AS if foreign holidays were not stressful enough, you have to buy the relevant currency, devise and memorise an equation to prevent you tipping the waiter #50 instead of 50p, and then calculate your spending so that you have just enough left to buy the duty-free for the return flight.

You forget to allow for the Cokes and frothy coffees at exorbitant airport prices during the subsequent two-hour delay, convert some more money and stumble off the plane in Scotland with pockets full of small coins that no-one will change for you.

From January none of that will alter, except that the currency could well be euros. Could be, because during the three-year transitional period the 11 countries which join Emu will still have their own currencies alongside euros, although with a permanent fixed exchange rate between them.

But it does mean that if you remember to come back with only euros instead of the national coins and banknotes, you will have money that you are more likely to use again quickly. And instead of stuffing the unused euros under the socks until next year's holiday, you should be able to open a euro bank account to keep them in.

Should be, because the availability of euro bank accounts to private customers in the UK will depend on demand. There will be accounts for companies, many of who will pay and be paid on contracts in euros even before the UK joins Emu.

A special Government standing committee, which includes the Chancellor, Gordon Brown, and Governor of the Bank of England Eddie George last month committed Government departments to assisting companies to use the euro from next year.

The UK is obliged to help the euro to stabilise exchange rates, and there will be pressure for us to use it as soon as possible as a settlement currency, particularly for large business transactions. British-based executives working for Continental-owned companies could also be paid their salaries in euros.

Banks in the 11 joining countries will almost certainly offer euro accounts from January, and the Bank of Ireland is to make statements of account available in both Irish punts and euros.

So if you can't find a euro account at home, you could always open one abroad. However, its value to you will depend on how convenient it is to make transactions.

Because interest rates on the Continent are lower, the returns on any money you put into the account will be less than sterling accounts will offer, so you will have to balance the difference in interest against the cost of converting euros back to pounds.

The effect of convergence, though, is expected to mean a lowering of British interest rates to Continental levels, over time, especially as the Government is committed in principle to joining Emu early in the next Parliament.

Borrowers will eventually benefit, of course, and mortgage rates are also expected to fall as competition increases. In the two years leading up to Emu, house prices in Dublin rose 30% a year as interest rates fell.

Taking out a euro-denominated loan is likely to be up to 3% cheaper than borrowing in sterling. Until the UK joins Emu, though, you would be borrowing in a foreign currency and there will be the risk of exchange rate fluctuations.

If the pound rose against the euro, the size of your loan in sterling terms would decrease. But the pound is expected to start falling, so your debt would become greater. Even those who are paid in euros would be vulnerable because a house here would still be a sterling asset.

In short, it might be worth putting a little money into euros for convenience but not trusting major assets to it. Quite simply, you can't join Emu on your own, you have to wait for the rest of us.