Thursday, July 21, 2016

Money, Money, Money

The Good News

Virtually every established business in Iceland takes credit cards. This influenced our decision not to immediately exchange our US dollars (USD) for Icelandic Krona (ISK).

Servers and bartenders bring card machines right to you - so there's little wait when paying.

The Bad News

It's easy to overspend while using plastic. It's also easy to forget about exchange rates and the true price of goods and services. However, there is some more good news.

More Good News

Download a currency converter app on your phone and forget about trying to do the math. I downloaded a free app called Easy Currency Converter which worked well. I imagine they are all pretty much the same.

Easy Currency Converter
This Needs to be Said Because...

While at a cafe, we overhead some fellow tourists talking about how much money they had exchanged. The lady said she'd gotten 10,000 ISK and was hoping that would be enough. Her friend said he had gotten 500,000 ISK "to be safe" but wasn't quite sure how much that was. 

Must be funny...
At this point, Mike and I looked at each other with worrisome expressions. Mike politely inserted himself in the conversation by saying, "1,000 krona is about eight US dollars." To which the man incorrectly echoed, "Eighty?" Mike: "EIGHT". Man: "Oh..."

Moral of the story: Google stuff before you ask for a half mil in some other country. Or just spend that half mil on a couple Icelandic sweaters and some Blue Lagoon lotion (that is about the going rate for those items).