Understanding Their Currency

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When I travel to another country, one of the most confusing aspects for me is understanding their currency. Although most vendors are friendly and understanding, I have had more than one store clerk get very irritated that I didn't know their currency quick enough.

A good way to learn it is to do a search on Google Images, Yahoo! Images, or Bing Images for that currency and learn what it looks like. You can also do a search on the history and philosophy of it's design. That may sound like too much information, but it can actually be pretty interesting and will most likely help you in recognizing the value. For example a lot of countries use size to denote denomination, or the color of the bill can tell you quickly which denomination it is. Knowing this little bit of trivia can help when you are scrambling to find the right amounts. Another good option is to convert some currency before you go and practice pulling out the correct amount and knowing how much that converts to in dollars.

Knowing What You are Paying
There are a few ways of quickly knowing what you are paying for something; Yahoo Finance offers a great little pocket sized card for the currency you would like to convert to. Go to http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/currencies/converter/ and put in the conversions that you would like to make, for example, US dollar to British Pound. Directly under the conversion is a pocket guide. Click on the "Print full guide" link to open up your pocket sized guide and print it out. It's wonderful. I love it.

 

The second option is to download the XE App.  If you will have data service where you are going, it's a quick and easy way to convert one currency to another.  You will need data service or wifi for it to work though.  

Last option is the good old rounding option. Use either of the two options above to determine the conversion rate of the two currencies. Then just figure out the closest number to round to. For example, if one Euro is equal to $1.27 US, then that means everything is about 25% more than the price quoted in Euros if you round it. If you had something that cost 10 Euros, then that would actually be $12.50 in US dollars, (25% more). Keep in mind that in a lot of countries, tax is included in with the price posted so the amount you see is the amount you will be paying.