getting euros

The best deal is to use your ATM card to get Euros when you are in Europe. If you need the peace of mind of having at least some Euros before you depart, go to a large downtown bank to change about $200. But its not necessary. Make sure your bank knows that you'll be using your ATM card in Europe and ask it to raise your daily withdrawal limit.

are atms easy to find in italy? we have to give cash to the apartment owner upon arrival on our first day.

In the big cities they are everywhere. Small towns may only have one or two banks, so there may be fewer. Small villages may have no ATMs. If you are at a superstore or hyper market they usually have ATMs as well. Sometimes you have to go into the bank (my preference) through a small security drum.

The first time I was in Italy, 3 years ago, all the ATM's I used had a €250 limit. I guess I could have gone to a second ATM if I needed to. A year and a half ago, I was only limited by my bank's $500 limit.

Wells Fargo lists four international teller sites in Bellevue, Washington. They currently quote a markup of 5.1% and you avoid their $15 delivery fee. Phone ahead to make sure euros are available. https://www.foreignexchangeservices.com/index.html?partnerid=FES&serviceType=stores If you find a cheaper place to buy euros in the US, let us know.

Iris:
We foudn it comforting to have some euros with us departing the US. Yes, we paid a premium for them, but we had money upon arrival and were able to pay bus fare, get a coffee, use a bathroom (have 1 euro coins on hand), etc. When you come back, save 100-200 euros for your next trip. We call it our "seed money" to grow the next trip. And ATMs are everywhere.

Iris mentioned a point that bears some discussion. If you are renting an apartment and need to have a large amount of euros on your first day there, then an ATM may not work, or at least presents a risk that you will have problems. You may be able to talk to your bank and have your ATM limit increased, but if you are talking a 1000 euro or more, then you usually have to look to other options. If you a OK with carrying that much cash, then getting euros here is probably the easiest, surest way. I would shop around, try to talk directly to someone, basically your question is "What will it cost me in US Dollars to get 1000 euros at todays rate?" Avoid discussion of exchange rates, fees, handling charges, it all doesn't matter, just the end cost for the 1000 euro. I would expect that a fair cost would be todays rate plus 5%. There are other methods of payment discussed on here, if you do some searching you may find older threads, but these do involve money transfers and other financial instruments, maybe a bit higher on the complexity level.

The rate quoted by Wells Fargo averages 5%, but since they set it for the day and the Interbank rate changes all day long, you'll see some variation. Many bigger banks charge 3% at the ATM and some of them also charge a $5 fee, making it 4% on a $500 withdrawal. On the other hand, local banks and credit unions often only pass on the 1% Network charge. Look for one of them.

If you are a member of AAA, they have an online service where you can order a sum of foreign currency, but I am unsure how good the exchange is. (For reference: I just entered $200 and was quoted 132 Euro on July 20). Listed in the aaa website under "Banking." Like the others, I also recommend just getting most of your cash at ATMs, but I always bring a little foreign currency with me for the first day or two. Our local American Express office offered good currency purchases for my previous trips, but it closed recently. I don't know if this is happening nationwide.

schwab allows me to use atms with no fee, and no conversion charge. i will check the limit. thanks for the ideas on the credit unions and AAA. i may have to renew my membership!

It is not just your credit limit that matters because many ATMs have limits on how much you can withdraw per transaction and/or day.

good to know...thanks! i am so used to using my cc everywhere, this cash thing is stressful!

$200/€132=1.51515$/€. For July 20, 2011, the Interbank exchange rate (Oanda) was 1.41417. You would have paid 7.1% for the exchange. Not very good. You can get 7% or better almost anywhere. A few years ago, I checked the rate from AAA in Denver. They were getting their foreign currency from Wells Fargo. They charged a little for shipping, but it was still better than driving downtown to Wells' main branch. Next time I checked with them, they were using Travelex at 7%+. "this cash thing is stressful!" Stressful, but less expensive. At least in Germany, I have found that the least expensive places to stay don't take credit cards. I compared the last 22 places I've stayed, only one of which takes credit cards, to places in the same towns bookable from Booking.com, with whom you can use credit cards, and I paid 1/3 less with cash. And, don't think you are saving money by using the cc. Most banks charge the same percent for a cc currency conversion as they do at the ATM. If anything, you save an out-of-system ATM fee.

i use the capital one venture card when i am out of the country. they have NO conversion fees. cash is a different story, though.

"I was only limited by my bank's $500 limit" $500 today is about €350. Only $100 more than the €250 limit. Every ATM I've seen in German allows at least €350.

Have you called your bank to see what they charge? Maybe, as a customer, they will give you a "deal". I go to Europe every summer and do not get foreign currency in the US but wait until I land at my destination airport where I have never had a problem in finding and using an ATM regardless of any jet lag problems that seem to bother some folks. Whenever we stay at a B&B that wants the entire fee the first day I have always told them, while still here in the US, that it will take a day or two for me to get the entire amount out of ATMs and have never had a problem with that. That is considering that we usually stay no longer than 4 or 5 days in any one B&B so our total bill is not excessive. If a B&B where we would like to stay told us that it is not possible to pay over a day or two, I guess we would be looking elsewhere.
Good luck in your travels.

Last month I got a few hundred euros and GB pounds from Bank of America for a trip in Sept. The exchange rate was about 5% over the interbank rate. In addition, there was a $7 fee to have the currency sent via Fed Ex to my home. For me, it was small premium to pay for the convenience and security of having cash when we arrive at our destinations.

I was at AAA today and purchased a debit card and loaded it with $2,500. I got it so that I have a debit card that is not tied to my checking account information. I'm not sure if it's worth it. You can withdraw $1,000 per day. Visa charges you $3 when you withdraw money. AAA charged me $9.95 to buy the debit card. Visa charges me 3%. The cash machine will also charge me for using the machine. The other thing I did was buy a chip and pin card at a Travelex Store. I gave them $2,000 and they loaded 1,200 Euros on my card. Very bad decision, looking back. I'll still need to make debit withdraws from my account, but plan to use banks. The last time I went to Europe we stayed one week at a vacation rental by owner house and I paid the own American dollars because is was owned by someone who lived in U.S. That was smart!! I find that I need so much cash because I'm trying to avoid using my credit card. We need a lot of cash so I need to be able to withdraw from a couple of accounts. Lynette

thanks everyone! i think i will get the first thousand here, and use my no fee schwab atm card there.

If possible, have a back-up debit card with you. My wife and I both have cards from 2 different banks, so we carry 4 cards. I had called both banks and informed them of our trip this year in July, and I had our withdrawal amount increased. The first transaction went fine. The second time, we received a message that our bank refused the transaction. This happened for both our cards at several machines. It was July 2nd, so no way to resolved the problem until the 5th. Our back-up card worked fine. We would have been fine anyway because we also carry at least 2 credit cards each, but it would have been more expensive. When we called the bank on Tuesday, we were told that all cards being used in the UK were frozen due to excessive fraud. I don't know why they didn't tell me this before I left. Anyway, they called me back within the hour to let me know the problem was fixed. The point of the story -- have more than one debit card just in case. This had never happened before on numerous trips.

Personally think a thousand is too much. We only take 150 to 200 Euro which we have saved from the prior trip. That gets us through the first day or so. We have never had problems finding an ATM because we do not look for them. We just try to be very observant as we are moving about and when we see a bank we use it. We only use ATMs attached to a bank during open hours. Have never had a problem with an ATM in Italy not working. Many banks will have a small, almost private area to use the ATM that is secure. You will need to swipe your ATM card to unlock the door to gain access to the ATM. Since our debit card is from a credit union that does not charge any fees, we do not have to worry about finding a particular ATM. Any bank ATM works for us.

You might also want to check your bank's website for affiliate banks internationally. I use BofA and after reading on this site about using ATMs to get Euros, I went looking to see if BofA had any ATMs in Europe. I don't use a non-BofA ATM in the US anymore because of the ridiculous service fees. I also usually use my credit card for 99% of my transactions as it's a points card. However, BofA has an affiliate bank in the UK, France and Italy (the 3 countries we'll be visiting). They don't charge any fee to use ATMs by these banks. I went to each bank's website and checked for ATM locations and each one had a bunch spread throughout the cities we'll be visiting, two cities had ATMs within a block of our hotel.