bucurilie3603

With booking.com I had it. I was promised by the hotel and when got there my card was billed. I have a Romanian pension of about $4000.00 and they add up in my bank account.
I want to pay locally. in their money.. How do I do that?
please let me know.
thanks
vg

KTtravel

I don't quite understand your question. You can pay using a credit card or debit card linked to your pension account. If you prefer to pay cash, you could use a debit card attached to your pension account and withdraw money from a local ATM. There may be a limit to the amount you can withdraw each day so you might need to make multiple withdrawals. You might check to see if the hotel accepts cash as many institutions are moving towards non-cash payment.

bucurilie3603

Thanks for the fast reply. I don't have a credit-debit card from my Romanian bank. I had one but was cancelled for lack of use.
I travel once a year or so in that part of the world.
Thanks again.
vg

Traveler_Nick

booking.com isn't the one setting payment options usually. I guess some hotels might offer US$/€ prices but in most of Europe the hotels offer local currency by default.

Look at the top of the booking.com page. Middle of the page you'll see your default currency. That's NOT what you're paying in. It's just a guide so travelers don't have to mentally convert . In addition the price you see in US$ or whatever is only the conversion at that moment in time. If you book a room for next June the exchange rate is almost certainly going to be different.

Heimdall

You might want to check if you can get your credit/debit card reinstated. That happened to me once with a secondary account I opened as a backup for travel, and hadn’t used the debit card for several months. I don’t know the procedures in Romania, but when I contacted the bank they issued a new card. Lesson learned was to use the card from time to time to keep it active.

hetismij2

If you don't have a debit card how do you get at your money? I imagine $4000 is a pretty good pension in Romania, even here in the Netherlands that's an average pension, post tax
I still don't entirely understand your problem. The hotel will charge you in it's local currency, your bank will then debit your account in Leu, and probably charge a small conversion/handling fee. That is perfectly normal. The exchange rate will depend on not only the day of the transaction but the hour too quite often.
Booking.com offers you the choice of seeing prices in your local currency or any other one for that matter, including the local currency of the place you are looking at. The local currency price is fixed, the conversion to Leu, or euro or dollars or whatever is variable and just gives you an idea of the price in your own currency.
Having a credit card is very useful, and I am sure you could use it more often so the bank doesn't cancel it - order something online, or pay for fuel with it occasionally. Just be sure to pay it off every month so you don't pay interest.

Melnq8

I don't understand the question either.

We always pay in local currency, but with a credit card. Are you asking if you can pay in cash, or are you asking if you can be charged in local currency instead of your home country currency? Either way, you will need a credit or debit card (and yes, you should always pay in local currency to avoid dynamic currency conversion) .

bucurilie3603

Thanks to all of you for your responses and hints. My pension goes there from my French legion days. I have a few citizenships from the same period and currently leaving in US.
I own a property in Romania and used to visit more often. As stated, I visit once in a while, but I have family and a granddaughter in London. The money is for them more than me. (old)
Every time I try to use some of these money for the local expenses. This time I called a few places and finally this hotel agreed to be paid there in their currencies. After all is November.
Thanks again as I find this place very helpful about travel.

Michael

Just go to the local branch of the Romania bank once in Romania and withdraw the cash. For the future, why not transfer the Romanian money to an active account? That way you could use your debit card to get cash. I found Wise.com to be the cheapest way to transfer money internationally.

https://wise.com/us/