Advice and budgeting for Paris.

Hi,
Any particular reason why you're not taking a bank card? It is the cheapest way to obtain euros, and it is safer than travelling with hundreds of dollars of cash.
As for shopping... budget is very difficult to estimate, but I would say that in Paris, food is significantly more expensive than in Singapore if you eat out, transportation costs a bit more too, but clothing, home goods, etc. will be more or less the same (perhaps slightly cheaper even? not sure how bad import duties are in Singapore). So if you plan on spending what you would spend at home for the same things plus a 30% buffer, I reckon you'd be fine.

Ah, cause my card has 3 accounts in it, a savings account, deposit account and investment account in it and I really don't want to risk losing it overseas. But thank you for your reply^^

"Which also means I won't have to worry about . . . . travel fares." - You will still need to pay for your transport in Paris (métro and buses).

"money to bring with me for a medium-high budget shopping" - shopping in Paris can be serious money. Are you the sort of person who goes into large shops and buys designer labels and brands? If you are, that can amount to thousands of Euros, serious money is spent by some shopping in Paris. That is not me, I am happy just visiting and buy lunch, which will be ~€10-€30 depending on the restaurant.
So sorry, I cannot give you an amount as it depends on your shopping style.

As far as the method of getting money, the least costly way is using your bank card in a cash machine/ATM/whatever they are called in Singapore; or paying directly with your card. Getting Euros outside Europe or bringing Singapore dollars cash and exchanging in Paris will both cost 5-15% more (different exchange rate).
Make sure you have told your bank you will be using your card in France, they may need to unblock it for foreign use.

If you carry more than €10,000 (or equivalent) across the border it must be declared to Customs or you risk it all being taken away for investigation and possible forfeiture.

You want to spend serious money "medium-high budget shopping during the 2 weeks" but want to do it all in cash? OK. If you are worried about losing a plastic card in Paris, aren't you worried about losing piles of cash?

I have never seen a bank machine in Europe that allowed access to any account other than the primary one associated with the card account. What happens if you need to pay for a large medical bill, or buy a new plane ticket back home, or a fine for not having the right bus ticket? Take the card. Call your bank and maybe they can put a hold on the other accounts if that gives you peace of mind.

Stan makes some good points. Better to have it with you and not need it than need it and not have it. So far as physical safety is concerned, keep it in a money belt unless it is needed. If you're not familiar with how to wear the money belt let us know and we'll advise. As Stan mentioned, talk to the bank and see about "locking" the accounts other than the primary one.

My family and I (husband, me, and kid) have just gone there, and we stayed with my husband's cousin. We were only there for the weekend (Friday to Monday morning) and we got 200 Euros. It wasn't definitely enough. We only withdrew that much for places we did not feel comfortable paying in card or for those places where we'd only pay a small amount (avoiding too many fees).

If your cousin and friends are planning to drive, just like what we did, there is a LOT of toll fees to pay! You might want to share with that. Our cousin though just paid with card every single time, and she didn't really want us to use our card (nor pay for any of them) because of the many transaction fees we might acquire. We only paid once because the card she was using to pay for the toll was still in her purse, so I quickly handed her my card. It was around 3-4 Euros.

You might want to share with buying breakfast from the bakery. I'm not sure how much they are, but you might want to budget for that.

For souvenirs, the peddlers at the Eiffel Tower sell 5 key chains for 1 Euro, which is definitely VERY cheap. But of course, it didn't look as great as you might expect it to be, but it's good enough. For example, my kid just wants to give them to her close friends.

Use the toilets at every establishment before leaving because you have to pay for some public toilets. Also, be careful with cafes around tourist attractions. You have to make sure you get a menu to check the prices rather than relying on the server offering you drinks or specials that would be worth 15 to 30 Euros after!

Hope this helps and enjoy!

You wrote:
"I will also be hanging with my cousin's friends pretty often any advice on creating a good impression or maintaining good relations?"

Try to learn a little French - at least hello, good-bye, please, thank you, and excuse me. When you enter a shop greet the person behind the counter (Bonjour Madame, bonjour Monsieur). And when you leave say good-bye to them.

If you take an ATM card, your bank's insurance covers any withdrawals made if it is stolen (at least in the U.S.). So you are only risking the nuisance of having a replacement shipped to you or doing without an emergency backup plan should you lose it. Do you have some other backup plan, perhaps a credit card? Most of us wear a money belt with the emergency card in it under our clothes.

My card has some auto payments connected to it does locking it affects that? I've never done that before as any other country I travelled to I've always brought cash, around 2k sgd for a week converted to local currency. But I don't usually shop for clothes so that's just for food. This Paris trip is sort of a special occasion where I actually want to go on shopping spree, so I just want to gauge money I need to prepare. I said medium-high budget because I tend to buy alot on impulse but I am definitely not a designer goods person. I'll change it to medium budget since I'm not considering designer labels.

And I did learn the elementary basics but maybe because I speak Chinese and Vietnamese, my pronunciation is atrocious, I was worried people would be offended🤣

If you don’t want to bring your current bank card, why not open a new account and get a debit card/bank card just for that account? Then you can deposit however much money into it before you go and not worry about it being linked to other accounts.

I don’t understand why you don’t get a credit card just for travel. It will not affect your other accounts.

Separately, for a debit card, open a new brokerage money market (checking) account and get a debit card. Although linked to your investment accounts if you want, you can set up a separate login, password and pin. This way you can access Euros as needed within the daily limit.

I had no problems in Italy using both. I also had back up credit card and debit cards if I needed them which I didn’t.

I wasn't suggesting you lock your debit card, I meant ask the bank if they can block it from accessing your savings and investment accounts. There are still daily withdrawal limits that apply. Credit cards are a different matter. But I dont see why you would be any more worried about losing your cards abroad than at home.

Honestly speaking, I would admit that I grew up rather sheltered especially in Singapore. I can leave my laptop at a Starbucks table during self study and go to washroom after asking the barista to keep an eye on it for me. That's how safe my nighbourhood is, but I know that its completely different in overseas. But maybe I should just open a new account and card just for travelling. Thanks for the suggestion.

A couple of things.

Is your cousin willing to bail you out of any crisis that might occur? If you take a lot of cash and lose it day one what will happen to the rest of your trip? How will you function?

Take the card. Your bank can do a couple of things to protect you including lowering your daily withdrawal limit so that you would be risking on a few hundred instead of a few thousand.

Yeah after seeing the posts I decided to open a new account and card for travelling. Thank you so much for all the replies^^