Euro

Doesn't matter, use your debit card to get Euros there, not here. Check out a card without foreign transaction fees.

If you're suggesting buying EUR before your trip, I wouldn't do it.

I don't believe that a US debit card will be accepted for anything other than ATM withdrawals, so it's either credit cards or cash. As far as cash goes, the amount of EUR you'll need to withdraw over a month totally depends on your buying patterns and what types of restaurants and shops you frequent (meaning you can choose to go to moms and pops or stick more to those that accept cards). My advice is to play it by ear, take out some relatively small amount at first (say 100 EUR) and watch your spending patterns over a few days to see how long it takes you to go through that amount. Then adjust your withdrawals accordingly. I only take out cash as I need it - I don't try to predict how much I'll need for an entire month because it's too hard to know without actually being on the ground and seeing how it goes. I've been to some places where I hardly took out any cash at all over the entire trip because it was so easy to use my credit card. Your experience may be different. Obviously make sure you have enough in your checking account to withdraw whatever you'll need.

Should have mentioned I'm from Australia. Very good advice.First time traveling.

They probably use ATM and credit cards for more transactions than we do. Credit cards are used just about everywhere.
I try not to use my ATM card as cardholders don't have the legal rights with ATMs that we have with U.S. issued credit cards.I
And I have more than one credit card and more than one ATM card as a backup. I try not to use my Wells Fargo ATM card because they charge $5 plus 5% for cash withdrawals--excessive.

Good point re debit card protection not as good as credit card. Will do credit card where possible, and cash.have lots of other questions regarding Italy😊

You know the saying "Carrying coals to New Castle". Why pay extra for EUR notes, which are a rare commodity in Australia and take them with you to Europe, where there are literally billions of them sitting in ATM's all over the continent. And those ATM's can talk to your bank in Australia and do the transaction in about two seconds.

Thank you GB.Dont know why l would think that it's any different to New York or Vietnam, have been to both ,and did exactly what you have said🤔😣

I live in Oz and I use a foreign currency 'cash card' from my bank, which I load with native currency before I leave. This mitigates losses should the card be lost or stolen and also reduces fees. I have an app on my mob which allows me to top-up the card mid-trip if I need to, or move balances between currencies if I visit more than one country.

You can also use the card to withdraw cash from ATMs.

I don't believe fee-free cash cards are available in the US yet. We're often behind.

We do have products that are superficially similar, but they seem (based on posts here and information I've seen elsewhere) to have fees out the wazoo. You blink and there's a fee. In addition, some people (often members of student tours who don't yet have their own bank accounts and credit cards) arrive in Europe only to discover that the card doesn't work at all.

Steves 8,l used one in N Y from NAB had way to many fees.l ended up using credit.That was 2014.,might have changed🤔

Yikes!
I have used my debit card from a US credit union forever .
It has no foreign transaction fee. And if I use it 13 times during the month I get all my bank fees returned international and/or domestic. I let the Credit union know before I leave the country and they monitor transactions as well as I do with a secure Internet site.
Not sure if they have anything like that where you are located.
Hence, I carry few euros with me when I arrive and get euros as I need them from an ATM.

For large purchases, I use a credit card with no foreign transaction fees. The the conversion rate euros to dollars has been super on the card.

Yes we have same here.l have citi bank no fees .
I want to thank you all so much for great information 👍

I agree with the previous posters regarding using the cash machine. We were cautious about the security of using a debit card with our main bank account, however. We set up a separate 'travel account' and use a no-transaction-fee debit card to access cash at foreign ATMs. If we find our travel dollars dwindling too quickly, it's an easy matter to use our bank's smartphone app to transfer funds.

We used our Canadian Credit cards, but every few day to a week we would pull cash out. No fees to pull it out and way better exchange rate than exchanging here. We didn't want to carry too much cash on us, so we just stopped at the bank more frequently.

We took 50 Euro cash with us just in case we needed cash on hand right away, however even the coffee machine in the airport (it was amazing btw) took visa!

Here in Canada depending on who you bank with it says either Plus or Cirrus on the back of our debit card .. then we figured out which banks there were best to accept our cards.

tz79, I think you mean that you used your Canadian debit/ATM card, not your credit card, right? Using a credit card in an ATM means you're taking a cash advance, and that is very expensive indeed.