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Even though Turkey is part of Europe, the dollar is far more used here than the euro. Most high ticket items here are paid in dollars (cars, homes, computers). When i bought my flat, i literally had a duffle bag full of dollars! Many people here, including myself, get paid in dollars from their jobs, not YTL.
There was also a question about transfering money to Turkey. In order to send money to someones bank account here, they have to have two accounts, one for lira and one for dollars. To receive euro, you would need to have a euro account also. Once the money is transfered, you have to tell the bank to convert it and transfer it into your YTL account. The lira flucuates so much, it is safer to keep the money as dollars until you need it, and then convert to lira. Otherwise, you can easily lose 10% of its value in a bad week.
Finally, of course places will accept dollars and euros equally. Most tourists here are european and bring euro. Most will convert their euro to lira but not euro to dollar. So if they pay for some things in euro, the restaurant or shop makes even more money than they already make on unfavorable exchange rates.
So my advise to anyone coming here is to only convert a small amount of money to YTL at the airport when you get here. Then, only exchange small amounts on your trip. Wherever you are traveling, be aware where a doviz is so that you know where to exchange money quickly when you need to.
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