ATM withdrawal

The maximum daily withdrawal is usually determined by your own bank no matter where you are. It can often be increased if you give your bank advanced notice of your upcoming trip.

The maximum amount in a single transaction is determined by the ATM and the bank its associated with. Not sure how much that would be for Italian banks. Probably somewhere around 300 Euro.

In heavy tourists areas and especially on weekends I have found that the limit is about 250E. I am guessing that this limit is imposed to help prevent the ATM from being emptied too quickly. Of course, you could almost make a second withdrawn provided you have not exceeded your personal limit. I have found that ATMs attached to banks during business hours have a much higher limited. I have often been able to withdraw 500E at a time.

Apart from your own account limit (which you should ask to have raised when you call your bank to let them know you'll be traveling in Italy) withdrawals in Italy are completely a matter of policy of the banks there. ATMs attached to a bank will likely have higher withdrawal limits than free-standing ones in heavy tourist areas.

I was just in Italy last week and twice I took out 400 Euros at a time.

Dennis,

Before we went to Italy, B of A told us we could withdraw $600 US with our ATM cards daily, but the ATM machines in Italy would only let us withdraw $300 US daily.

I've had no problems using the ATM's in Sicily not with limits as I don't take too much at one time. Are the diretions in English. I forget. Any help on this. Much thanks. Alan.

In October, the limit that we could withdraw from a single ATM transaction, regardless of which bank serviced the machine, was 250 euros....which at the time was about $350. Our credit union has a maximum withdrawal of $400 per day so that was about it for us each day.

Don't count on being able to make more than one withdrawl per day even if the ATM limit is lower than your card's limit. I have had experiences where the ATM would allow only E150-200 to be withdrawn and the system - every ATM I tried that day - would allow only one withdrawl per 24 hours. I now carry 2 ATM cards on different accounts.

Jeff, I am willing to bet that it was your bank that was controlling the withdraw. Some banks put a limit on the number of withdraws in 24 hours -- mine is three.

So, Dennis you should have figured from the responses you have received by now there are TWO institutions putting restrictions on your transactions-- your bank in the US puts restrictions on your account AND the bank whose bancomat your are using at the time puts restrictions on the individual transaction. (Note: The worse the exchange rate the sooner you bump up to your US bank limits. ) It's hard for us to know which limit you'll bump up against first at any particular time. Just like here, there isn't a one-size fits all rule for each bancomat in Italy.

Most of the machines we used had $250 limits. Some let you with draw more but $250 most common. We were worried about the cards actually working so we opened two accounts in case one didn't work. We were glad we did since a an ATM machin ate one of our cards and we called the bank to cancel the account. We still had one active.

I just found out that Bank of America will provide Euros in the US for a delivery fee (no other charge) of $7.50 for amounts less that $1,000 and free for amounts over $1,000. For the higher amount you pick up the cash at the bank. Don't know if you must have an account with them, or not.

Marilyn, check the exchange rate !!! tThe "no other fees" means that the exchange rate has been marked by at least 5% and probably closer to 8% or more. That is very common among banks. Nothing is free especially in the current banking situation.

I remember getting at least 1,000 Euros at the Deutsche Bank in Venice.

I'd recommend opening a Schwab checking account. It's free and they will refund any ATM fees you get charged, even international. We signed up about a month before our trip.

I have done this too. You do not need to have an account with BofA because they are making money on this transaction. Frank is correct: the exchange rate is not as good at using your ATM in Europe.

The only reason to do this if you need an exceptional amount of cash on arrival and the incremental cost of doing this is well worth the convenience of completing this task before departing.

It was worth it for us in that particular instance, but we will never do this again.

I just got back from Italy, after setting up my Capital One ATM (no conversion fees!) for Europe. The ATMs repeatedly told me that my account was deactivated. Panic. Then I tried reducing the amount withdrawn from $300E to $210 and it worked fine for the rest of the trip.