The currency of Hungary is reaching its one year high but there is still some way to go. Government is planning to sell more bonds next week and most likely this will make forint again stronger but I wonder whether it will be allowed to go much further. But the competing countries like Poland, Slovakia and Czech have also their currency getting stronger so I guess Forint will follow. The situation in case of foreign product prices is still better for ordinary hungarian than it was in summer and autumn.

When thinking about working abroad you have to think about opening a bank account. Transferring money between two countries is both time and money consuming so local account is usually smart choice. Of course this depend whether you work with local work contract or contract made in home country. If you are working only short time in a country which currency is volatile it might be wise to try to get at least of the salary in different currency, preferably in your home currency. This way you can reduce your risk of loss (or win) in case of exchange rates change rapidly.

But back to choosing a bank. I came up a short list:

• 1. Is their WWW-site is in language you understand?
• 2. Can rates and costs be found from WWW-site?
• 3. If that bank has their own ATMs, check how common they are and how much you have to pay if you use competitors ATM.
• 4. Take a look at their online banking, check if they have demo or try-out login.
• 5. Do they use simple login/password authentication, password lists or more sophisticated way?
• 6. Is there a local branch nearby you?
• 7. Visit that branch and figure out whether staff is able to communicate with you.
• 8. Ask second opinion from local people.