I don’t think you can buy anything with Euros in Romania. (Officially, the plural is Euro in English. But that just sounds wrong and confusing, so I’m saying Euro for the name of the currency, but Euros for when you might say dollars, pounds, marks, francs, etc.)
Can you buy anything with Euro, or Euros, in Romania? Okay, you can go to the money exchange, and buy Lei with Euros, but you cannot buy a pet dog, a bus ticket, a bucket of popcorn, a seat at the theatre, entrance to a museum, a book, a covrig, a plate of traditionally cooked mushrooms, a packet of mici, a toothbrush, or anything else in Romania with Euros. (Well, you can buy things online from non-Romanian companies, but hey, in that case, Americans and Frenchmen can buy things with Lei!)
But you do sometimes see things priced in euros. Accounting services, house rental, office rental, legal services… a lot of high price items are listed as if you could pay with the Euro currency. But no! When it comes time to pay, they charge you in Romanian New Lei (Ron). Look at your invoices, if you paid by credit card.
While the Euro is the most common currency in the European Union, only Ron (Romanian New Lei, to distinguish it from Moldovan Lei and Older incarnations of Romanian Lei) is legal tender in Romania. You’ll see the exchange rates all over the place, every newspaper lists what a Euro is worth in Ron, because you might pay the rent with Euros, or your relatives abroad might be working in the Eurozone. But, you’ll buy the newspaper with Lei. There is no Euro price tag on any Romanian newspaper that I’ve seen.
Why do the expensive things list their prices in Euros, then? Well, maybe they are preparing for the eventual switchover. If you have a long term rental contract, it could go on to 2027, 2028 or beyond. Bulgaria recently changed to the Euro. Most of Europe, from Cyprus to Greece to Estonia to Ireland to Portugal to Malta, uses the Euro. Switzerland doesn’t because it’s not part of the European Union, the microstates don’t really count, Denmark doesn’t because it opted out, and Sweden, Romania, Hungary, Poland, and Czechia haven’t yet met the requirements.
Eventually, even Sweden, Poland, Czechia, Hungary and Romania are supposed to join the Euro zone. That is the plan. But until then, you don’t use the Euro here. You might use Euros in conversation, as people will go to holiday in Greece or Belgium, have family who work in Italy or Spain, and even have long-term contracts that mention prices that are theoretically in “Euro,” but as long as you are in Romania and do business with Romanians, your bank account and all the activity in it will be in Lei.
Now, you can get an account in Euros or Dollars, which you can use to invest, to transfer money, or even to do business abroad. But when you collect interest in your investment, the bank should tell you the equivalent in Lei, so you can pay the correct taxes.
The fact is, most people who speak English in Romania, Sweden, Poland, Hungary or Czechia know the Euro’s relative value. They may be preparing for the future, or may travel outside their home country. They might even list the Euro equivalent for prices.
But, they won’t normally accept payment in those currencies. Some language schools or law firms might, if their customers are all abroad, but it will make accounting more difficult. So, expect to pay a premium if you use one of the few companies that accept euro.
Now, why don’t I use pounds or dollars when I am talking about other countries? Euro is kind of the “moneda franca” of Europe. Everyone here understands how much a Euro is. Not everyone knows the value of the dollar, or the pound, or the rubble, or the yuan, or the rand. I’m sure people from those countries know it, but it’s like speaking a local language. The Euro is the common currency of Europe, even if some countries don’t accept it.
If we were in North America, we might use the US dollar because Mexicans and Canadians would know how much that is worth. If we were in Asia, it would be difficult to pick a currency. Maybe the Saudi currency in the middle East, and the Indian currency in South Asia, but in South East Asia?
But yeah, we’re in Europe, so let’s use the Euro. (But until the theoretical switchover, please pay me in Ron.)