Cash, Credit, Debit, while in Europe

Not only are you good to go, but if I lived in South Carolina, you'd have my vote as the next governor.

Steve, the 1% debit card was the easiest for me to get set up without having to set up a new financial relationship. However, the FlyerGuide card fee page that gets linked around here a lot

http://www.flyerguide.com/wiki/index.php/Credit/Debit/ATM_Cards_and_Foreign_Exchange

indicates that I may not get charged at all:

"According to secure communication, [this financial institution] "reserves the right to charge 1% but currently does not." Reconfirmed July 2009 there was no fee for overseas usage; on some transactions the rate was even superior to the average daily interbank rate."

Don't count on that Capital One card working flawlessly. I dutifully called before our June trip, telling them United Kingdom dates and France dates. The card worked perfectly in the UK, not at all in France. It wasn't a problem with our credit, just Capital One dropping the ball.

In 2008, DH talked to them before we left, yet card was then refused at AVIS rental at Orly. No valid reason. We found out later it was because AVIS sends its charge authorizations through its Atlanta office. Go figure!

Anyway, since we had to use our back-up cards, we paid the 3% both times. About $40 worth of fees both trips.

I've already called both of the backup card accounts, but will also be calling the new accounts (Cap One and the other one) too. If it doesn't work, it doesn't work and I will have done everything I could have done to make it work.

Similar story - five years ago set up my T-Mobile phone for international calling, but it took several emails to T-Mobile before what should have worked initially finally ended up working.

We plan and plan, but there are inevitably things that we cannot control. I just roll with it.

Take some emergency cash in case the card networks melt down or the ATM servicemen go on strike.

My motto: Redundancy is always good!

Looks like you've got it covered.