Travelers checks?

Unfortunately Susan the world is geared to credit and debit cards. I have never had a credit card eaten or retained during the past 18 years that I have been heavily dependent on plastic. HOWEVER I do understand your concern if you have only one credit card but you really need to develop a financial system Cash is still King in Europe. We take two debit cards tied to two different accounts and three different credit cards. That is probably a bit of over kill on the credit cards since two is enough. On our last trip last Fall, in 33 days we only charged two items.

Get a Capital One credit card -- easy to get and do not charge foreign currency fees as a second credit card, and you have get a debit card. Traditional bank debit cards may charge as much as 3 to 5% currency fees -- still much cheaper than T checks -- but some do not and most credit unions do not.

You really don't have much choice. Twenty years TCs was the way to do. Now it is plastic.

If you are coming to Germany, do NOT bring Travelers Checks. Banks will NOT accept them. The only place to cash them is at the money exchange places. There you will get a bad exchange rate and pay a high fee for this "service".

It is wise not to use credit cards in ticket machines. Most of them are set up for European credit cards only. Best is to use ATM's in banks while they are open, if you are concerned about losing your card again.

She said, "Credit card". If you use a credit card in an ATM, it's a cash advance with a fee and immediately starts collecting interest. Better to have a debit card. If she's really concerned, open another account with a small bank that doesn't have a foreign exchange operation and therefore just passes on the 1% network fee instead of charging 3% for currency exchange, make it just for traveling funds, and get and ATM card.

When I travel in Europe, I use only cash from bank ATMs. Last August, I made only one card purchase, a $3 transit ticket (the station had only one machine and it didn't take cash). Bad things can happen when you give people a credit card (purchases start showing up from places you've never been to.

Even Whole Foods won't accept traveler's checks as of May 3rd this year. Pam

Jo,

isn't there some kind of prepaid card (Geldkarte, with a chip) that you can use in Europe (I think I've seen the symbol on the card slot for German Rail automats)?

Do you get those from banks? Could you load one from a credit card?

Lee, wouldn't loading a prepaid card from a credit card incur that same "cash advance" fee from the credit card company? Or would it be considered a "purchase"?

I have known of ATM machines that "keep" or will destroy cards before. Thus my concerns. I Usually use a bankcard/debit card to pay for purchases even here. My fear is of not having a backup if the "strip" on the card is somehow damaged or the card is lost. Do they have prepaid credit cards? I am planning on getting several 500 euro bills to keep in a safe place. But the safety of Travelers Checks I have not been able to match. Even if I get travelers checks and do not use them (cash them in when I return)...which I have done years ago with left over checks. I am leaving in 2 weeks so I doubt if I can get new cards in that time;

I think it would be considered a purchase, but merchants normally pay a fee, so I'm not sure how that would work. You certainly could withdraw cash from an ATM and load it at a bank. They also have automats to load it from a card, but I don't know how that works (what fees you might pay), either. Maybe Jo knows.

The website is at www.geldkarte.de (and will display in English). Use of the card has a 0.3% charge, so I would always pay cash, if I could.

One of my ATM cards has 0% and no fee; the other is 1% and a $2 fee. My credit cards take 1% and 3%. Getting cash a 0% and putting it on a card I could use for 0.3% would be better than my credit cards (and have a chip, to boot).

I bring two ATM cards, a credit card for 'unplanned, must have' splurges and $100 US for an emergency stash. In 2008 I had a Euro travelers check left over from a trip in 2004 when I had to pay a deposit on an apartment and I had a really hard time getting anyone to accept it.

Travelers checks can be very difficult to cash, as others here have noted. Vacation time is precious and spending time trying to find a place to cash them is wasted time. I take two ATM/Debit cards from different institutions (I prefer credit unions) and also 2 credit cards from 2 lenders. I always want a backup just in case. Even in the USA I have had cards frozen for some reason by the lender so I want a Plan B when I am out there in the world. Whenever possible I try to use my ATM cards in a machine connected to a bank or business that is open. If it is "eaten" it is easily dealt with on the spot. In many trips to Europe I have never taken Euros with me, just getting them on arrival. I always carry some American money, which is easy to exchange if need be. I use the credit cards for hotels, restaurants, transportation, and most other major purchases. Consumers have good protection from fraud through the credit card companies. I have never had a problem--even using them in places like Tunisia, Egypt, Turkey, etc. In fact, the biggest headache I can recall regarding these kinds of issues was the one early trip that I took some travelers checks and had a hard time cashing them. Never again...

Thanks folks, it just reinforces what I thought a few years ago

Ok, to address the issue of large bills, euro or dollar, compared to travelers checks.

Again, you CANNOT cash travelers checks in any bank in Germany. You must go to an exchange place, only located in the airport or big train stations.

500 euro bills are difficult to cash, but a bank will do it. 100 euro are very common and every store can check to see if they are fake. They are never a problem unless it is 6 in the morning and you want to buy 2 croissant from the bakery that just opened. Ticket machines will only take bills that are 20 euro and under. Same with buses.

If you do want to bring dollars, these are much easier to exchange at most banks. I do this all the time. Costs me 5 euro usually. Compare that to the fees you will pay for a travelers check! Do bring smaller bills though and make sure they are the new ones and in good shape. Banks will refuse the old 20's, etc.

"I am planning on getting several 500 euro bills to keep in a safe place."

Boy, that sounds risky. It would be devastating to lose 500 Euros, and besides, you might have trouble changing those bills, except at a bank. It's like $100 bills here -- some merchants are afraid to accept them, because if they prove to be counterfeit, they are out a lot of money.

I guess I would go with the traveler's cheques, as a safer backup, if I was in your situation and didn't have time to apply for more credit cards.

When I travel, I take at least two credit cards and two debit cards, from different banks.

The idea of taking several 500 Euro notes is flawed from several points. You would be better off taking US cash as back up. First you will lose 5 to 10% on the purchase of the 500 E notes - if available -- in the US. Then you will love another 5 to 10% when you convert back to US cash in the US. A 500 Euro note will be difficult to use in Europe. I have even had a 50E bill rejected in Europe.

I am always surprised why people wait to the last minute to address cash issues. That is one of the most critical aspects of travel and seems to be one of the last things death with.

"You would be better off taking US cash as back up."

If you feel you must take a lot of cash, I still think traveler's cheques would be best. Hard to cash, but safe, and large denomination Dollar notes are going to be as hard to use as large denomination Euro notes.

For a backup, last resort, maximum-safety way to get currency (in case of emergency only, such as your ATM card fails or gets eaten up or stolen), how could you beat traveler's checks?

I can get AMEX tc's free at my bank in US dollars. I plan to use my ATM card in Europe to get hard Euros every few days once I'm there.

But I still plan to bring at least a few tc's (say, 5x$100) in case of absolute emergency. Even if I have to go to a train station or airport or exchange station to cash them in for euros, at least I don't have to wait around and figure out how I'm going to get a new ATM card from my bank. Of course, $500 cash would be easier but obviously not nearly as safe/secure. If I lose my tc's, it would be inconvenient, but no big loss.

If I don't use them, I can bring them back home and just redeposit them back to my bank account.

Am I wrong with this plan?

That is sort of what I was considering
Thanks

Taking back up travelers checks may work if you are in a large city where money exchanges are available, but it won't work if you are in small towns where there aren't any. Every small town has a bank though, where you can exchange dollars.

"BofA and Citi are both the worst when it comes to extra charges for using ATMs anywhere."

Not in my case. There is no charge to withdraw my Euros at any bank in the EU.

This is, however, the policy of Citibank UK and Citibank Espana, where I have my accounts. The USA Citibank may have different policies.

The American Citibank website doesn't seem to think they even have ATMs and banks where I'll be (Portugal), but there appears to be a Citibank Portugal. I find that worrisome.

For those of you bringing two debit cards, do you split your on-site travel budget evenly amongst two accounts? I'm trying to figure out how best to spread my money out in case something goes wrong (it isn't unheard of for banks to deny use of your card when you go abroad, even after calling and alerting them, and my bank had a previous address listed as my address despite sending the statements to my current address, so I only trust them so far).

"For those of you bringing two debit cards, do you split your on-site travel budget evenly amongst two accounts?"

That's the best strategy. In my case, I have two Citibank accounts, and I can use online banking to move money from one to the other instantly, at no charge. I have two separate debit cards for these accounts, at two different Citibanks. (My case is a little unusual -- my accounts are in Euros, and they are in London and Barcelona.)

This online strategy won't work quite as well if you are dealing with different banks, because it takes a few days to transfer money online from one bank to another (online transfers between Citibanks in different countries is an exception). So, if that is the case, I would actually split your vacation allowance between the two banks, so you don't have to move money back and forth.

Intriguing, thank you! I have Bank of America right now, but I'm pretty much the only person I know who has not had terrible experiences with them, so my mother suggested I make an account for the trip with Citi (that way my regular accounts won't be effected should, God forbid, anything happen to my card or card number). I may just put half my budget in the Citi account and then transfer more when I start running low.

I will be sure to look into that option! I'll ask around for good local credit unions. I work for a very small private store, so we get a lot of people interested in small, local businesses coming in.

"The American Citibank website doesn't seem to think they even have ATMs and banks where I'll be (Portugal), but there appears to be a Citibank Portugal. I find that worrisome."

Citibank has offices in many countries, but in the Euro Zone, they only have retail banking in Spain, Germany, Belgium, and Greece. In other Euro countries you can still withdraw for free from other banks' ATMs.

But, as I said, this may not be true if your account is with Citibank USA.

I don't know about other countries, but in Germany, Citi Bank was taken over by Targo Bank. This happened a while back, so you will search in vain here for a Citi Bank.

I have a Visa debit card with a local bank here. In 2002, I went to them with a list of cities I would be in, and they had a book with the location of ATMs for Plus in these cities. For instance, the Plus ATM in Berchtesgaden was right there in the Hauptbahnhof.

"I don't know about other countries, but in Germany, Citi Bank was taken over by Targo Bank. This happened a while back, so you will search in vain here for a Citi Bank. "

I didn't know about this. It seems that this has happened only in Germany so far. They decided to change the name to Targo Bank because they were loosing customers. Apparently, lots of their customers bought Lehman Brothers securities, through Citibank's brokerage operations, and got burned when Lehman collapsed. There are hundreds of lawsuits pending against Citibank.