Understanding the Euro's value

The problem for any traveller from the UK in large tracts of Europe is that the Euro isn't ... well, it isn't the Pound. And we should be very thankful for that. Particularly, we should thank Gordon Brown who kept us out of the Euro, despite pressure from that nice Mr Blair and others to get us in there. How Brown must now look back with satisfaction at the battle won!


So, when we use the Euro in Portugal, for example, we are using a currency that is pegged to match the combined values of all the member economies that support it., That's everything from the wealthy Germany to the frankly poor and ravaged Greeks. Portugal and Spain are not far behind of course, but they all maintain the value of their currency because it is a shared value that is a common denominator. Therein lies its problem. In an open market, the German Mark, as it was, would trounce the Greek Drachma, simply because the economy that supports each currency exhibits the strength or otherwise of itself through its currency.

At the time of writing, the Euro is at about 74p against Sterling. That means that one Euro buys about a pounds worth of value, but only costs you 75p. Isn't that great? Add to that, that life is generally cheaper in Portugal and you'll see why so many people flock here to live from the UK. To give a real life example, in the local bar (Godot in Praia da Luz - good music; slightly elderly clientele including the author, open mic on a Thursday and Karaoke on a Saturday), in that bar, a glass of wine - fairly generous, costs €2. A pint of San Miguel (why the hell are they selling Spanish beer?!) is €2.50 - a total of €4.50 for a round for 'erself and me. That in sterling is around £3.35 by my calculations - you wouldn't get a pint in most pubs in the UK for that.

The same applies to everything - a gent's haircut in a nice hairdressers for €10 - about £7.50; bottles of wine for anything from €2 upwards: €7 will get you a cracking bottle.

So, how do you know how much it costs you, unless you are already a maths whizz (which I'm not)? Quite simple. Take the price in Euros. Divide by four and multiply by three. This works while the Euro is currently around £0.75.

The other handy thing that we Brits can do is watch the value of the Euro against the pound and then buy them when the rate is good (for us). Worth doing speculatively, if you have hols coming up. The more this value differential stays in place, the better value everything is for all of us in Blighty.

And don't forget that you don't need to tote loads of Euros with you across the Channel. All the cash machines will ship Euros to you and offer you the option of having the transaction debit in Sterling from your account. You can check the rate they're using and see whether that is better than your bank would give you if it received a Euro debit.

All in all, Euros? What's not to like?