💶 Essentials
Money, cards and paying in euros
Austria uses the euro and cards work almost everywhere. The one expensive mistake is letting a machine charge you in your own currency.
The currency
Austria is in the eurozone. Prices are in euros, and a visitor paying from a lei, dollar, pound or forint account should think in euros while here and convert afterwards. Every price the site quotes, with the day it was checked, is on what it costs, together with a live converter.
Cards
Credit and debit cards are accepted almost everywhere — hotels, restaurants, museums, ticket machines, taxis. Some small shops set a card minimum. Carry a little cash for a Christmas-market mug deposit, a traditional Heuriger or a sausage stand.
The one thing to get right
When a card terminal or cash machine offers to charge you in your own currency, decline and choose euros. That is *dynamic currency conversion*: the rate is set by the machine's operator, not your bank, and it is the worst one on offer. On a week of hotel, palaces and concerts the difference is real money.
Cash machines
Cash machines are called Bankomat and are everywhere. Prefer machines that belong to a bank, and use banks rather than exchange booths if you must change cash.
