On 1 January 2026, Bulgaria stopped being a country with its own currency and became a member of the euro area. Romania, on the other side of the Danube, did not. Both are EU members; one now shares a currency with Germany and the other does not.
For someone sending money from Britain or Western Europe, that single difference is most of the story. It decides whether there is a currency conversion at the far end, who performs it, and how much room there is for the price to drift.
What Bulgaria’s changeover actually changed
The ECB’s changeover page gives the mechanics. The lev was converted at a fixed rate of BGN 1.95583 to the euro. Euro and lev cash circulated side by side for one month from 1 January 2026, and the euro became the only legal tender on 1 February 2026. Prices were to be shown in both currencies for a year starting 8 August 2025.
Think about what that does to a transfer. Before, a sender in Germany sending euros to a Bulgarian account faced a conversion into leva somewhere along the route, and a UK sender faced a conversion into leva too. Now the Bulgarian end is euros. A transfer in euros from a euro-area account to a Bulgarian euro account involves no currency conversion at all. The only price is whatever fee the banks or provider charge.
For senders in the UK, pounds still have to become something. But the target is now the euro, and there is an extra advantage: any provider with euro accounts in the EU can pay out locally in Bulgaria without a second conversion. You can watch the leg that matters on our GBP to EUR page.
One housekeeping point. The ECB’s changeover page says lev banknotes and coins can still be exchanged for euros at the Bulgarian National Bank without limit and free of charge, at its Sofia head office and at Cash Service Company offices in several cities. Check the central bank’s site for current locations.
Romania: the leu is still a separate leg
Romania joined the EU in 2007 and, per the ECB, does not use the euro. We could not find a firm, official adoption date, and we won’t guess one. What matters for now is that a transfer to Romania has a currency conversion in it, and the question is who does it.
There are three typical paths. A British sender pays pounds, the provider converts into leu, and the family receives leu. A sender with euros sends euros, and either the provider or the receiving bank converts into leu. Or a sender pays in pounds, the money arrives as euros and the Romanian bank converts. The first is usually the most transparent, because the sender sees the leu figure ahead of paying. The last is the one where the number can surprise you, since the receiving bank applies its own rate on arrival.
Our guide to the intermediary bank fee covers the related problem of fees taken in transit. For a general view of the plumbing, see SWIFT, local rails and correspondent banks.
What the survey says it costs
The World Bank’s Remittance Prices Worldwide database covers the United Kingdom to Romania. For the third quarter of 2025 the page shows an average fee of £2.10, an average exchange-rate margin of 1.37% and an average total cost of 3.12%. The page tests £120 and £300 (equivalent to $200 and $500), and the figures here are for the £120 case (£2.10 plus 1.37% of £120 comes to about £3.74, or 3.12%). So read them as indicative of a small transfer. They are survey averages, not quotes, and the database changes each quarter. We could not find a comparable page for the UK to Bulgaria.
A worked example
Say you are sending £120 to Romania. Assume, purely for illustration, a mid-market rate of 5.8 leu to the pound; that is a round number chosen for the arithmetic, not today’s rate. At mid-market the family should receive 696 leu. A 1.37% margin lowers that to about 686.5 leu, which means roughly £1.64 of value has gone in the rate. Add the £2.10 fee and the all-in cost is £3.74, or 3.12%.
| Illustrative £120 to Romania | Amount |
|---|---|
| At mid-market (5.8 assumed) | 696.00 leu |
| After a 1.37% margin | 686.46 leu |
| Value lost in the rate | about £1.64 |
| Fee | £2.10 |
| Total cost | about £3.74 (3.12%) |
Note that the margin is not small next to the fee. In this case it is nearly as large. Compare a provider by the leu amount that arrives, not by the fee on the screen, which is the habit our guide on the mid-market rate teaches. You can look up the real level on GBP to RON or EUR to RON. Rates refreshed hourly.
Western Europe versus the UK
Consider also what has not changed. Romanian and Bulgarian bank accounts are reached by IBAN, the long account number that starts with a country code, and a mistyped character can send a payment to the wrong place or have it rejected. Some banks check the name against the account before releasing a payment and some do not, so do not count on a safety net. Copy, paste, compare, and ask the receiver to read the number back to you from their own banking app.
The gap between a sender in the euro area and one in the UK is now wider than it was. A sender in Italy or Spain sending to a Bulgarian bank pays in euros to an account that holds euros. That is, in effect, a domestic-style transfer with a foreign IBAN. A sender in the UK still has the pound-to-euro step, and the margin in that step is theirs to compare.
To Romania, both senders face a currency leg. The Western European sender’s leg is euros to leu; the UK sender’s is pounds to leu. In both cases the question is the same: how far is the quoted rate from the mid-market one?
If you want the broader picture of a currency that is shared by many countries and managed by an institution none of them controls alone, the euro explained covers it.
How big are these flows?
Modest, relative to the economy. By World Bank figures, personal remittances received were about 2.5% of GDP in Romania and 2.1% in Bulgaria in 2025, against over 20% for several countries in Central America. That has a consequence: these are corridors where people also send money for a house, a car, a relative’s care or a savings account, not only for monthly support. Larger and less regular amounts bring more identity checks and sometimes a request for the purpose of the payment. Have it ready.
Before you send
- Confirm what currency the receiving account holds. A Bulgarian account is now in euros; for a Romanian one, ask which currency it holds.
- Get the amount the receiver will get, in their currency, and compare it with the mid-market rate.
- Ask whether the receiving bank will convert anything, and whether it charges to receive.
- Check the IBAN character by character and the name against the account holder’s ID.
Nothing here predicts where the leu will go, or when Romania might adopt the euro. Those questions do not have confident answers. For large sums or tax, check with your provider or an adviser.
Sources
- European Central Bank: Bulgaria’s changeover to the euro
- European Central Bank: the euro, member states and fixed conversion rates
- World Bank Remittance Prices Worldwide: United Kingdom to Romania
- World Bank indicator: personal remittances received (% of GDP)
Checked: November 2026
