Best ATM's to use in Europe

I always take withdrawals in an odd amount, like 230 EUR so I know I'll get at least one 10 EUR note.

Brad,

On my recent trip, I used the ATMs at the BNP Paribas Banks.
I really like this bank because most of their ATMs are located inside the bank, and one has the option of receiving large bills (usually 50's), or a variety of bills including smaller bills (20's and 10's)

As you already know, if you withdraw a large amount, you will get some 50's even if you choose the option for smaller bills.

Happy travels!

While it is certainly nice to run into a machine that allows you to pick bill denominations, the best machine is still the one there when I need it. Other than that, I do not worry too much about what bank operates it, if I have a choice, I will go with the bank I have heard of...but that is just a false security on my part.

What Paul said. "Best" ATM may also be one near your hotel so you can pop back and put your cash away discreetly.

Also, unless your ATM card has no transaction fees, getting €50 is a mistake -- better to get a larger anount at once than losing $5 to service charges on each of multiple smaller withdrawals.

I think almost every ATM I've used in Germany has given me the first 100 euro in small bills (for example, 2 @ 20, 4 @ 10, & 4 @ 5). The rest has been 50s, but I have never had trouble breaking these. But then, I never use a credit card, so I get change from the 50s at meals.

As I've mentioned occasionally, if you need a lot of cash, Deutsche Bank will usually do it in fewer transactions, even in a small town like Varenna on Lake Como.

I have noticed lately that many European ATMs now give you no choice in what denominations you receive and seem to try and give you the fewest bills possible. So if I ask for €300, I get 6 €50s. I did find one ATM in Venice that gave me all €20s when I asked for €300, but then the next person was told the machine was out of money. Don't remember which bank that was.

I have not yet experienced the refusal of a large denomination Euro note when purchasing anything. Of course I don't try and pay for an 80 cent bottle of water with a €100 note either no more than I would try that in the US with a $100 note. Restaurants don't even grumble when I pay for my meal and get a large amount of change. I usually break the larger bills I get on arrival at the airport as quickly as I can so I do have smaller notes or try and keep a lot of smaller notes from my previous trip to cover those situations where I am buying a single espresso and it is easier to just give them exact change.

The most frustrating was on a visit to the Czech Republic and the ATM spit out exactly one note (I believe it was a 20,000, or 2,000?) and I had to go back to the bank to get it broken down because no one would take it.

I have noticed lately that many European ATMs now give you no choice in what denominations you receive and seem to try and give you the fewest bills possible.

On my recent trip to France, some banks gave me a choice of denominations but some didn't. When I wasn't given a choice I usually got a bunch of 50's, at least in part. But I had no trouble using them at a butcher shop or market stall when the purchase was more than minimal.

Some countries have a tradition of acceptability of large banknotes. Some ATMs in Austria for example stock only €100 and €10. I have witnessed someone use a €200 note to buy a coffee at a café in Vienna without any kind of difficulty, even comment.

I would offer a guess that the master-bank has nothing to do with the denominations provided in any individual ATM. A high-volume ATM is likely to have higher denominations so it won't run out of cash. Machines may also be programed to dispense higher denominations for large withdrawls to avoid running out of 5s and 10s.

I always try and break down larger notes whenever I can. Restaurants, museums and gift shops are good options. Sometimes a hotel desk will break down a large bill for you (more likely a larger hotel than a mom-pop pension).

I think the anti-usage of a 50 euro note is urban legend. It has been repeated so often that many believe it is true. I go along with all of the above posters who have never had problems using a 50 euro note. I don't play the odd withdrawal game either. On a few occasions I have been asked if I had something smaller but when I say "No" or shake my head, it is accepted. I don't try to buy a one euro item with a 50 euro note but have often purchased 5 to 10 euro item with a fifty euro notes. I am very careful when the change is counted back but also we use cash about 98% of the time so we may be more accustomed to keeping a variety of bills available. Our credit card usage is very low in Europe but that is mostly attributed to our old cash habit that started with travel checks 30 years ago.

My only concern for an ATM is that it is bank owned during open hours. I get the same exchange rate and service level regardless of the bank the owns the ATM.

I think when we used BNP in Paris, we could select denominations, but I don't think the machines we used in the Netherlands gave us the option and we ended up with 50's. (Can't rem which bank we used...prob HSBC...did I get those letters in the correct order? lol). With our bank at home, they have partner banks in Europe that don't charge the $5 service fee...BNP in France/Italy, Barclays in the UK...so we would look for those machines first, but if we needed the money ASAP, then whichever we found was good. Luckily, BNP is quite prolific!

one trick if you have large notes is to go into a supermarket that has automatic tills (Pretty common in most places these days), buy something small and pay the machine with your large note , get lots of nice change that way.

Thanks,

Like everything else, I go small these days. I don't pack much and I don't carry a lot of cash. Once upon a time, my bank charged a flat fee plus a percentage of transactions so I would make regular 300-350 euro transactions, to save fees, and bury most of the cash in my money belt or neck wallet.

Now, I wouldn't have a card that charged transaction fees. My bank charges me a flat one percent on whatever I withdraw, so there's no advantage to large transactions and no reason to carry large amounts of cash (I have some US currency in case of emergency). Because of that, I rarely get more than 50 or 60 euros at a time. Big transactions, hotel or restaurant, can be handled with a credit card. At supermarkets my debit card is becoming my go to payment choice. To say I'm not much of a shopper on trips would be an understatement.

So I'm down to spending cash for very small transactions at small businesses. 50 euros now lasts a couple of days or more, unless something pops up - like 35 euros to refresh my SIM card at a tabac; they wanted only cash. The biggest annoyance is large bills, I don't even like 20's because the places I do use cash are small enough to frown every time they see one.

I agree with using indoor cash machines, whenever possible, because I think they are much less likely to be tampered with. I'm not as worried about whether they are available 24 hours.

I haven't yet tried to stuff a 50 in an automated cash register. I'll look for that.