Credit- or debit-card holders will find ATMs installed outside virtually every bank and operating 24 hours; they accept Maestro, MasterCard, Visa, Diners Club, American Express, and other cards. Before withdrawing money from an ATM, find out the rate of commission charged by the bank for the service.

In towns and large tourist resorts there are no problems with finding a bank for changing or withdrawing money. The most frequently encountered are branches of large banks: Slovenská sporitel’ňa , VÚB , Tatra Banka  and OTP . Slovak banks are generally open from 8am to 5pm (the smaller the town, the earlier the closing time). Sometimes they close for an hour for lunch.

Travellers’ cheques issued by Thomas Cook, American Express and Visa are accepted at branches of VÚB, Tatra Banka, Slovenská sporitel’ňa, and in selected bureaus de change. Their commission is usually about 1 per cent of the cheque’s face value; the lowest commissions are charged on US dollar and pound sterling cheques.

Credit cards are accepted at petrol stations, larger shops and some hotels. The number of places in Slovakia that accept “plastic money” is growing all the time, however, as with the Czech Republic, in the provinces many small shops do not accept credit cards, so it is always advisable to carry some cash.

Sixteen member states of the EU have now replaced their traditional currencies with a single European currency, the euro. Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain have all chosen to join the new currency; the UK, Denmark and Sweden have stayed out. The euro was introduced in Slovakia on 1 January 2009, with notes and coins coming into circulation. A very short transition period of only two weeks allowed euros and the Slovak koruna to be used simultaneously. All euro notes and coins can be used anywhere inside the participating member states.