Why Don't The Czechs Use EURO?

Traveling around Europe can get a bit confusing when it comes to money. Here's why.

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(Best places for beer, coffee & food included)

0:00 History of EURO
2:05 Traveling Before EURO
2:46 EURO Fun Facts
4:19 Czech Republic and EURO
5:13 Sponsor: Surfshark VPN
6:24 Pay With EURO in CZ
7:40 Honest Travel Tip

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Janek Rubeš & Honza Mikulka, Prague based journalists
#HonestGuide

[AStupidTourist]

If you went to the euro how would scammers be able to exchange Belarus Rubles on the street ... cmon guys, think about the poor scammers

[Tomipopo]

Video title: "Why don´t the czechs use EURO?"

Video: "Ahhhh it´s complicated, I don´t want to get into it..."

[Czechbound]

ADOPTING EURO : Czechia has a legal binding agreement with the EU to adopt the currency. The EU aren't happy they it has not joined yet. REASON FOR NOT ADOPTING : The Central Bank has advised that it is "not time" to adopt the currency, despite in 2011 saying it would be the right time "in 3 years". The problem is that CZ interest rates must converge to the EU rates, which were negative for the past few years ( they have risen to 0.6% in the past weeks ). So CZ rates ( currently at 5.0% ) would have to drop significantly, and so borrowing costs would drop; borrowing would accelerate, and capital values would increase. A lot. So housing values would go up by 2 or 3 times at least ( look what happened to Ireland .... ). This would price out young voters ( even with reduced mortgage rates ), and so politically, it won't happen. Basically, it's bad economic planning by the government/ central bank to meet their legal commitments to the EU. So today, the Central Bank can freely use interest rates to try and dampen inflation; and use the official exchange rate to help the trade balance. Simple

[MichaelAndersen_DK]

Same goes for Denmark. We use Danish Kroner, but most tourist places will accept €. But card really is the best option

[Lord.Kiltridge]

Just off the coast West coast of Newfoundland Canada there are some islands called Saint-Pierre and Miquelon. They are the last piece of French territory in North America and they also use the Euro. They also issue French licence plates. So if you allow for ferry rides, it's actually possible to drive from France to any other country in the Americas.

[petarg.]

When I worked as cashier back in Canada, some tourists would get angry that they couldn't pay in US Dollars. 🤦😕

[hopper]

You can never go wrong with "Free beer logic".

[andrewdunbar]

The video answers everything clearly and succinctly, but I still have one question. Why Don't The Czechs Use EURO?

[PrazanExpat]

After living continuously in the Czech Republic, I returned to the USA and, forgetting where I was for a moment, tried to pay in Czech Crowns. It did not go well.

[jurajkovac]

Just today, Czech Ministry of Finance announces a proposed law that would allow companies to keep their books and pay taxes in Euro :)

[n.j.s.givemeasmile]

From my own experience as german who is living not far away from the czech border. A good exchange rate I always get in normal supermarkets, mostly 24/25 Krones for 1 Euro.

[kwinzman]

Why Don't The Czechs Use EURO?
5:05 I don't really wanna get into it.
But let me tell you about those bridges on the printed notes!

[jacobekelund]

As a dane, I can 100% relate to this, since we have the danish krone. Now since I don't live in copenhagen I don't know how many places you'll be able to pay with euros, but I believe most supermarkets will allow it. And just like you said, the easiest would simply just be to use card, since close to all stores has that posibility

[aurums]

Latvian here. 🇱🇻 We joined the European Union in 2004 and adopted the euro on 1 January 2014. For the first 2 weeks of 2014 you could pay anywhere with Lats (currency we had before €), and get change back in Euros. And we had pretty smooth transfer, I think. Still missing our old currency, it kinda was a part of our nationality, with special edition coins and simbolism on banknotes.. One thing I must say - as a street musician I used to earn more money back then, cause tourists would simply get rid of coins before leaving Latvia 😀

[czechcitizen]

4:35 Just to give more details on top of what Janek says, all EU member states, except for Denmark, are required to adopt the euro and join the eurozone. However, to do so, they first need to meet so-called convergence criteria to prove that they are ready. These criteria include specific targets related to issues such as budget deficit, inflation, price stability, the full compatibility of the national and EU legislation on the national central bank, etc. According to the Treaties (which are something like the EU constitution), member states that are not in the eurozone must report every two years on the progress made to meet the criteria, with the end goal that once these criteria are met, they will adopt euro. However, the Treaties do not specify the timetable for meeting the criteria; hence, when a member state is unmotivated and slow in meeting them, like the Czech Republic, it is able to postpone the obligation to join the eurozone for quite some time.

[taraschuhay]

the reason you would select CZK when paying with your card is to avoid so called double conversion, which basically means your are going to pay more if you select paying in USD or EUR.

[esesininkas]

Euro was definitely beneficial for Lithuania. Sure, the prices rose, and some people do indeed go to Poland for cheaper groceries. But the wages are rising too. In 10 years or so, min salary nearly tripled.

[Oleksa-Derevianchenko]

As far as I know, it's a pretty common practice to accept payment in foreign currencies.
Some major supermarket networks in Slovakia (like Kaufland, if I recall correctly) accept (or used to accept not too long ago) payments in Czech korunas and Hungarian forints. I saw the exchange rates but didn't pay much attention since I had euros

[Kukamonga]

In Spain, the adoption of Euro meant a huge inflation of prices for everything. Just a dumb example, if a coffee in a bar was 100 pesetas (0, 60€) when the Euro was adopted the price was translated to 1€ instead, which was 166 pesetas, that's (that is almost double the price) and same happened with almost everything. However, after a few years I must say traveling and not having to worry about exchanges or different currencies is great when in Euro zones.

[jameswoodard]

Welcome to the "Why does the Czech Republic not use the Euro" video, where we will NOT be telling you...why the Czech Republic doesn't use the Euro.