Visa Gift Card for cash

Sheryl, what you want is a Visa prepaid debit card, not a gift card.

You "load" the money onto the card before you go, then use the card at ATM's or wherever else you want.

It has no connection to your regular checking account.

I don't know how soon you are leaving so I don't know if this is helpful, but I have a separate account just for traveling. That also allows me to separate some of my money and use my main checking account as a backup just in case. I usually travel alone so it's important I have access to money two different places.

I use Ally as my travel account. It's a money market so it earns a bit of interest and has no withdrawal fees.

The concern about the preloaded cards is that I believe there are extra fees attached to it.

My credit union calls them Visa Passport cards. I asked my credit union why that would be better than just using my debit card, and they said it wouldn't be better, just more costly. Just open a second account for travel and use a regular debit card.

Nancy is very correct. The prepaid cards are not regulated nor have the same protection as debit card under the current banking laws. The regulations view them as gift cards. Therefore, there can be a great range of fees and no disclosure requirements. So if you are considering using a prepaid card read the fine print very carefully. I once looked at the WalMart prepaid card and while the fees were reasonable than the AAA card the fees were still greater than a standard bank debit card.

There really is very little concerning about using a debit card. But be sure to take a back up card.

I do what Debra does, a separate travel account. Both my regular account and my travel account are at the same credit union. That enables me to transfer money from one to the other easily.

The Visa gift card offered by Wells Fargo does not allow any ATM withdrawals, foreign or domestic. See #12 in the FAQ's https://www.wellsfargo.com/giftcard/faq/using#Q9 . Foreign purchases are marked up by 3% https://www.wellsfargo.com/giftcard/terms/ .

Sheryl -- we just got back from a 13 day trip to Umbria and Venice, and used a prepaid card for some of our purchases. The key thing is to get a reloadable card that is either a Visa or a MasterCard (so the cards are accepted at most retail locations). You probably could also use an AMEX card (but we didn't do research on those, so I can't really say how good they are).

Before picking a card out, make sure you read the fine print -- you want to know what the International ATM charges are (as well as the currency exchange rate). Each card has a T&C on their website (although your eyes may go a bit buggy trying to read all the fine print!).

Here are two lists of cards:

prepaid Visa Cards

prepaid MasterCards

Have fun!

THANKS to everyone for all the advise! I have some time before we leave so I'll look into all the options.

I just looked at the prepaid Visa and reviewed the fees for the top rated card. These are the fees --

$9.95 To open Account

9.95 Monthly fee

$10.00 For second card on same account

2.25 withdraw fee per transaction

2% Currency conversion fee

How can anyone suggestion that a prepaid card is an improvement over a standard bank card EVEN if you have to pay a transaction fee and a currency conversion fee of 3%. Especially when there are banks and credit unions who fees are very close to zero. May be there is a better card in the pile but this was the top rated card. In my opinion a prepaid card is a rip off.

If AMEX is American Express, I wouldn't bother with it at all! Many years ago I travelled to Europe and took American Express Travelers Checks. No problems. I was even able to cash them in without being charged a fee at American Express offices. Not knowing how much things had changed between trips (9 years), I took some the next time I went and it was quite a disaster. A lot of people were reluctant to take them - which confused me because it's like carrying cash. I finally encountered a shop owner who explained that most places were fed up with American Express because they didn't pay up promptly. From the way I understood it, American Express was waiting until the end of each month to send retailers payment and payments from Visa and Mastercard cards were made within a week.

I thought of opening a separate account as well, and I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one who thinks it's a good idea. I just need to figure out if I should open it with my current bank or open an account with a bank with branches in Europe. I'm thinking that perhaps an international bank would eliminate at least the ATM "usage" fee if not the conversion fee. Any thoughts on this?

OK, that made me laugh. I'm trying to get around the fees again. I'm hearing about all the new airline fees and how it seems like the more we try to get around paying fees, the more fees they create. I'm waiting for the "getting around the fee" fee. LOL!

First off, Ruth, there are no ATM usage charges in Europe. IF you are charged to use an ATM in Europe, it is a decision of YOUR card issuer. The bigger issue with travelers checks is that a lot of company were issuing TCs and no one know what a TC should look like so fraud was easy. And slow pay probably was a problem since it was paper and had to be transported.

Using an international bank will not gain any advantage and will not necessarily avoid fees. Credit Unions and small local bank generally offer the best deals --- because, again, the card issues decides the fees to be charged.

Obviously two accounts is smart simply because of back up. We use a credit union and a large bank that does charged substantial fees. In over fifteen years of travel we have never had to use the back up so the fee structure is not that important. We do use it once each trip just to make sure the back up is working. We go a step further and authorize a local son to speak for us on these accounts so that, if a problem develops, we make one phone call and he solves the problem. So far haven't had to test that system either.

While you may see a lot of problems discussed on travel sites, it is rare to have problems with debit or credit cards. The systems in all countries are dependable and work well.

ruth,
This may help http://flyerguide.com/wiki/index.php/Credit/Debit/ATM_Cards_and_Foreign_Exchange