Canadian wants to know: ATM or Travellers Cheque

What is the conflicting info? It is a no brainer -- debit card. Plus/Currus will work everwhere !!!!

TCs are almost uniformly a disaster. Small merchants will likely refuse to accept them, as they must be converted to real money, at cost to them. SOME large merchants and hotels will accept but would rather not.
ATMs worked for us in Croatia, Hungary,Slovakia,Poland and several countries of Western Eur as well.

Take the above advice, Liz. Travellers Cheques will be nothing but trouble for you. Use your debit card, and a credit card for larger expenditures, and take a few euros with you to get started.

I have traveled for 20 years from Moscow in the East to Bangkok in the West. Never use Travelers Checks. Always find ATMs easily.

I am not concerned with the variation in fees charged. I consider them a small price for the convenience of buying local currency quickly and easily.

You will find many machines to take your Plus and Cirrus card. You will see machines in air terminnals, RR stations and hotels. For large purchases I use my credit card.

ATM all the way, its aout a $5 service charge (I"m with RBC) but its worth it. I ended up randomly talking to an American guy and he had travelers cheques... ended up paying an 18% service charge to cash them.

ATMs are definitly worthwhile if you're willing to take out at least a couple hundred Euro to make the S/c worthwhilte

Grant, and Liz, there are accounts at RBC and TD that have NO FEE foriegn ATM withdrawals, this I know as I have both of them,,and they worked fined in Italy, France, Germany, UK and Austria( and I imagine would work in many other places) .

Both these accounts require a 5,000. minimum balance. After I return from trip I transfer bulk of funds back into a higher interest savings account, but these are great for travel.

Talk to your banker, and be careful, at my local branches neither of the tellers were familar with this particular benefit of these particular accounts, I had noticed it in brochure information and we had to have other staff comfirm it.

Louise, you have to ask that question of Am Express. I would not rely on anyone on this site unless they had DIRECT experience. IF the cards have a Plus or Cirrus logo on the back, then MAYBE that might work. However, I am guessing that these preload cash cards and are not subject to the same rules and regulations that debit and credit cards. Again guessing but based on my prior experience with AM Express, that there are a number fees buried in these and AE may use a different exchange rate. You have to have a long talk with AE and read the fine print twice or more.

While we are on the subject, I received a gift of an Amex gift card and was wondering if I could use that in Italy when I go in October. Any thoughts?

Hi Liz
Just back from Italy. Used ATMs everywhere and at a 5% lower rate than taking Euros from home. I would definitely use the ATMs and forget the TCs.
Cathy

ATMs!!!

Hi Liz, we just got back from 5 weeks in europe and I would definately say ATM's rather than Trav Cheq. We used credit cards in Holland and France, but found that in Italy they want cash. Do make sure you have a "back up" plan if something goes wrong. My bank at home put a "5 day hold" on a cheque a colleague deposited for me while I was in Italy. I tried calling the bank collect(as they told me to do if I had a problem)and the operator would not connect the call. I ended up with a $130 phone bill on my visa, and a very frantic day of travel.