Trip to Edinburgh: splitting group expenses
This is the honest guide to planning and settling a group trip to Edinburgh. No invented budgets — just the typical expense profile, the currency, local payment rails, and the steps your group needs to leave the trip without the pending money conversation.
What group trips to Edinburgh look like
Edinburgh: GBP (not euro), long pubs, August festival that doubles all prices. Without per-currency capture, you lose 2-4% on FX without noticing. Revolut is the most useful rail for mixed EU/UK groups.
Typical expense profile in Edinburgh
Typical profile: ~30% accommodation (can spike during festival), ~30% pubs and food, ~10% transport, ~20% castle + Royal Mile + tours, ~10% other. To settle with a Scottish friend, Revolut or GBP→EUR transfer.
Currency and payment rails in Edinburgh (United Kingdom)
Edinburgh uses GBP, not the euro. Without per-expense FX capture, the settlement ends up 2-4% off. Revolut multi-currency or Wise do the capture automatically.
Practical tips for splitting expenses in Edinburgh
Three quick tips for Edinburgh: (1) Agree the payment rail at the start of the trip, not the end — the "do you have Bizum?" conversation is much easier with two beers than with packed bags. (2) Capture each expense at the moment with a receipt photo — TripCount's OCR extracts it in seconds. (3) Try the free calculator before the trip to get familiar with the minimum-transfer math.
How do we automate all this?
TripCount is free, captures the FX rate per expense, computes the minimum-transfer settlement and generates one-tap payout links (Bizum, Revolut, PayPal). No app store. End-to-end encrypted.
Create a free tripFAQ
How much does a group trip to Edinburgh cost?
Depends on the group, the duration and the style, but the typical profile above gives you a ballpark. Rather than budgeting blind, the practice that works is capturing each expense at the moment with receipt OCR and letting the app compute.
What currency does Edinburgh use?
The local currency is GBP, not the euro. To avoid losing on FX spreads, capture the rate at the moment of each expense.
How do I pay a friend back in Edinburgh after the trip?
Depends on the local payment rail — Bizum (Spain), Revolut, PayPal, IBAN. TripCount generates the correct one-tap link per person in your group.
What is the minimum number of transfers to settle the group?
With N people the theoretical maximum is N-1; in practice, a debt-simplification app typically lowers it to 30-40% of pairwise transfers. For 5 people: from 10 potential down to 3-4 real.
Can I budget the trip in advance?
Yes, but the real value of the app is capturing at the moment, not budgeting up front. Pre-trip budgets almost never reflect reality.
Why TripCount and not Splitwise or Tricount?
TripCount is free (no OCR paywall), end-to-end encrypted, supports Bizum natively, and covers more languages. Detailed comparisons at /vs-splitwise and /vs-tricount.