What a 'Grexit' could mean for your holiday: Full Q&A 23 June 2015 at 7:21PM edited 29 June 2015 at 11:39AM in Flights, Currency & Car Hire 19 replies 3.6K views

814man

Other than the potential civil unrest which would mostly be in Athens and other cities I'm not sure why holidaymakers should be put off going.

And to harz99, I think you'll find that its Greek corruption itself, allied with a somewhat lax attitude towards paying tax, that has led the country to this situation. I'm not sure why you think its the fault of the EU, whilst the UK are not supporting any bailout directly, I'm sure that if I was a taxpayer in any other EU country that still is I'd be a bit miffed to see my money going to prop up a country that only has itself to blame for its current situation.

System

I heard that Greece want to end all inclusive holidays as a good majority of people that go on them don't spend anything whilst there. Just for a drink at the airport on the return journey!

If making the hotels half board or self catering, tourists are inclined to use restaurants, supermarkets etc so the money goes into the resort's economy.

zagfles

814man wrote: »

Other than the potential civil unrest which would mostly be in Athens and other cities I'm not sure why holidaymakers should be put off going.

And to harz99, I think you'll find that its Greek corruption itself, allied with a somewhat lax attitude towards paying tax, that has led the country to this situation. I'm not sure why you think its the fault of the EU, whilst the UK are not supporting any bailout directly, I'm sure that if I was a taxpayer in any other EU country that still is I'd be a bit miffed to see my money going to prop up a country that only has itself to blame for its current situation.

It's the fault of the EU because they fudged the criteria for countries like Greece to join the Euro. They made rules and didn't stick to them, the political imperative was to get as many countries into the Euro as possible.

Germany has benefitted massively from having a weaker currency than a German-only currency would have been, while countries like Greece have suffered from not having the advantage of a devaluing currency when they ran into problems. If they had the Drachma, it would have plummeted in value, thereby making it cheap for exports and tourists, boosting their economy and employment, instead of hammering it as the Euro has.

A single currency shared between independant states can't really work without cross subsidy. If the stronger countries want the advantage of a weaker currency, they have to prop up the weaker countries or else this is what happens. They can't have it both ways.

zerog

I wonder if the EUR 60 limit on Greek card withdrawals also applies for Greeks abroad? There could be quite a few Greeks on holiday or business outside Greece who are stuck and can't use their cards any more..

canterswest

Why does Martin Lewis say it will take 18 months to reintroduce the drachma but the article says 12 months or more?

Martin Lewis says £500 is the average spent by families on holiday - what is the source of this information?

poppy10_2

zerog wrote: »

I wonder if the EUR 60 limit on Greek card withdrawals also applies for Greeks abroad? There could be quite a few Greeks on holiday or business outside Greece who are stuck and can't use their cards any more..

Yes, it does. If you have funds in a Greek bank you can't transfer them out of the country, withdraw them abroad or pay a retailer abroad. Greeks are now not able to buy music on iTunes or Google Play Music, or to make eBay payments with Paypal, as their payment processors are located outside Greece.


http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/06/30/eurozone-greece-ecommerce-idUSL8N0ZG4ZT20150630

Voyager2002

The limit on cash withdrawals could go a long way towards solving the problem... if people have credit and debit cards as well as cheque books but no cash, all transactions will have to go through the books and be visible to the tax man.

Mersey_2

They're only dealing in cash now though, but I take your point long-term.

NFH

poppy10 wrote: »

If you have funds in a Greek bank you can't transfer them out of the country, withdraw them abroad or pay a retailer abroad.

What happens when a Greek resident is staying in a hotel outside Greece and has to settle the bill upon check-out? Upon check-in, many hotels block or reserve an amount on guests' credit cards, which gives them some kind of right to charge the card later upon check-out. I wonder whether this is causing problems and how hotels are handling it.

Nevertheless I don't understand why most Greek residents hadn't moved their euro to accounts outside Greece. It's relatively simple to open personal accounts in other Eurozone countries. Opening business accounts outside the country of incorporation is much more difficult though. Choosing to bank in Greece, whether one is a Greek resident or not, is madness. With SEPA, one can bank anywhere in the Eurozone whereby cross-border transactions cost the same as domestic transactions.