Spreading your wings with the EURO

UK based currency card provider Caxton FX provides an efficient and reliable solution to overseas business travel expenses. Its prepaid currency card system is available in both Dollars and Euros – while the American Dollar has long been recognised as a far reaching currency, used on a variety of continents, there is a common misconception that the Euro’s status as principal currency is limited to EU member states. Here are some of the locations in which the Euro is accepted as currency – some you would expect, and some a little more surprising.

15 years ago it would have been hard to imagine visiting Spain without parting with some Pesetas, or spending Marks in Munich, yet a number of well-known currencies very quickly became a thing of the past in early 2002 and that first wave of EU member states to adopt the Euro have rarely looked back. Austria, Belgium, Germany, Spain, Finland, France, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Portugal were the Euro pioneers, along with Monaco, San Marino and Vatican City.

Greece followed a little bit later, and since then more countries have trickled on board over the years – namely Cyprus, Estonia, Latvia, Malta, Slovenia, Slovakia and most recently Lithuania. Andorra has also adopted the euro in recent years, joining its fellow European microstates.

Outside of the EU, three “overseas collectivities” of France and a UK dependent territory have the Euro as their currency. Akrotiri and Dhekelia replaced the Cypriot Pound at the same time as Cyprus, while Saint Pierre and Miquelon, French Southern and Antarctic Lands and Saint-Barthelemy all followed France’s lead.

After the breakup of Yugoslavia, Kosovo and Montenegro had started using the German Mark as their currency, and therefore they too moved over to the Euro. Meanwhile many countries far beyond the shores of Europe have their currencies pegged against the Euro – Cameroon, Ivory Coast and Morocco to name a few. And in 1998 Cuba announced that it would replace the American Dollar with the Euro as its official currency for the purposes of international trading, with North Korea and Syria taking similar steps since the turn of the millennium.

While places like Akrotiri and Dhekelia and Saint-Barthelemy might not be well known stops on the business travel circuit, it is reassuring to know that should you find yourself there a Euro-loaded travel moneycard will serve you without issue.