What is the best way to purchase EURO's now while price is down.

Thanks everyone....
It sounds like I'm going to have to step up a bit
and break my rule about ATM's. Hope for the best
in May. Thanks again

Your local bank should be able to get them for you. If you go this route, get clarification of what exchange rate you are committing to -- the date you order the currency, or the date you take delivery of the currency.

Another option is to order them from www.wellsfargo.com/foreignexchange.

Jim beat me by 1 minute.

First, the Euro might, or might not, go back up. You might buy now, thinking the price will go up, and see it go down more. Considering that you can get better rates at ATMs over there, I wouldn't advise it.

If you do get Euro over here, the best rate I have found is at Wells Fargo (see above). If you aren't near a main branch of Wells, you can get them sent to you from their website for a nominal shipping fee ($12 for orders less than $1000; free for more).

Wells averages 5% over the interbank rate. Most major banks charge 3% over the interbank rate for ATM usage over there. I use a small local bank without a foreign exchange operation. They just pass on to me the 1% "Network" charge and add a fee (~½%) for out-of-system ATM usage. Some banks or account types have no ATM charge.

Thanks to both of you...I will check these suggestions. I do not use an ATM and have always
traveled cash or american express cheques. It may be that those days are over. I guess there is no real way to get around the middle man.
Thank you very much.

Go to your local AAA motor club. You can buy pounds and euros there too.

Last time I checked about a year ago, AAA was charging 8%. Most likely you will pay around 5% or more to obtain Euro on this side of the water. Therefore, the Euro was have to rise to at least 1.43 before you would break even since it is possible to get Euro in Europe from an ATM within a penny of the current exchange rate. My assessment is that the Euro could rise 5% in the next 90 days but would be unlikely. Unless there is a major economic event against the dollar, the forces driving the Euro down will be in effective over the next 90 days. I think there is even a possibility that it could lower next May than higher.

I'm sold on the advice to not take traveler's checks and rely instead on ATM withdrawals for cash Euros.

If I wait to purchase Euros through an ATM in Europe, are the rates at the ATMs at the airports going to be the same as an ATM anywhere else? We will surely need some Euros for a taxi and other things before we can get to an ATM near our hotel. I remember in the past, when exchanging US dollars at the airport for Euros, the rates were not good at all.

That is probably because you were using an exchange bureau. If it is a bank related ATM you will receive within a percentage point the interbank rate and it will be save for downtown or the airport. It has been reported, I have not seen one, that in airports and maybe elsewhere there exchange bureau machines that have been dressed up to look like a regular ATM. That would be my only caution in the airport.

You could also prepay as many expenses as possible such as hotels and car rentals. If you have trusted family or friends already in Europe, send them your ATM card and pin (not together) and have them withdraw cash for you.

not an expert but this is what we do. get a few euros from the bank before leaving home. just enough to get by until we are situated since the exchange rates are not so great. we take our atm/debit card and get cash as we go along for incidentals and for places that dont do plastic. for most expenses we use that same card to debit from a separate travel account we set up so that our entire checking balance is not vulnerable if the card were to be lost or stolen. we also use a visa credit card for some things. the debit card seems to have less fees than credit and visa definitely has a better rate than amex. with just a couple of cards a a bit of cash its not much to carry or to worry about security wise.

Anna, don't be the least bit hesitant about using ATM's in Europe. It's the cheapest way to obtain local currency and as easy to do in Birmingham, England as in Birmingham, Alabama.

If your bank at home charges bad rates, you can always open an Ally account online for free. Their money market pays interest, you get a Visa debit card, and pay no fees whatsoever (at least none that I could calculate on my last trip to Italy)

To Counter Frank's point that the Euro wouldn't move 5% up in 90 days, it just moved 14% in 40 days from April 14 to May 24. Luckily it was in the direction to OP was hoping for.

But this is why someone invented Hedging. Rather than getting slammed by a 14% move against you, you can lock in a portion of your spending now, and get the rest at the time of your trip. Hedging narrows the risk/reward to something more predicable. Steve from Paris referred to buying in advance as gambling. What's gambling is waiting until a date in the future to buy something when you have to opportunity to hedge now. If you paid the 5% to hold some Euros and the 14% move was against you, the currency in your hands would be worth more than what you paid, softening the blow of the bad exchange rate at the time of your trip. And if it moves "for" you, then you bought a little piece of mind and you can pickup cheaper Euros when you arrive.

And you could do this virtually, buying options on the Forex market, but that's a little complex. Paying the 5% to the actual dollars is just to cost of not having to figure out Forex investing.

I went thru this question of pre-buying euro's for my trip to Europe last summer. The exchange rate was hovering around 1.27 for quite a while leading up to my trip. I didn't pre-buy and by the time I went on my trip, the exchange rate was up around 1.41. I should have pre-purchased. Especially for a long trip - we went for 6 weeks, we could have saved quite a bit. The only problem was we would have been traveling with A LOT of cash; which is obviously a little scary.