The Art Of Tipping In Forints
...it's not as easy as it sounds.
I'm working in this coffee shop for 6 hours using their internet; and it has me wondering, how do I tip in Hungary?
Right now, most of Europe uses Euros, which is completely different than the US Dollar that I'm used to. The exchange rate is basically the same between currencies which makes it easy to understand what something is worth.
Currency as of Feb. 2, 2016
Step 1: Understand the Currency Conversion.
Now, I’ve always known that there were some interesting types of currency out there, but I'd never heard of Forints until my husband kindly explained it to me. It's definitely a doozy.
Right now, every 290 Forints equals $1, so that means you better practice multiplying things by 3. Uh-huh…. I round up like it's nobody's business.
Currency as of Feb. 2, 2016
I can remember one of my first experiences with the forints. My Husband and I got out of a cab and the cab driver yelled out that the ride would be 2,873 Forints. I quickly snapped back at the cab driver and asked, "How many thousands?!"
My husband quickly sushed me and said, "Babe, it's like $10 dollars."
I was like… it better be. Seriously, we were only in the car for 5 minutes! That was my first wake up call with the interesting currency conversion with forints.
Step 2: Europe Tipping Standards = 10%.
Now that I am a resident of Hungary, how should I tip? Every time I tipped, the servers got supper happy. Like, really, really happy. And not that I want to be cheap, but I don’t want to be taken for the little bit of money I make.
I decided to reach out to one of my closest in-laws from Budapest. She told me that in Hungary, a 10% tip is considered very, very good. She even told me that her dad would always tip 20% like an American, even though it would make her mom angry.
My Husband's Hungarian family!
Look at this guy, he’s too cool for school, you know he’s a good tipper.
But I digress. I’m not that cool and it’s hard to break habits of tipping the American way. But since I'm not making American wages, I won't be tipping 20% anymore. For now I can meet in the middle and tip 15% depending on the service. But that’s just me.
There is an art to tipping in every country, and you just have to find what works best for you and your conscience. For me, I'm not cheap, and what goes around comes around, so I can sleep at night with tipping 15%.
So the standard is %10, but the cousin I called also said at times nothing is fine too?! Oh hell...now I'm really curious. How do you tip in Budapest?
#BGIB
