ATM card or travel card

I have used ATM cards for years without any problem. There are many ATM sites in large towns and cities.

A prepaid travel card will cost you. Suggest you open an account at a credit union with an ATM card that does not charge the "customary" 3% foreign currency transaction fees and does not charge you for out-of-network withdrawals.

Get an ATM card with a four-digit PIN drawn on your chequing account. Read the fine print to understand what charges for foreign currency withdrawals apply (even if, at home, there are no transaction charges.) Use the card to obtain a large amount of foreign money and then pay cash for your purchases; you may save fees that way. European businesses may not accept ATM/debit cards for purchases. Better still, set up another chequing account at a different bank and get a card from there too, as back-up. Never carry both in the same wallet.

'Travel Cards' are the way that the financial system hoses newbie travelers since Traveler's checks are now obsolete. You will pay much more to get money that way and they are not always accepted. You should have an ATM card for cash withdrawals. We keep ours attached to a small checking account rather than our larger savings accounts. You should also have a credit card that does not charge extra for the money transaction; we have a Capital One which has good benefits and does not charge the extra 2 or 3% above the 1% international transaction fee for changing money. Never use a credit card to get cash however.

On advice from a friend, I purchased a prepaid travel card a few years back. We were traveling to Europe for the first time and I was taking in all kinds of information, but somehow missed that these cards have terrible rates. Anyway, live and learn, and I would never use a travel card again. We ended up using our ATM card, too, and had no problems...much better exchange rates using the ATM.

Is it necessary to have an ATM card with chip technology?

No, it is not necessary to have an ATM card with chip technology.

No. The standard mag strip debit card at an ATM will work just fine. For the original posted - you should carry two different debit cards tied to two different account just in the small chance that one of the cards is disabled. We have used debit cards for 15+ years and (knock on wood) never had one not work. But there have been reports here that sometimes you card goes bad for a variety of reasons. Our principle card is from a credit union that charges 1% and $1 after six withdraws/month. The other card is standard bank issued card charging 3% and $5 per withdraw. Make sure your card is branded either VISA or Mastercard. The debit card will always be the cheapest regardless of the fees charged by your card issuer. The prepaid card always the most expensive.

This is a popular question with lots of recent discussions here.

But, yes, if you are traveling you need an ATM/debit card that has a Visa or MasterCard logo for best results.

Your current bank should be able to issue one to you. There will most likely be fees and those can range up to 5% and $5 per transaction when getting currency outside your home country.

What I, and many others here have done, is get a debit card from Capital One 360 or Charles Schwab. Neither one charges fees for using their ATM cards, you pay no foreign exchange fees, and the conversion rate they use is the best possible for you.

Don't limit yourself to just those two. There are dozens of cards from local credit unions to many on line banks, etc. that have low or no fees for withdrawing foreign currency. Just check around or use the internet. This is a very fluid area.