I know that shoes have been addressed many times. We are leaving for Italy next week. I have purchased leather, Borne, flip-flop style shoes. Are these okay? All of the "comfortable" sandals I find are sooo unattractive, and the straps rub the top of my foot. Second question: Bank of America says they do not have any reciprocal ATM machines in Italy, so we are planning on taking lots of cash. Is it easy to use traveler's cheques, or are they a hassle? We are trying to find a way to protect ourselves in the event we are pickpocketed or we lose our money, so we thought we would take a portion of our "cash" in traveler's cheques. Thanks - Mary
Posted by
Atlanta
800 posts
Mary - my take on your questions:
Shoes - only you would know if you can walk around all day in flip flops. I cannot so I always wear walking sandals that have a strap on the back and nothing between my toes. My daughter, on the other hand, did 3 weeks in Europe including Italy with 2 different pairs of heavy duty (i.e. not the cheap rubber shower shoes) flip flops and she was fine.
Travelers Checks - yes, they are a hassle. You need to find a bank to cash them. You may be charged a fee to get the TC in the first place. You will probably be charged either a flat out fee or a not-favorable exchange rate when you do exchange them in Italy.
Taking cash - If I were afraid of pickpockets I would not want to take lots of cash with me, because then I'd have a lot to lose.
BofA and fees - bottom line on this (though I would verify it with BofA of course) is that you will be charged $5.00 per ATM withdrawl and 1% of the total as your foreign transaction fee. Compare this to what you will be charged to get TC and perhaps someone else can give you and idea of what you will be charged to cash those TC. Then compare the costs. If you want to use the TC as backup, in case your card doesn't work, that is one thing but I would never take "lots of cash" myself and I haven't used TC in Europe since 2000.
Posted by
Carbondale, IL, USA
1201 posts
Mary, would not suggest taking lots of cash on your trip. Danger of losing it. Travelers checks are not very convenient any more. Your ATM card will most likely still work in Italy, but BoA will charge you a $5 per transaction fee for using a foreign ATM and then a currency conversion fee. You will still get a better bank to bank conversion rate than at the currency exchange. With the fee, you could try to limit your ATM trips to higher withdrawal amounts.
As to shoes, there are a ton of threads. Just make sure you break them in before you get there. You will be doing a great deal more walking than you normally do at home, even if you think you won't. So maybe take you old comfy broken in shoes before a new pair. Or at least wear the new ones 24/7 before you leave.
Posted by
Minneapolis, MN, USA
8700 posts
There are some important things to do BEFORE leaving home to be sure your credit cards and ATM cards will work in Europe. Read Rick's helpful article on this subject.
Posted by
Newport Beach, CA, USA
769 posts
just wanted to point out - the BofA ATM fees are 3% for foreign transactions and exchanges
Posted by
Atlanta
800 posts
Tom - I thought that BofA was 3% for all foreign transactions as well. When I checked my statement for last summer in Italy I found I was charged the $5.00 plus only 1% of the total withdrawn from the ATM. Getting a straight answer out of BofA is difficult and you can never be sure the answer won't change if you get another person, but I did call them this week to ask about their fees. They told me that the 3% was only for purchases made using the Visa option of my debit card. I never used the card as a Visa, only for ATM withdrawls. They said that it was indeed 1% for non-partner ATM's. Since I never bother to look for partners, I cannot verify that they would charge 0 for their partners. It seems their fee schedules change often so it is always a good idea to call and try to get the most current info.
BTW - since I got so fed up with BofA and their fees, I did change this year to Charles Schwab - no fees. It was great.
Posted by
Portland, OR, USA
805 posts
I know folks are down on Traveler's Checks but I think they're actually useful for this reason alone. Namely, sometimes your ATM and credit cards will not work (this happened for 24 hours due to satellite problems during a trip in 1998) and without traveler's checks you may find yourself without any $. I therefore think it is smart to bring a few hundred dollars in traveler's checks along in case of emergency.
Posted by
Fort Wayne, IN, USA
2349 posts
Shoes-remember you don't so much break in your shoes, as you get your feet used to them. Where blisters might begin, or sometimes the wrong shoes will cause heel pain to flare up. You need to know that before you go.
TC-If you're taking $200 in TC in case of card problems, why not just save the fees and take US cash? You could still exchange but wouldn't have to pay for the initial purchase of TC.