Quincey Forder wrote:

But what would be the exchange rate between the USD and the credit? or the Sterling Pound and the credit? Given the small amound of credit one receives, I would go with the same exchange rate as the Wizarding World's Gaelon from HP One credit (Gaelon) for ten Pounds (20 Euros, 30 USD)

To try to put in context the value of coinage from two different periods of time is very difficult. Try asking historians what the exchange rate between USD and the Spanish gold doubloon is, and you'll get a different answer from all of them. The problem is that goods and services vary in value when you shift time periods. For instance, just comparing now to the 1950s, it is comparatively more expensive to buy gas, and cheaper to buy pre-cooked food. Electronic devices have taken a huge drop in value, but wooden furniture has gone up in value. It's hard to place a direct attachment comparative to the value of the dollar in the context of far older currencies as well; just 300 years prior, firearms and staple foods were very cheap, while foods like beef were considered extravagant products only purchased by the very wealthy (and its value dropped dramatically over the course of maybe half-a-century). This will especially be a problem in the context of Eclipse Phase. Common clothes and food are likely to be anywhere from ridiculously cheap to completely free (they are distributed in nanofab vending machines), while a 1-room apartment on a popular habitat might cost the same amount of credits as a two-story home in USD today. Computers are insignificant in cost, while classic furniture has a huge boost in value. All this might be contextually different from someplace like the Jovian Republic, where common clothes and food aren't nanofabricated, and therefore cost much more.

I agree with previous posts. As a rough rule of thumb, you could assume that "dumb objects" that have no historical value have become (at least) an order of magnitude cheaper, while objects with historical value are at least an order of magnitude more expensive (few survived the fall). Basic services have also become an order of magnitude cheaper (lots of AI). Energy has become cheaper. So my "trick" would be to compare the current price to the average income and multiply/divide it by 10 or 100, to get a sense of how expensive it is. As a rough estimate, that bus trip would cost the equivalent of a cent or penny. Similarly for standard meals - but the restaurant meal made by a real cook will be about as pricey relative to the average wage as today. Getting a new desk or dumb clothes is also at least ten times as cheap, perhaps even more so. Getting a real Earth plywood desk, well that takes at least a month of salary (and a real oak desk, years of salary). The initial 5000 credits might help calibrate. According to this the average brit has £2,205 in savings. The median income is £16,400. So savings are slightly above 10% of the income. Now, if the EP situation is similar, then the median income would be 50,000 credits per year. Of course, savings rates might change. Given the precarious situation, rapid economic growth etc the interest rate could be pretty high.