France buying Euros

Whole recent thread about this very thing :-)

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/france/cash-or-atm

Have a great time!

Typically, the most expensive way to obtain euros is from your home town bank. For most people, bank ATMs in France offer the low cost way to obtain euros.

There is an HSBC ATM at CDG opposite the Sheraton hotel in terminal 2. The remaining ATMs at CDG are operated by Travelex, which is not a bank. Travelex charges a 3€ access fee to use their ATMs.

Lorie, your bank msy not have a separate service charge for providing euros, but you can be 100% sure it will use an exchange rate that is disadvantageous to you when calculating the cost of those euros. Ask them how much 100 euros will cost. Compare that number to what the internet reports when you Google something like: convert 100 eur to usd.

It may still be worth it to you to land with some euros in your pocket, but I'd just get a modest amount (50 or 100 euros in most circumstances).

There is a thread on this general topic going on right now. See https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/france/cash-or-atm
Even if your bank says there is no charge, they are usually charging a fee by giving you a poor exchange rate. That being said, there are two schools of thought on this. One group says it's fine to land without any local currency and you can then get cash from an ATM at the airport. Some people in that school carry a couple of hundred USD in cash with them just in case. I having, landed in Spain (I know it's not France) as one example, only to find a network outage that had all ATMs in the airport not working now always arrive with enough euros to get me to my hotel and then for the remainder of the trip get cash as needed from ATMs. I usually have euros leftover from a prior trip but if I do not, I get some from the Travelex at SFO before departing and yes I know that I end up paying a higher exchange rate but for 100€ that amounts to about 7$ more and peace of mind is worth $7 to me.

I once landed in Salzburg and the ATMs were down and so the only source of local money was the hideously badly priced exchange booth. I always travel with a few hundred Euros left over from the previous trip but if it were my first trip I would get 100 Euros in small bills from my bank (don't let them stick you with a 100E bill or absolutely don't accept 500s which cannot be spent.). It is worth the slight hit to have the peace of mind of knowing you have money to get incidentals until lyou get to the ATM.

Ok thank you fellow travelers.... I will purchase 100 euros at home and rely on my sources on site.

Best regards,
Lorie

The worst I ever suffered for not having euros ahead of time was taking a Baltic cruise. ATM's don't dot the ports like they do airports or train stations. Sometimes I had to walk awhile before I spotted a bank. It really wasn't that bad. I could have purchased local currency on the ship, but it would have been mostly a waste of money.

Today I'd say the worst thing is to wait until you're in Europe, then use an exchange machine disguised as an ATM. You end up paying the price anyway. Make sure the machine you're using is related to a bank (some version of bank, banc, banco in the title) rather than an exchange company (look for "ex" in the name, or lately "euronet").

Your bank in the US may have a “partner” bank in Paris- so ask them- there are many banks and atms throughout the City where you can get euros- try to use a card like Capital One that has no foreign transaction fees. I usually get 1-200 euro at my bank- and then get euros in the City after I arrive. Most places accept credit cards- so I try to use both. Paris is amazing/ enjoy your trip.

While on this board people are quick to say "Use an ATM, it is cheapest" one critical question for the OP is what bank do you use?

I mention it because when people typically say they can get euros "at no charge", they then indicate they use one of the big banks like Wells Fargo, US Bank, or the like. In their case then, getting euros at home can be as cheap as using an ATM there due to ATM charges (both Foreign Transaction Fees and Out of Network use fees). I still would not get thousands of euros at home, maybe 500 as opposed to 100, then suggest using a no fee credit card (if you have one) for nearly everything.

True, experienced frequent travelers have made the effort to find no-fee ATM and Credit Cards (I travel with two debit cards, no fees, one has a high daily limit; and multiple credit cards with no fees, one of which is Chip and PIN, PIN Priority); there are still many travelers with the big banks suffering high fees for international travel, regardless of the options at their disposal. They may also be adverse to ditching a bank they used for decades for a single trip or infrequent travel.

I do not know how GooglePay, etc., work. Ultimately, the linked credit card has to be charged. I assume that incurs the same sort of transaction fee as if you used the physical card. Does GooglePay submit a single, aggregate, charge at the end of the day, or do multiple uses cause multiple hits to your credit card? Are there credit cards with per-trsnsaction fees as well as those with percentage-based fees?

For Apple Pay, each transaction you make with your phone hits your credit card as a separate transaction. So if you incur fees with credit card use, you likely incur them with Apple Pay. Now somebody at Apple may have been clever and based on the way that the Apple-Credit Card transaction is made (vs the use at the store) may process it as a transaction in the US (after all, your credit card is getting a charge from Apple, not a shop in Paris or London). I have not had the experience to track it through, and most of my cards have no FTF.

But the advantage of Apple Pay, and similar systems, is the security element, taking the place of a PIN, so it can be useful for small purchases and unmanned points of sale. Of course, while commonly available, especially in the UK, it is not everywhere cards are taken, so it is not a "one size fits all" solution, just one more tool.