Hopefully inflation is coming to an end.

I just read an article in Novinite about this: https://www.novinite.com/articles/22401 … urozone%3F

The only changes discussed there were dropping fees for higher education and reducing mobile phone charges. It will be interesting to see what else happens.

@janemulberry

I think you may have missed the biggest earner - a 20% reduction in the cost of firewood.....just when Brussels is trying to reduce the use of solid fuel.

Unfortunately the "Harvard Idiots" currently trying to run this country haven't yet worked out how the universities and colleges which will be losing the income from student fees are going to make up the shortfall; I imagine that bringing back the old system of requiring all new graduates to work in Bulgaria for five years in order for the state to recuperate the cost of their free education before being permitted to take their "skills" abroad for their own benefit won't appeal much to today's spoilt generation.

Universities here are already badly under-funded and putting them under more financial pressure is pure lunacy. There's also the unfortunate fact that prices in every country that has joined the Eurozone so far have rocketed immediately; the theory that it won't happen here because of the existing Lev-Euro tie is wishful thinking, in my view. I don't imagine that will be an easy sale to the old folks on their miserable BG pensions....

@janemulberry did you clock the pound?  it went up and staid up this time. Time to buy some Levs me thinks?

@JimJ I was reading up on the euro jimj. Turns out the only place with a setup like here was Latvia. Prices over there didn't go through the roof when they switched. Muggins here wont be losing sleep over it.

All the other Euro countries did not have the same setup. Latvia is the only example far as I can tell?

@JimJ

Agreed on the university fees being perhaps short-sighted.  A lot of these things will be temporary, I suspect, just to manipulate the figures to reach the target, then once it goes through, up the prices go again.

We've just seen it here in the UK. Government promises inflation will halve. Government directs Ofgem to cap electricity and gas prices lower. Inflation drops due to lower energy costs. As soon as those lower inflation figures were published, up go the energy prices again!

Yes, I'm very glad we won't be trying to survive on a Bulgarian pension. It seems likely the cost of living will rise more than hoped.

@mickeyhart

LOL, right now I have far more money in BGN than in GBP, so I don't need to change more. I watch the rates and transfer currency between accounts when the rates look favourable. I always have mixed feelings when I see the GBP stronger, because a significant chunk of my income is paid in USD and usually when it's stronger against the EUR it's also stronger against the USD.

@janemulberry Youre right janemulberry, took a little reccy at the dollar there. Are you using Revolut? Been dragging my heels to get mine sorted but finally got round to it. The rates on there are nearly as sharp as Tavex. Think thats me sorted when we go cashless.

I use Wise. I get paid directly into my Wise USD account then convert the dollars to GBP or BGN  when the rates are good enough. Setting up an auto-conversion makes that easy. Other cards may offer slightly better rates, I'm not sure as I haven't really looked at Revolut or any of the others. But for the amounts I'm dealing with -- far from high finance! -- Wise works well enough for me.

If I want a wodge of leva in cash to take with me for paying builders, the local builders' merchant which only take cash payments, and other cash-only stuff, Travel FX seem to offer good rates.

@janemulberry Have a reccy at tavex.bg if them builders need it cash. If youre changing a decent amount you get a better rate than whats on the board.

Just for your considerations, l use TorEx in the UK to transfer my UK pensions into my US bank & they have great exchange rates & are very efficient.