ATMs in Rome, Florence and Venice

Steve - ATM's in Italy are a piece of cake. Even the smallest hamlets have an ATM or two. Before we left on our trip we spoke to our bank and let them know that (1) we were going to be in Europe so the transactions would not be blocked as "suspicious" and (2) to increase our daily withdrawal limit. Hassle free convenience. Have fun.

Yes, ATMs everywhere are easy to use. We have used them for years all over western Europe without a problem. One suggestion: since you will have to pay transaction fees, you might want to get your bank to increase your withdrawal limit if it is low.

Steve, I'm a BofA customer and the card works fine. ATMs are everywhere. A couple of hints. Call the Customer Service number on the back and alert them to your travel dates. If not, you could be immediately blocked. Second, request a higher withdrawl limit. Third, BofA will charge you a $5.00 non-bank fee plus 1% on each withdrawl. On a 200 euro withdrawl, it works out to about 3.5%. Fourth, if your having fun at eating a nice places, and buying things to take home, and you're paying cash, you will spend at about 150 euro a day. We did. Fifth, you have a daily limit at the Italy ATMs. You have to wait 24 hours before your next withdrawl. As a separate note, we primarily used our Washington Mutual ATM card that charges only 1%.

Also, don't forget to change your pin to 4 digits, as that is what I did before I went to Europe.

and as an extra added bonus.. many places including supermarkets and shops will accept your ATM as a payment option

my son was just in Italy. He took 200 euro's with him and that lasted about 4 days. Their luggage didn't get to them for 2 days so that was buying stuff to wear etc and food... When he reached Roma he used his ATM and got another 200 euros. It cost him and I can't remember exactly but the charge at this bank was 263.00 So as far as I can tell all he was charged was the conversion rate. And no fees. And he didn't use his BOA card he used his small town debit card from our local bank. I was told and I am not sure if this is true that you don't need to have a 0 in the pin. He came home with 100 euros left. Which I get to use when I go next year...Yippee.

Steve,
ATMs in cities or towns work the same way. The machine will have a transaction limit, the amount it will spit out at one time but only your bank can put a daily limit on withdrawals. If your home bank limit is high enough just reinsert your card and make another withdrawal.

Steve, we have used the ATM's all over Europe, and never had any problems........except when I was yaking and not paying any attention to what I was doing one night. Wham!! The machine took my card! You get 30 seconds for each section of your transaction......you screw around........it takes your card! I had to come back to the bank the next day and get my card.

Don't worry.....all the machines are just like ours........all "speak English" .......and it is no problem figuring out how to do the transactions.

Steve, if you belong to a credit union you may be able to use their ATM or credit card with lower fees. The big US banks charge fees (an extra 2% conversion fee, $5 for just using the ATM) that you can avoid with many banks and credit unions. Many credit cards charge interest on cash advances, but I've avoided that by simply using it like a debit card; I put money in the account before the trip, so no interest charge (only works if you don't carry a balance, though).

Your PIN should numeric rather than letters because the numbers on the keypad do not have letters on them like a phone keypad.

One important note: if your ATM card is tied to a checking account and savings account by default you will only have access to the checking account. There is no option to transfer money between accounts.

As a precaution I have 2 atm cards just in case the machine eats it or the one bank is down for maintenance.

Never had a problem. I always have a back up card too just in case and I always tell my bank there will be a much higher usage on the card so they don't put a stop on it thinking it's stolen.

We are going to open a "High Yiels Money Market" Account with Capitol One. This has two benefits: a)no ATM charge for withdrawing money and b) a high limit of $500 per withdrawal.

Here is some info from their web site:

"ATM withdrawals are limited to $500 per day, with no monthly limit on how many times you use the card. Capital One does not charge a fee for ATM usage, but the ATM owner may."

Also, some of the Capitol One credit cards have to fees for purchases made outside the US. These are worth looking into if your bank is charging you fees for using their credit card & ATM cards outside the US.

It is important to note that although you may have a high withdrawal limit, the machine itself may limit you to the amount you can take out. I have a 1,000 withdrawal limit each day, but I know for a fact that many of the machines in Italy will not allow me to withdraw that much at one time.