Euros --- Here or there ???

Having Euros in your pocket when you arrive is a "comfort level" thing. There are usually ATMs at the airport although we didn't find one at the Florence airport. Also, it's usually expensive at the airport, especially if you use the Travelex-type ATM. For our first trip, we too bought 200Euros at Wells Fargo. We paid 3% as our daughter works for WF. We needed a lot of cash for a cooking class the day after we arrived. We did assemble enough through ATMs but it was a comfort level thing. As for debit/ATM cards, most have transaction fees. However, our Schwab card reimburses all of our fees. I see ads on TV the Fidelity now does this as well. So do numerous credit unions. Here's a LINK to the latest info on FlyerGuid.com regarding rates. As a separate matter, our Chase Visa has begun charging 3% on regular Visa purchases. This is new. Again, our Schwab debit/Visa doesn't but our Chase Visa card does. It was a surprise on our trip last fall to France.

you would need to determine if the WF rate has any other fees associated with it, but as a comparision, from an ATM right now, you would pay between $1.23 and $1.24 plus any ATM transaction fees your bank charges. Generally the ATM will be your best rate and getting in the US not a very good deal. It would not hurt to get some Euros (200?) to have as a pad when you get there, but buying large quantities now to hedge future rates rarely pays off.

The standard answer to this nearly daily question is, - A debit card at a bank owned ATM is the cheapest and most convenient way to obtain local currency EVEN if your debit cards charges conversion and/or user fees. - Of course, the best deal is a debit card that charges no fees. The Euro at the moment is $1.22, the ATM exchange in Europe will be about $1.23 so assuming your quote was from yesterday you are paying WF about 5% which is reported to be WF standard mark up. Buy a 100E for pocket change and get the rest for an ATM.

We got $1.2387 today in Siena, which is about what I would expect based on the current interbank rate. Currency exchange in Florence is $1.33. We brought 300€ with us so that we would have money when we landed, but we have had NO trouble finding or using ATMs here in Italy.

There.

What airport are you flying into? We have never had a problem finding a BANK ATM at the airports we have flown into. Make sure it is bank owned, not a TravelEx type of machine. Don't forget to notify your bank and credit card companies that you will be traveling, the dates, and every country you will be in, even if it is just a layover. I also have the phone numbers for the fraud departments, just in case there is a problem. It happened to me once. I got cash at the Amsterdam airport. No problem. The next time I needed cash I was in Paris. They had put a hold on my debit card. They called my house and my brother told them I was in Europe. I still had to call them to straighten it out. Luckily I had a back up debit card attached to a different account. It is a good idea to have back up debit and credit cards, just in case. I also have about $200 with me, in case I need to do an emergency exchange. I never have, but you just don't know what might happen.

I have a TD Bank checking account, and to my pleasant surprise, they don't charge a foreign transaction fee either for the ATM or for using the debit card like a credit card to buy things. I also changed my checking account to a special one that reimburses any other bank's ATM fees, but I don't think any of the ATMs in Italy charged an ATM fee. I looked up ahead of time where the ATM was in the Venice airport (and also bought by boat voucher online ahead of time) and actually arrived in Italy with NO euros (and only about $100US).

Dennis, that is better than I got at WF when I purchased euros prior to my trip at the end of June (which was $1.33)

Dennis, the WF rate is about as good as there is, short of using European ATMs. I like to take a few hundred Euro with me; we keep a stash of Euro (including coins - toilette money!) from each trip, and store it with our passports between trips. If you're a WF acct holder, and you buy at the bank, you don't pay any extra. If not, you'll pay a few dollars for being a non-acct holder, and if you order online and don't order at their threshold level, you'll pay for that, too. Just go into a branch and buy them (be sure they have Euro, first!) I've always been offered a choice of bills, too - €5, 10, 20, 50, or 100 bills. Get some small bills; you'll get plenty of harder-to-spend-on-a-beer €100 bills from the ATM. It's not absolutely necessary to bring some with you, but they come in handy sometimes! So yes, you'll spend a few dollars (like $5 or something; NOT $75) on buying $300-400 Euro. It's just not that big of a deal to me. And bring some home ;-)

I never got a 100 euro bill from an ATM. The biggest I ever got was a 50 euro bill. (in fact it was always five 20s and three 50s for me, as 250 euros seems to be the max almost everywhere) That said, if I converted ahead of time, I'd be worried about carrying all of my travel money with me at all times. It gives me much greater peace of mind to just withdrawal as needed. Plus, I think as stated above, it's at least as cost effective, if not cheaper to just use ATMs when you get there.

I would get Euros once there normally but that rate is much cheaper than when I was traveling there. Tough call but would not hurt to get some Euros depending on their fee. Check that too when comparing.