Purchasing Euro's

The only reason to have Euros before you arrive is if you are personally uncomfortable entering a foreign country without some cash in hand. Otherwise, just hit the ATM at the airport when you arrive or soon after. If getting Euros beforehand, I'd recommend your local bank. You'll be either charged a nominal fee or pay a higher exchange rate for this service. Any commerical, for-profit exchange agency will charge even higher fees or worse rates to make their profit. Also make sure you notify your bank of your trip so they don't block your ATM card. Most people suggest bringing an extra card along in case one is lost or stolen.

Personally I like to have a hundred or so Euro in my pocket when I arrive. Just one less thing to be concerned about or deal with on landing. If I have not save enough from the previous, then purchase locally. The Am Express office, AAA, local bank or even the currency exchange at the airport will do since it is a small amount. Expect to pay from 5 to 10% in fees or inflated exchange rate or both. TravelEx will be the highest and a bank the least. View it as convenience fee for having not to worry about finding an ATM on landing.

Another potential option..... Most folks who travel to Europe regularly like to arrive with some Euros (including coins) so they make sure they bring home 50-100 euro mostly small bills and coins for the next trip. If you have close friend who does this they might be willing to loan you the euros. (Not sell, LOAN as in expecting you will return from your trip with the same amount of Euros in similar denominations when you return from your trip.) I have done it twice. Both times for very close friends. Won't do it for a mere acquaintance. (Both times it actually worked to be profitable for me as they gave me each about 2% more than I gave them, along with a heartfelt thanks for having coins the first time they encountered a pay toilet.)

Ed, I had to laugh when I saw your comment about pay toliets. Rose, Ed has the right idea. I also bring home money, usually not quite that much, but enough to get food and a train ticket etc, so about 40 euros, especially the small change. If you don't have an amazing friend with Euro handy, don't panic. I've never had a problem finding an ATM at the airport, although in some cases the exchange rates are worse (London).
Just leave yourself plenty of time to find an ATM and learn what it is called in the local language.

I don't exchange before I go. I use an ATM at the airport when I arrive. To get change, I buy a soda or other small item before I head out. I carry several hundred in US currency, to convert in an emergency. Most of the time, it comes back with me unspent.

I'd never consider traveling anywhere without at least a small amount in local currency - emergency purchases at the airport, some for a cab or other transport, a little for tipping. I'm sure there are ATMs at the airport, but there's often a wait and higher service charges, so I like to have at least the equivalent of $50-$100 with me. Not much more than that because of the risk of theft at airports, but I think it's foolish (and a little arrogant) to travel somewhere without at least a little local money.

And keeping the 50 Euro (or whatever amount) you have leftover at the end of a trip and holding for the next trip is surely the cheapest way to have Euro in advance. For countries with other currency we have planned our withdrawals to give so little leftover that dropping them at an exchange to make it into euro while leaving town costs very little actual money. But euros themselves we know there will always be a next time, for us or for family.

Kia - just two corrections on your post. European banks are not allowed to charge ATM fees so there is no higher cost to use an ATM at an airport than elsewhere. And airports are no less secure than a busy street corner. Whether to bring some Euros with you or get cash on arrive is a personal choice about comfort levels, not arrogance.

Brad,
Apparently you are reckless and arrogant.

And we carry some US dollars with so that when we get back to the US airport we have cash if we need it - without having to pay the ATM fees here when we can't find an ATM owned by our bank. I can't understand why so many complain about the foreign ATM fees, which are due only to their US bank, and yet not a word about the fees that they pay captive to their banks here. Incidentally, so far we have felt a lot more at risk of theft and pickpocketing in the large crowds at our local airport, PHL, than we have at any foreign airport we've been through. This also holds for our downtown streets. How many out there wear their money belts daily in their big US city?

I always bring home at least 2-3 hundred euros and more if the exchange rate is favorable. This way I can avoid the airport atm's which can have a long line. Since I know I will be returning to europe 2x's/year this is one less thing I have to do at the airport. I store the euros with my passport at home.

In 2004, I arrived at FRA with three ATM cards. The first two didn't work; just gave me a message to contact my bank. Both were declined due to technicalities that I could have cleared up with long distance phone calls to the US, but had my third card not worked, and I hadn't had Euro with me, I would have been making the phone call from a pay phone in the airport, and it was midnight in Colorado. Even if my third card had not worked, I had enough Euro with me to get to my hotel and call from there. Ever since my second trip to Germany in 2001, I have been bringing back Euro from every trip to start the next one. And don't let your stash of Euro get below a few days worth before hitting the ATM again. I was once in a Black Forest town where all the ATMs in town were off-line. Thank goodness I didn't need more cash that day. A lot of people are using ATM cards from banks (WF, Chase, et al) that charge 3% for foreign exchange plus $5 (another 1%), 4% total. Wells Fargo charges 5% (ave) for Euro over here, only 1% more. It's cheap insurance.

"European banks are not allowed to charge ATM fees". The key word here is "Bank". Not every ATM at the airport is a bank's ATM. Some are privately owned. They can charge anything. I've heard that all(?) the ATM's in Heathrow are owned by Travelex, which is notorious for high exchange fees, which might be on top of your bank's own fees. In FRA, I have never seen anything but bank ATMs (Geldautomaten) and if any are private, the bank ATMs are so easy to find, there is no reason to go to a private one, if they do even exist.

Lee beat me to it -- not all ATMs are owned or operated by banks especially (based on the ones I've seen) in airports and shopping malls. When I was talking about carrying money through airports I was talking about general pickpockets, not specifically about using the ATMs......generally speaking, tourists are more often the target of pickpockets than locals, and international air terminals are filled with tourists. Of course, paying higher service charges for a single ATM transaction isn't the end of the world, and sometimes the convenience makes it worthwhile. Choices.....

"European banks are not allowed to charge ATM fees". I have disputed this before but have had difficulty finding the evidence. Not now - I just got back from a quick road trip through bits of BeNeLux, Germany, France and Switzerland. I keep my Euros in a British bank owned by a US bank in a Euro checking (current) account. My card has the Visa Debit logo, and is denominated in Euros. Until this year I had never actually run into bank ATMs wanting to charge me transaction charges, in continental Europe. This year it happened 3 times. The first was at a bank in Trier, Germany which wanted to charge €5 for a non customer ATM withdrawal. It was Deutsche Bank. The next day I went to another bank's ATM in Trier which wanted €3 to €5 depending on the size of the transaction. I can picture where it was but don't remember the name. I did find a different bank where there was no fee. The next day (I go to ATMs little and often because my bank has no fees and as the account is in Euros there is no loading or FTF) I was in Luxembourg and the first bank ( I think it was ING) wanted a fee so I went to Luxembourg Savings Bank (I don't remember the original Letzebourgish words - the one with the logo which looks like the buildings in Luxembourg City) where there were no fees. So there you go. ATMs inside of or on the outside walls of actual banks - in Europe - big banks - with clearly posted fees on two and fees which came up on the screen at the other. So if "European banks are not allowed to charge ATM fees" what's happening here, then? Because of my persistence, ability to read, and observation, I paid no fees and eventually got my money.

Huh! Well, that's good to know, Nigel. I guess things change.

Come to think of it, I recall being charged 5 EUR by ATM's in Germany when I was first there in 2005. That was on the Hauptstrasse in Heidelberg- Sparkasse, maybe.

In 10 years, 30-40 ATM withdrawals, I have never been charged a fee by a European bank.

I was in Trier for 5 days in August this year and used at least two ATMs in front of banks using a US credit union debit card tied to a checking account and was not charged any fees other than the 1% "transaction fee" charged by my CU. In going to Europe every summer for the last 10 years I have never had a problem getting local currency wherever I have landed at an ATM machine using that same CU debit card.
I choose to save some money by not buying any foreign currency here in the US and use that $ for coffee and pastries. But then again, I am getting older and do not stress out over issues like this anymore.