The eleven eurozone members are Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Austria, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Finland and Italy. Even though euro notes and coins will not be available yet, many goods and services across Europe will be quoted in two prices, the old national currency unit and the euro. The grand tour Many banks are offering their customers the facility of doing business in euros, with credit cards, other payment cards in euros, and electronic money transfers. But holiday makers and business travellers should sit up and take notice of the new euro-denominated travellers' cheques. It does not matter whether you are a backpacker or business class passenger, people who move around in the eurozone stand to make savings on currency conversion costs by using euro-denominated travellers' cheques.
Euro cheques are exchangeable directly into any of the currencies in the eurozone.
For example, while a tourist moving around with Deutschmark cheques pays no exchange conversion fee when converting his cheques in Berlin, a conversion fee does apply when converting those cheques to get French francs in Paris. Of course, banks and bureaux de change may still charge their own commission on the transaction. Stability For citizens of the eurozone the stability of exchange rates means an end to worries when to get your holiday money. UK travellers, on the other hand, are still at the mercy of the pound as it fluctuates against the value of the euro and the euro-zone currencies fixed to it. Euro shoppers Shoppers armed with euro cheques are now able to border-hop without changing currencies and incurring extra exchange costs.