What if I need more Euros than ATM can provide?

I think short answer is, bank. Ask local banks if they can get you euros, it shouldn't be that hard for them. Or if it is, give them enough time to make it happen. I guess worst case scenario, go to a nearby large city and do the changing.

Here in LA you can go to banks or money changers so we have a choice.

This is what I did: called my bank, got a temporary increase, went to the ATM at the airport in Italy and got the euro. The bank will probably ask several questions (for your own security), how much you need per day, how many days. You may need to go to a couple of different ATM machines, if there are limits at the machine.

I think the daily limit is set by your bank whereas the Atm limit is per transaction. You can enter a bank with many ATMs during their opening hours and make many withdrawals.

PS You realize that they want to be paid in cash to cheat on taxes? Let's forget you break the local rules any time you pay more than € 1,999 in cash. What really matters is that without fiscal receipts you have no legal protection in case of dispute about their services or the quality of the goods they provide.

Rather than risk carrying large amounts of cash and possibly having to explain to customs officials why you have so much, pay in advance electronically through your bank. You may have to pay a small fee, but it would be safer than carrying cash.

On any given day, one of my local bank branches - but not all of their branches - deals in currencies and has lots of Euros on hand, though perhaps not 2-3,000. If I wanted to be sure of them having sufficient Euros on hand, I can order it through their website in advance and pick it up at that branch that handles currencies. A subset of the tellers is certified for currency transactions, so I get assigned to their window when I arrive and let them know.

Order online (for delivery or pickup) from Wells Fargo:
https://www.wellsfargo.com/foreign-exchange/

Order online from Bank of America:
https://www.bankofamerica.com/foreign-exchange/foreign-currency-exchange/

Ordering online on both sites require that you be a customer: checking, savings or credit card. I don't know if that's required at a branch. Again, not all branches will carry currency, and those that do may not have the quantity on hand that you need.

If you or a family member belongs to a credit union they will frequently order currency at the exchange rate with no fee.
My credit union provides the service and currency is delivered to credit union for me to pickup.

AAA can also get you currency at a decent rate.

I like Jennifer's answer. Even if you don't want to do it ahead of time, arrange a debit from you US bank account. Easy, safe, and you'll have documentation.

I'm not recommending this for services not yet received, but it appears from other posts on this forum that TransferWise can move money for you at a considerably lower cost than your bank. Quite a number of folks on here (not I) have used TransferWise to pay European traffic fines and perhaps also for rental deposits.

If you do end up taking cash with you, be aware that you won't get through security at your outbound US airport wearing a money belt. If you have to go back through security at a connection point along the way, you may well have the same problem there. The moneybelt will need to be in your purse or carry-on bag as you go through security. Yes, it is a scary.

How many people are in your traveling party? Perhaps together everyone could withdraw enough for your needs. You could deposit the funds in their accounts before you leave. Another idea would be to take dollars to Europe and then change them into euros at a bank.

I don't know what other peoples experiences have been, but I think I've withdrawn up to 500€ at a time. As KBK suggests, if you can get multiple people to withdraw the max, you can get it done.

But if you want it in hand before you go, check with your bank, depending where you live. Yes it will cost you fees and a poor rate, but if you want it, its there. My bank charges a flat rate fee per transaction, plus a hit on the exchange rate. My AAA (each state AAA is independent) has even crappier rates.

I dont think most banks overseas will exchange for dollars for non-customers anymore. Unless they operate their own exchange office, and you're back to crappy rates. If you take US dollars, make sure they are clean and not torn.

Hmmm, I guess I am an outlier in all of this. I have no worries or concerns about bring a large amount of euros with me when I travel from the states. That being said, if you do need to withdraw euros from a bank once there I would suggest making certain that you do so in a major city and at a major bank. You may want to check in advance to see if the bank you select is amenable to giving you several thousand euros based on your debit card. Also note that your debit card may have a daily limit of what can be withdrawn in cash. The bank cannot necessarily override this amount. You may want to have some sort of cashier's check from your bank to present that will give you the available funds required.

Best of luck!

I will second Dario's comment... for amounts greater than, say, 1,000 euros for a single vendor, please don't encourage tax fraud and insist on a bank transfer. There are many restrictions on max cash payments around Europe for that reason: €2,000 in Italy, €1,000 in France, probably others too.

Your best rate with low fees is via a money broker. You can have funds sent internationally using Wise, formerly TransferWise. I don't know what their minimum is. It works similar to Bill Pay on your US bank. But if you ask your bank to do it, you'll get a worse rate and pay an overseas wire.
Brokers have US banks, so you don't pay a wire fee on a domestic transfer from your bank to the broker ( at least I don't), but your bank may charge $60 if you want them to wire overseas for you. The larger the broker, the more currency they transfer daily.
Besides Wise, which is good for small sums, there's also Currencies Direct, Money Corps, AFEX. You load your account with the broker and then register the recipients' IBAN etc. I have used Wise and Money Corps. I don't know what their minimum transfer is

How many are in your party. When we needed liras to pay our hotel bill in cash in Istanbul we pooled our money together over several days. That said, paying everyone in cash for wedding vendors is a recipe for disaster. If anything goes wrong and it can, you have no documentation of paying and vendors can claim that you didn't.

I'd be wary.

My daily limit is $500. However, when I tried to get 450€ or so, upon arrival the bank locked my account and I needed to call it. Even though I filed a travel notification, for whatever reason the large withdrawal on the first day triggered something in the bank’s system. Essentially, ensure the bank notes you’ll be making some large transactions upon arrival.

If they don't accept payment with credit card (because they want to save the commission), ask to pay with a money transfer ('bonifico bancario' in Italian).

Ask them to provide you with the IBAN (International Bank Account Number) e the BIC/SWIFT code for their bank account.

My bank (Chase) charges $0 commission for international wire money transfers over $5000 and $5 for amounts under $5000, so it's not that large of a commission. Check with your bank institution.

If they want to be paid in hard cash only (not even with a 'bonifico') and with no receipt/invoice, then it is clear that their intention is not just to save on the credit card commission (about 2%-3%) charged by the bank for the POS transaction, but not to report the VAT tax on the sale (22%) and to underreport their income tax. The Italian government has introduced a limit on cash payment of 2000 euro (it will be 1000 euro after 1/1/2022) to the same person on the same day, and sanctions range from a minimum of 2000 to a max of 250,000 per violation, but who's going to find out?

Check with Schwab, I couldn't find it, but the daily limit is for them is like $1000, so in a couple days, you could swing it.

Any other option in exchange is going to cost you 5% on up, whether you are getting it here, or there.

Another option is to check your credit cards for Cash Advance options. One of mine offers a 2% fee and no Foreign Exchange Conversion fee. You would need to check the Dollar limit, but the $4000 to $5000 range is not unusual. The Cash Advance would be done at an ATM there. Easier and cheaper than exchange, and you can avoid carrying large sums around.

The 250 euro limit is something in place at some machines, with a little searching you can find one that is not limited (likely one at a Bank) or resort to multiple transactions.

DeutcheBank brand ATMs in Italy have historically given our staff more than 1,000 euros per withdrawal, but ONLY if your home bank has already raised your daily withdrawal limit above that point. Perhaps this is not enough of a certainty if your time is short upon arrival.

Also, be aware of the growing tendency for ATMs to charge for Dynamic Currency Conversion - that is showing you a withdrawal total in dollars (at a poorer rate) rather than strictly in euros (the only number you should see onscreen) to be converted in the background by your bank.

DCC:
at an ATM today, the French bank offered to convert at .80 per dollar, whereas this morning Wise quoted .846. I know that Andrews Federal Credit Union will do better than .80. Proof, yet again, to avoid DCC.

Roberto--I'll check out your bank with the $5 fee.

I haven't been to Italy since 2015 and don't know the current situation there, but a lot of ATMs in many European countries have started charging for withdrawals unless your ATM card comes from a partner bank. Sometimes it's a flat fee; sometimes it looks as if it's a percentage of the amount being withdrawn; once it appeared to be a combination. I have always been able to find a no-fee ATM after trying a few, but that is not something everyone is willing to fool with, and in this situation (needing to make multiple transactions quickly at the beginning of the trip) it would be an annoyance.

DCC is likely to cost you more than a fee charged by an ATM, so that's the most important thing to avoid--other than theft of the cash, that is. Which isn't a trivial concern with so much money involved. You wouldn't want to stand on the street, stuffing it into your moneybelt.

Very interesting the different views here of the Americans v Europeans......

My Schwab daily limit is $1,000 -- individual ATM's may have a lower limit so you could need to hit several ATM's. Our last trip to Italy I noticed bank fees (all reimbursed by Schwab automatically on the month-end statement.) Paid for an apartment in cash, and I made sure I got a clear receipt, which paid off when we checked out with another employee who had no knowledge of our earlier payment.

My Capitol One 360 account also has a $1000 daily limit. I wouldn't expect a random ATM to cough that much in a single transaction, though in theory one might.

Many, many, many years ago when we lived in Italy - and before electronic money transfer systems became the norm - we had to deal with CASH transactions. For example, when relocating overseas we needed to make our initial rent payment (which was usually 4 months rent for a deposit plus the 1st month). When we moved to Denmark, our Italian bank required that we close our account... so again, we were forced to deal with securing Danish Kroner. Now, we have multiple IBAN accounts, and electronic transfers in Europe and to the USA are pretty much a monthly norm for us. (My wife is paid locally in Euro; I am paid in the USA in USD).

How did we deal with needing cash years ago? On some occasions, we carried money to Europe in money belts. Back then - and I believe it's still the same - we were allowed to carry up to $10,000 USD without having to complete any customs paperwork (which led to another set of questions). So, when we HAD TO - especially when paying apartment deposits - we strapped on the moneybelts. We also - each month in Italy - paid our rent in CASH (Our landlord was a retired schoolteacher...).

In addition, because we were waiting on my wife's employer to process "her paperwork" we went for months without an Italian bank account. Thus, cash was king, and we literally hid money all over the house (Looking back, it's SORT OF funny...). But we also were dependent on our USA accounts to finance our needs - and that meant using ATMs.

Our USA bank then was Bank of America. Through research, we learned their local Italian partner was BNL d'Italia. Whereas local ATMs did not charge a fee to pull money out, BofA charged $5 per withdrawal. But if you used a BNL d'Italia ATM, there was no $5 fee. We also learned that the transaction limit for BNL d'Italia ATMs was 500€ (other Italian banks had limits as low as 250€). Before leaving the USA, we "raised" our daily ATM limit to $2000 USD. So you're dealing not just with your USA daily bank debit or credit card limit, but also the local ATM maximum transaction amount limit.

And thus, when we needed CASH - primarily for rent - we would head to a BNL d'Italia ATM and do multiple transactions of 500€ until we pulled out the money we needed. We'd immediately stuff it into a money belt. And until we established a local banking account, this went on for a few months in both Italy & Denmark --- or when we had a LARGE transaction that exceeded the money in our local accounts.

Now, we use multiple services to transfer money locally - primarily through our ERSTE and ABN-AMRO accounts. Having an IBAN account number is a lifesaver, although we do interact, on occasion, through the SWIFT/BIC system in the USA.

Here in the Netherlands, we hardly ever carry ANY cash (perhaps coin for a restroom). We primarily rely on Google Pay (we have Andriod Phones) or our local bank debit cards. The only time I now use my USA bank debit card is when I arrive at a USA airport when home for a visit. Unfortunately, I face sort of the opposite problem as my local EU debit cards will not work in the USA!