aren't necessary and can become a liability. I even had a problem once here in the UK (where most people will even have a few notes in a draw at home from their last vacation) getting a 100 Euro note (that I accepted from a client) exchanged.Like your channel. An interesting outside viewpoint.

[chrisdiaz]

I've been watching you for about a year now and I finally found out I'm going to eastern/Central Europe so I guess I have to binge watch your channel again

[morgansalzano]

Did anyone see the thing that flashed at like 2:04? What was that

[mikkelfiltenborg]

Sidenote: Denmark. Cash is not always king. Some places don't take cash when you're in the bigger cities. Make sure if you travel to Denmark that you have a working card. Visa and Mastercard is accepted in 99% on stores.

[qwertyTRiG]

In some parts of Europe (UK and Ireland, and I think also Cyprus and perhaps Malta) we use the decimal point and the comma as a thousands separator, the same as North America. Continental Europe uses the comma as the decimal mark, and either a point, an apostrophe, or a thin space as a thousands separator.

[korkz]

subliminal message at 2:19 "wolters world"

[richmorris]

We do use a lot of cash in the UK.... You always pay with cash in pubs for example

[illiminatieoverlordgurglek]

In the Netherlands 1 and 2 cent coins aren't accepted in stores. They cost too much to exchange or have in the register or something. So they round up or down at the register. 1, 99 becomes 2, 00. 1, 96 becomes 1, 95. etc.

[EACI]

Love this woltersworld videos, I am seasoned traveler but you can always learn more, am off to save the Spanish economy by doing a Masters Degree. Good to know that the best way to get money is using your debir card, I was about to exchange my money in the aiport in Boston or using private exchange companies. Cheers!

[usagifelton]

Is the exchange rate better if you get the  money from the bank before you leave or if you go to the ATM in the country?

[barvdw]

They are introducing new notes, the new EUROPA 5-ers and 10-ers are already in use, the others are for the nex years, but the old ones are still valid. In some places, you will hardly find any old notes, however. The theme is the same, it's the same imaginary bridge or window as on the older ones, and the base colour is the same, too, but it's a little more colourful, now. More info and pics can be found on the website of the ECB, the European Central Bank. 
200 and 500 euro notes are very rare, and are refused in many shops, certainly if you only buy a small item with it. 5 to 50 are the most common, 100 is rising in popularity.

[Dutch]

Cash is king? Not in the Netherlands, it's mostly debit cards overhere. Most restaurants also accept credit cards but don't try to use your creditcard at a tankstop or in a supermarket, most of them don't accept it.