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ONLY RON IS VALID The currency in Romania is called LEI or by official code RON. The ambition is to introduce EURO in the year 2014. In 2006 Romania changed her currency from ROL to RON. They dropped the three last zeros in the currency and introduced new notes. Still however people tend to use old currency amounts when talking and it is at least confusing. Also some online calculators use old ROL as an alternative though this is by all means outdated. Some business have contracts in old currency and this may be the reason. However, as a tourist stick to the only valid code which is RON. All products and services in Romania are paid in RON. Price indications are sometimes indicated in EURO and then converted to the Romanian currency by the rate valid that day. EXCHANGE Changing money is easily done by using one of the ATMs now found all over the country. When cashing money from ATM, please have a look at your back and keep anyone else in line at a distance. If card is blocked or eaten by the machine, do not accept help from anyone private nearby, but call your bank immediately and bar the account and the card. If you change money at en EXCHANGE OFFICE you should carefully check the rates and the commission charge. They differ a lot. By law all rates should be listed clearly outside or inside the exchange office. All exchange offices at Romanians airports charge too much or have low rates. Euro and dollar notes are most common, but any other European currency is possible to change in most of the offices. Romanian bank notes may be exchanged when leaving the country at airports, but then only to euro and sometimes usd. As a foreigner you always have to flash an id when exchanging money in Romania. Banks tend to accept passports only. Travel cheques are not common in Romania. Practically impossible to use. USE OF CREDIT CARDS ELSEWHERE Use of VISA or MASTERCARD in restaurants should be avoided as fraud may happen, or at least the charge may be undecently high. In the big supermarkets and malls credit cards can be used like in any other country. BAD HABITS When introducing the new RON notes in 2006, along came a lot of coins in BAN, mostly 10 ban and 50 ban coins. Small enterprises seem to never possess change or coins and try to push the responsability for this over to the client. " Do you have change? We have not " - is a quite common expression. Sometimes they give you chewing gums or a small chocolate in stead of coins. One should never accept this really, - a small protest may teach them how to run a business, but usually they do not care. The solution is to carry a few coins in your pocket. Travelling locally on a bus is another challenge when it comes to paying. Ensure that you have notes in small amounts otherwise you may face discussions or delays in getting money back. Or not at all if the staff is really rude. Then make a scene to teach them how to do their job regardless how small the change is.
GONE SHOPPING Shopping in Romania can be a great bargain. Especially if you are looking for clothes, shoes, bags, leather, belts, caps and toys. The differences in prices are huge, and the basic key is WHERE you are shopping. Shops in popular tourist resorts like Mamaia are generally extremely overpriced compared with other smaller resorts and it has nothing to do with label or quality. It is mostly the same. Romania has now also a set of malls and chains and prices here are like in the rest of Europe. Bargains in these malls are based on offers, like anywhere else. If you are looking for international labels, Romania is not cheap. Howver, if you do not care if your clothes are made in Turkey or China, you may find exactly what you are looking for - at give away prices. Romanian shoes and sportsware are also cheap and of quality. Gold, silver, crystal and handcraft art may also be interesting to a tourist, also wooden chess games. Going to a tailor is still cheap compared to Western Europe, but they are more hard to find than before. Glasses are cheap, including the service of an optician. Sunglasses are found everywhere during summer - and dead cheap - but also a lot of bad quality. The markets or more correctly the fleamarkets are the places to go for shopping. Every town and city in Romania has a fleamarket or more. The biggest one in Eastern Europe is situated in Bucharest and is called " Europa ". It is actually an en-gros-market, but parts of it are open to anyone. In Romania it is not common to bargain, prices are fix and people are not pushy when selling. Food markets are also common in each town. You just ask for the " piata " MALLS The main general malls in Romania are
In addition there are local malls, like in Constanta CITY PARK MALL and TOMIS MALL. For an indication of prices you may check the links above or below. Offers are often issued like pdfs online. Electronic store chains in Romania are
and others. Also special online store like www.emag.ro Online bargain search can be done on www.shopmania.ro
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