Limit on ATM Withdrawls ?

Some machines will show 200E and 250E. Select the 250E and you may not get that much. Even though I contacted my bank in advance, I was limited to 200E. Occasionally, I saw a machine with a 210E pick. This machine would give me 210E. I think I got a slight case of carpal tunnel syndrome lifting my hand and wrist to the ATM slot during our 3 week stay in Italy and Switzerland. Great fun with the money, however.

It varies first of all by your bank. Most banks allow $250 per day, sometimes $300, sometimes more. It has been rising over the years. It is possible to ask your bank to raise your limit, at least for your trip, but I have not had luck with my bank. This will of course limit dollars, Euros for $250 will be a little under 200 Euro. Beyond that, some specific ATMs may limit withdrawals, and Italy seems to get mentioned more than other destinations. An ATM attached to a bank may be more liberal in disbursements. For a family, daily limits can be an issue, in that case, you may want to consider opening a second account, even if it is at a second bank.

Your daily limit in local currency is the same as at home, which is set by your bank or credit union. €250 is about $340; $400 is about €295 at todays's (8/28) exchange rate. If that is too low, you can ask your bank to raise the amount. Suggest you also open a second small account at a different institution, as cards have been known to be rejected for no good reason on some days at some ATMs.

Jennifer,
There are two limits. One is the amount that you can withdraw per day and this is set by your bank. The second is the transaction limit set by the machine you use. A 250 euro transaction limit is common but I regularly withdraw 500 euro in one transaction. If the bankomat will not let me withdraw 500 euro in one transaction I just make two withdrawals at 250 euro.

You cannot exceed your bank's daily limit but you can perform multiple transactions. You can request that your bank increase your daily limit.

We opened a Capitol One Money Market account and requested ATM cards for the account. The daily withdrawal limit is $500US vs. $250 from our bank.

Additionally, there are no ATM fees levied by Capitol One. We'll still need to pay the fee charged by the bank that we use overseas, but no fee from a bank in the US.

The MM account earns about 5% interest when acting like a savings account.

Key bank allowed us to withdraw 250E per account per day. It also didn't charge us any fees, although the ATMs in Europe did.