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ATMs

Being that this is our first trip to Italy (Europe) and after reading several comments here, we have decided to take several hundred euros with us and then use our debit card at the ATMs in Italy. We have several questions...........
1. Is there a maximum we can withdraw from their ATMs (I know there is on our debit card but I thought I read somewhere that 250 euros was the max)?
2. Do you ask for money in euros or dollars?
I know these are simple questions for a lot of you but since this is our first time, we would like to feel confident when walking up to use the ATM. Thank you.

Posted by
971 posts

The Maximum amount is set by your bank. My bank has around 250 euros, but yours could be different.
Always go for the local currency! The ATM might suggest dollars, but it is going to be at a bad Exchange rate.

Posted by
11613 posts

Many bancomats have a transaction limit of 250 euro; you can do sequential transactions to withdraw more (up to your own bank's daily limit). Decline any offer of DCC (Dynamic Currency Conversion).

Posted by
9070 posts

..... and sometimes, just like here, they run low on cash, and can not give you all you are asking for. Ask for the max (to minimize transactions) and if it says that it cannot complete transaction, try again at a lower amount. Note that they operate a bit differently than in the US (they suck in the card and keep it until you're done). The bancomats are there primarily for locals - no reason why they would offer dollars. Please look at the Travel Tips section (menu at left) and the Money link to learn a bit more, especially about Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC) which you might see offered, and can be confusing.

Posted by
124 posts

It is a great idea to have Euros in hand as you arrive in Europe.
The maximum is set by your own bank in dollars. It is usually $400.00 per card account per day.
Use the current conversion rate and that will let you know how much in "Euros" you can withdraw.
Withdraw the money in Euros not in US dollars. Some machines might not have exact change
so do not panic if at first the transaction is denied try a different amount. Bon Voyage.

Posted by
2548 posts

If you hit the withdrawal limit at a specific ATM and you are below your bank's limit, then just attempt a second transaction. With no success just visit an ATM tied to a different bank. I don't pack around a huge amount of foreign currency when traveling since ATMs are everywhere. How many euro do you need in your pocket to feel comfy?

EDIT: The daily limit on my ATM/debit card is $1,000, which can be increased with advance notice. Despite being tied to the same checking account, my wife and I have separate numbers on our cards and the daily limit is per person/card not the checking account as a whole. Also, the bank does not charge for withdrawals and rebates any fees by ATMs dispensing currency.

Posted by
8889 posts

1 Is there a maximum we can withdraw from their ATMs (I know there is on our debit card but I thought I read somewhere that 250 euros was the max)?

There are two limits you will hit:
(1) The limit your bank imposes. This will be in your home currency (whatever that is), so it will not be a round figure in Euros.
(2) A limit imposed by the machine owner. This varies, in Italy this is typically €250 or €200 per transaction. You can get round this by doing multiple transactions, but if your bank is charging you per transaction, this will cost you more.

2 Do you ask for money in euros or dollars?

You will not be given the choice. The machine will only have Euros in it, and it will ask you how many Euros you want, same as the machines where you come from ask you how many dollars you want.
Normally, the machine owner then charges that amount (Euros) to the card company (Visa, Mastercard etc.). They then do the conversion and charge your bank in dollars.
But, if the machine asks you if you want to be billed in "your currency", dollars etc. The answer is NO you want to be charged in Euros, the actual amount you got out of the machine. The machine is asking if you want them to do the conversion instead of the card company. That would 99.9% certain result in a worse exchange rate, so say NO.

NOTE: The machine will recognise your card as "foreign" and ask what language you want it to use: Italiano, Deutsch, Français, English etc.

Posted by
3522 posts

Check with your bank, the one that issued the debit card to you, for the following:

  • What is the daily withdrawal limit for the card and is this per card or per account if you have multiple cards for the same account. They will give you the amount in dollars, you will have to do some math on the fly to determine how many Euros (or Pounds, or whatever) that comes close to. Remember that the amount withdrawn toward the limit may not get reset over weekends or holidays so you might not be able to get the max amount every day. Purchases made with your debit card have a separate limit.

  • What fees they will charge per foreign transaction. Banks charge up to $5 plus 5% of the transaction amount in dollars, for each withdrawal. Not much you can do about the percentage fee since it is what it is, but you can reduce the per transaction fee (if any) by getting larger amounts per withdrawal. I have gotten up to €300 per withdrawal at many ATMs in Europe. My bank's limit is $500 per day for ATM withdrawals.

If your bank's ATM fees seem too high for you, there are other options out there that charge zero fees. While I am not suggesting you change banks entirely, if you plan to do much traveling it might make economic sense to open an account with one of the banks offering zero foreign fee debit cards. Capital One 360 or Charles Schwab seem popular here. I have the 360 account and have never paid a penny more for ATM withdrawals than the Google rate said I should. And with no fees at all, it means I can get smaller or larger amounts per transaction as needed without worrying about paying too much.

Posted by
1018 posts

Generally, if you use your bank checking account ATM card the bank will charge a fee, which they deduct. Several years ago we started a Charles Schwab Brokerage checking account, which does not charge a transaction fee and will return the fee if you are charged a fee by the ATM. You do not need to invest and their is no monthly charge for the account. Our limit is $500 per day or about 435€.

Taking Euros with you is a cogent strategy because you will have local currency when you arrive.

Buon viaggio,

Posted by
2768 posts

The limits are set by your bank and also by the ATM. My bank has a $500 limit which means I couldn't withdraw more than the equivalent amount of euros (350euros? I'm guessing on the exchange rate. Something like that).
The individual ATMs may also have limits. I usually withdraw 300euros at at time and am usually ok, but sometimes it denies it and I bump it down to 200 or 250).

It's all in euros - you can't ask for "200 dollars in euros" - that would mean the machine giving you some odd number with coins at the end, which obviously is not possible. If $200 is what you want, do the exchange math into euros and round it yourself. Just like at home, ATMs don't give coins or 5s. Sometimes just 20s and up. So get 160 or however the math works. Better to just think in euros.

Posted by
5837 posts

As others note, there are two limits. Your bank/financial institution sets daily limits and if yours is an American institution, the daily limit is denominated in USD. The second limit is the ATM's limit per withdrawal. In Italy the ATM limit would be in EUR.

The Italian ATM limit of 250 EUR sounds applicable to my VCE airport experience. The airport ATM refused my 300 EUR request but accepted my 200 EUR request. Most of my Italy expenses were prepaid and with credit card usage I only needed to make that one 200 EUR withdraw for the trip. And yes, the Italian ATMs only transact in EUR.

You can usually have your home financial institution temporarily increase your daily withdrawal limit. On one trip I needed to acquire a significant amount of EUR cash and had my home bank increase my limit to 700 USD. At the time the FX rate was about $1.30 USD/EUR. I was able to withdraw 500 EUR in one ATM transaction in both France and Germany.

Posted by
1832 posts

Agree with above comments just mentioning that I would not take any Euros with me.
You will get a bad exchange rate, so best to just land and then go to an ATM in the airport.
They will be easy to find and then get the couple hundred Euro's at that time.
Unless your home bank has some bizarre rules for International transactions this will give you your best rate of exchange. As mentioned by another poster I use Charles Schwab for banking and they are truly the best for this type of thing. No international fees, no atm withdrawal fees and they will actually credit back to your account any ATM fees you pay to a machine anywhere in the world.

For Italy you should have some cash for certain things but most places will accept Credit. In other countries credit is more widely accepted. Italy has a higher percentage of "system currently down" problems so can only take cash than you will find elsewhere.

Don't forget to call your bank and any credit cards you are bringing to update them with your travel plans a few days in advance.
Forgetting to do this will result in your likely not able to use your cards when you land as their fraud departments will be suspicious.

Posted by
16895 posts

Some European ATMs do allow larger withdrawals, if your home bank also does. You can often get more than €1000 in one transaction from a DeutscheBank ATM, including the one in Varenna. They're in several Italian cities.

Posted by
5697 posts

Some notes:
1) your bank's daily limit is based on "days" in local time at bank HQ, not at the ATM in front of you -- so there's a possibility that a late-night withdrawal and a next-morning withdrawal might exceed your home bank's "daily" limit.
2) for first-time travelers, having €200 in hand is probably a good idea because the first day has enough stress without seeking out an ATM.
3) Some Italian banks add a €3 service charge, but that will be shown on the screen before you make the actual withdrawal. You can cancel and look for another bank's ATM if you don't want to pay the fee.
4) Looking at our last trip to Italy (May) all the withdrawals were in the range of €350 - €490 each.

Posted by
2215 posts

Since this is your first trip to Europe, keep in mind that credit card use is at least as prevalent as it is here. We paid for almost everything with a credit card. We did use cash in a small restaurant in Florence, but they would have taken a credit card. We flew over with 200 Euros, withdrew 150 Euros once while there, then burned up 75 Euros at the airport before flying home just to get rid of the cash.

Posted by
1832 posts

I would agree with that about common usage of credit cards.
In other European countries I would say it is even much more common than in the US and there is rarely a need for any cash.
In Italy small transactions of a couple of Euro do not seem as commonly charged as in other parts of Europe and
in some small areas like Cinque Terre almost all businesses remain cash only. Some restaurants throughout the country may be cash only still AND

In my experience in Italy you are bound to run into multiple taxi cab drivers, a restaurant or two maybe even a hotel / BnB that will claim their machine is temporarily down so they cannot process a credit transaction or a situation where your signature first US card won't work so is wise too have Euro's for these situations or least know a way to get Euro easily.
Sometime along those lines has happened to me numerous times over multiple trips.

Posted by
2548 posts

How stressful is finding an ATM at your arrival airport, put your card in the machine and enter your PIN? While tired from flying to Europe, you still must function until your head hits a pillow and gaining foreign currency from an ATM is just another element of arriving.

Posted by
3522 posts

Thanks Bruce.

The extra 5 minutes or so I spend using an ATM actually allows me to get focused and ready to face the remaining challenges of reaching my hotel and whatever else I have in store for the day. It also allows me time to call and yell at my bank when the ATM card doesn't work because they forgot to activate my travel plan so that can get resolved before I really need the cash.

Posted by
2768 posts

I actually agree with bringing some euros with me. Occasionally finding an ATM is difficult - rare but it did happen to me on a flight that arrived super early before anything was open in the airport. Plus there's the very low possibility of the airport ATM being down. So enough cash to get into the city is helpful. Once you are in a city of any size then finding an ATM is extremely easy. I travel enough that I just bring 50-100 euros home when I go and save it for my next trip but the first time I got 100through AAA. Not a great rate for currency exchange but good insurance!

Posted by
2548 posts

Keeping a small amount of euro from the last trip works well, but we travel outside the eurozone and I refuse to buy foreign currency in advance, so just use an ATM at the arrival airport. My back-up plan if all ATMs are DOA is to I'll covert a small amount of currency to the local money at the airport. I've never used the plan.

Posted by
3591 posts

Always bring cards from two completely separate accounts; or: each of you: if there are two of you, bring a card that is each from a separate account.
If one card is eaten/lost/compromised; then you'll have a backup account.
A good idea is to always try and use an ATM inside a bank.
There always seems to be a glare on the screens on the outdoor ones, and it helps to see it clearly in a foreign country.
The other reason is that you are less likely to be targeted by a "helper" if you are inside the bank, or at an ATM inside the glass doors; not out on a busy street.
I always do this, and try to never use an ATM when the bank is closed; if it eats your card, you can go in right away to try and fix things.
Always take a few Euro with you; it's no big deal, and it eases a wee bit of stress on your first day.
Have a good trip!