ATM cards in Italy

Notify your bank that you will use the debit card in Italy.

Banks in Italy may have a limit per transaction, just do a second transaction if you want more than the bank's limit.

Sorry, can't help with other questions.

Using my Schwab card ($1,000 per day limit) I got €400 in Rome last week so that bank, at least, had no problem with more than $250.

No way a cash advance is ever cheaper. A cash advance on your credit card will make tons of money for a bank that does not need the additional extra profits. You will be charged an annual interest rate (APR) of 20% or higher on a daily basis from the money you take the cash advance until it and all the interest on it is repaid.

You need an ATM card attached to a checking or savings account. Schwab, CapitalOne, and various credit unions are the usual suspects, as they have no fees of their own, and your money should cost less than 1% more than the conversion rate.

If an ATM's limit is less than your daily limit, simply make another withdrawal. And if this is a joint account, you and your spouse SHOULD have different ATM cards, with the daily limit applied per card (CapOne and Schwab do this). The Italian bank's limit will not be any amount of dollars, it will be Euros. Get used to converting it approximately in your head!

Unless one of the Italian specialists here has different info, I would assume that all bank ATMs in Italy will go through PLUS, Cirrus, or Maestro (Europe's name for Mastercard) networks.

As for years ago, had you let your bank know that the card would be used both in UK and Italy during that time frame?

That makes sense to make a second withdrawal. Thanks.

I didn't think cash advances was the way to go, but it seemed worth asking. Our ATM cards are attached to our checking acct at our credit union. And yes, when our daughter used this same ATM card, the bank knew. I went into the bank here and they couldn't tell me why it wouldn't work.

So I guess that's the question if our ATM card is not on one of those European bank ATM networks, will it work or not? (As it did work in the UK.)

Ckroman,

You may consider increasing your daily cash withdrawal limit (dcwl) to $750 or even $1000.

When I was in Italy in 2014, my dcwl was $750, & I had no problem withdrawing €500/transaction from various bank ATMs there.

I think most banks charge a fee per ATM transaction when one is not using their respective bank's ATM.
So, in order to minimize the amount of fees, I always make larger & fewer withdrawals when traveling abroad.

You may want to ask your bank, but as far as I know, getting a cash advance on a credit card is very expensive.

Check here for more detailed information:https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/money

This may interest you as well: http://www.creditcards.com/credit-card-news/cash_advances-cost-rates-1276.php

To address the cash advance option on your credit card. Even cards that have a 3% foreign transaction fee often do not charge that fee for a Cash advance. The typical Cash Advance fee I have seen is $10 or 5% of the transaction, whichever is more. Interest does start from the time of withdrawal and is often about 24% APR. The interest rate sounds scary, but if you do the math, it is not so bad.

Assume two options to look at the cost. If you take a Cash advance at the above rates of $1000, your immediate cost will be 5% or $1050. If you wait until a month later to pay it off (I assume if you were looking at using an ATM you have the cash, so paying off in full is not an issue) then you pay the 24% APR for a month which is about $20 or for other amounts, about 2% of the amount (using round figures, the actual math and days since transaction will make that vary). The other option is that immediately after the transaction posts, you can go online and pay it off (both of these assumptions is based on having essentially a zero balance prior to the withdrawal) In the case of an immediate payoff, you are charged a nominal interest fee (10 cents).

In the end, when you calculate cost of money, for cash withdrawals over $200, an immediate payoff costs you 5-6%, waiting a month 7-8%. Compared to using a no fee ATM card at ~1%, that is expensive, except with a cash advance you can get much larger amounts in most cases. If your bank charges $5 plus 3% FTF, then for $200, it is actually a wash (your bank is charging you 5.5%) larger amounts get a little cheaper. Just using a Credit card is 1-4% depending on your terms, exchanging cash there or at a good bank here about 5%, Exchanging cash at Travelex or commercial places there, you could hit close to 10%.

In the end, figure out the costs for each option, depending on your situation the best option may vary by the amount you need, terms of your cards, and ability to manage the patoff.

Lets take this a step at a time ----

My credit union ATM card just has logos for co-op and STAR. Is that going to be a problem? ...... Most likely. The most common networks are Plus and Cirrus (Visa and Mastercard). The STAR network works primarily in North American. You can goggle STAR network and they claim to be accepted in Europe but I have never seen it. You must have a Mastercard or VISA debit card.

......a cash advance on a credit card ..... Should only be used in an emergency. It will always be far more expensive. The credit card considers the cash advance a loan and immediately starts charging about 20% or more interest.

I read that there is a $250 limit at most Italian banks That is a $250 per withdraw so you can do it several times from the same ATM. You are most likely to encounter this limit on weekends and in high tourist when they don't want the ATM to be drained of cash. Many times there is no limit at an ATM attached to a bank during the week.

Good luck

Frank: Thank you.
In googling, I found this:
If your ATM card is on the MasterCard/Cirrus or Visa/Plus networks—and virtually all bankcards are, whether your local system is called Mac or Star or whatever (look for the name and symbol on the back of the card)—then you will be able to get cash out of Italian ATM machines. - See more at: http://www.reidsitaly.com/planning/money/atms.html#sthash.qrf45Dam.dpuf

So what do you think? Are all bank cards essentially on the Cirrus or Plus networks? Even if they say Star? I love my credit union, but this would be a huge bummer to have issues getting cash on my trip. If there's any doubt, I suppose I can go open a BofA checking account to get an ATM card to go with my new no-fees card, but I'd rather not.

Update: My husband's colleague just returned from Florence, Venice, and Rome with our very same card and had no issues. Hopefully, that will be the case in Tuscany as well! I guess I will stop obsessing. Thanks for everyone who indulged me here :)

It is true that most bank cards are visa or mastercard but it is a credit union. I would have a thorough discussion with the credit union manager to determine exactly the network used by the credit union. My credit union uses the STAR network and Visa. It works fine in Europe but it is visa branded.

If someone using your same banks ATM card had no issues recently, then likely you won't either. If your daughter's issues were years ago, a lot can have changed since then. My bank only has an ATM (not debit) card but it has the MasterCard system on it and has never been an issue.

I would definitely have a backup plan though. Bring some cash with you and either have another bank account or use the credit card for a cash advance. Yes cash advances cost more money, but as Paul shows, paying it off right away limits what you pay them.