ATM Question

Frank: You may or may not be able to withdraw your "US daily limit" from a European ATM because the ATM limit may be less than your US daily limit. You won't know until you enter an amount and it's rejected.

Frank,
You can use the same ATM. The ATM (bankomat) has a transaction limit your bank sets the daily limit. I usually request 500 euro from a bankomat, if this fails I get 250 euro twice. Never had a problem.

If you find the ATM limit too low, use your credit card for some purchases so you won't need as much currency.
That's what most travelers do.

Be sure to notify both banks that you will be using both cards in Italy so they will approve your usage.

For the most part, if you withdraw your maximum from an ATM, you have to wait 24 hours before withdrawing from that bank's AMT again. I'm not sure if you can go to another bank's ATM and make a second withdrawl. Fortunately, we have 2 ATM cards from two different banks and that worked well for us.

I get slammed more by my bank for cash withdrawals than credit card purchases so I've been using my CC more often and use cash as and when.

Thanks for the feedback everyone! Based on Henry's experience, sounds like there's a good chance I can make 2 withdrawals at the same ATM as long as each is below the Italian bank's transaction limit and the 2 together don't exceed my bank's daily limit.

Frank,
Glad I could help. From your question I assumed you knew how ATMs worked.

For other posters, an ATM is basically a 'dumb' terminal. It relies on the home bank (where the card was issued) to validate the card and amount withdrawn. Remember that you are using international networks (Visa - plus, MasterCard - Cirrus) to connect the ATM with your home bank. ATMs do have a transaction limit, the amount it will deliver at one time.This can be different at each ATM. This is to keep it from running out of money between refills. So after you complete a transaction and let the machine reset you can insert your card again and for practical purposes you are a brand new customer.

The problem with many bankomats is that the messages it displays do not describe the situation. If you ask for more than the transaction limit it may say 'call your bank' instead of 'requested amount too high'.

Since most bankomats subscribe to both Plus and Cirrus just try your card in the first bank ATM you find. There are usually six boxes to pick from. The first five have set amounts and are within the machines transaction limit. The sixth box is other and when you pick this you can type in any amount.

As Italy updates the bankomats the machines are getting better at displaying error messages. On some machines I have seen spaces for five or six digits.

And yes you can have a zero in your PIN at the beginning.