Euros in Hungary

cinereus

I'm going to Hungary soon and need to be able to get Euros. I have a Halifax Clarity card for withdrawing from ATMs but I believe they dispense HUF not EUR.

Is the cheapest way for me to get Euros to exchange here first and bring them with me?

opinions4u

Why do you need Euros?

dzug1

I would suspect but don't know that it would be better to take the HUF out of an ATM in Hungary and do the change there.

I'm making the possibly unwarranted assumption that markups on cssh transactions will be less in Hungary than here.

cinereus

opinions4u - Because I'm going somewhere where only Euros will be accepted. In any case, it's not relevant to my question.

dzug1 - I'm not so sure that's the case.... Any other options?

Valli

When I went to Budapest some places took both Forints and Euros; but the official currency is still Forints.

HERE

There's also a link to a currency page

cinereus

I'm aware of that. My question is the cheapest way to get Euros either here or in Budapest airport.

Valli

cinereus wrote: »

I'm aware of that. My question is the cheapest way to get Euros either here or in Budapest airport.

Thanks? Please?

apparently not.

Did you not read the currency page I directed you to?

I put a link in my post...

There are nicer ways to word queries, and your responses to them, which usually results in more posters answering, for future reference.

opinions4u

cinereus wrote: »

opinions4u - Because I'm going somewhere where only Euros will be accepted. In any case, it's not relevant to my question.

Strange response.

I was only trying to establish why you want to buy Euros for use in a country where a different currency is more widely accepted.

I was concerned that you may end up converting cash from Sterling to Euro to Forint at great expense to yourself.

Sorry for bothering to try and help.

cinereus

Valli wrote: »

Did you not read the currency page I

Yes I read it. Of course I'm very grateful if you make an attempt to answer my question but you strangely still seem intent that you know my question better than I do. I specifically asked for the cheapest way to get Euros because I need the cheapest way to get Euros.

Hard as it is to understand, I'm fully aware of what currency they use in Hungary as should be clear from my original post. I was just hoping some people would chip with information relevant to my actual query.

opinions4u wrote: »

Strange response.

I was only trying to establish why you want to buy Euros for use in a country where a different currency is more widely accepted

Sorry, what should I have said? I've asked for getting Euros because that's what I need. I don't want to clog up the thread with the irrelevant reasons. The reason I specifically asked the question I did and chose those words is because that's what I was hoping to get help with.

benjus

Cheapest way would be to withdraw Euros from an ATM using your Clarity card. I don't know if any ATMs that dispense EUR and charge the card in EUR (rather than converting from local currency) exist in Hungary. Here in the UK I only know of one such ATM - the NatWest/Ulster Bank ATM on Bishopsgate, City of London. Of course, you'd be limited by the card's withdrawal limits.

Alternatively, the best EUR cash rates on the TravelMoneyMaximiser have spreads of little over 1% - or 0.7% if you can collect from London - I suspect that you won't do much (if any) better than that in Hungary, although I couldn't tell you for sure.

cinereus

Thanks for your reply.

Yeah, I already checked the TravelMoneyMaximiser. It would cost me at least £15 and a few hours to collect from London so it's not worth going to an ATM there or using the bureaux there.

Looks like I'll have to collect from ASDA which is about 2.5% more than using my Clarity card.