Getting of the plane and first ATM use

First, if you only have a $500 limit you can't expect more than €300 to come out of the machine.

In my experience in Germany, the first €100 is in smaller bills. After the first 100, the rest is in €100 bills.

Tom, Check with your bank on the daily limit from an ATM. 900 Euro is about $1400. Many banks have a much lower daily limit than that.

ATMs will typically give you 20 and/or 50 Euro bills. Use your large bills whenever you have the opportunity (restaurants, hotels, etc.) so that you have change when you need it.

I would suggest that no matter what you do in advance preparation, you won't get 700-900 Euro out of an ATM within 1-2 days. We contacted our two banks in advance and had everything setup. It didn't make much difference. The most we got was 300Euro. Then, you have to wait 24 hours to withdraw again from the same account.

You might get close if you are withdrawing from two different accounts. Or, you can pay the 5% fee and get the Euros before departue from your local bank. We did that as we had to pay cash for a cooking class just after arriving. We had the cash in hand and didn't need to worry about the ATM. It worked out better for us.

Thanks for the replies, and it's encouraging that smaller bills may emerge. My bank advises that my daily limit is $2,000 (Chas Schwab) and no ATM fees either. I will of course advise that I am out of the country as I've learned to do that from experience. Had a card shut off, only to find a message on answering machine when I got home. I don't even travel to another state now without advising of my plans.

Tom, be careful, because the "Network" (Visa, M/C, Cirrus, Plus, et al) always charges 1% to your bank for paying the European ATM operator and collecting from your bank (this is called a cross border transaction fee) plus for converting the currency from € to $. Unless your bank chooses to absorb this "fee" (I believe only Cap One, maybe a few CUs, do this), it will be passed on to you, whether they show it or not. "No fee" might just mean that they don't add another $1 or $2 for using an out of system ATM. And, technically, if they add 2% or 3% for converting the currency themselves, that is a charge, not a fee. Make very sure you know what your banks fees and CHARGES will be.

The one exception I know of is Bank of America, which has its own agreement with a few European banks (Barkleys, Deutsche Bank, etc). They exchange money directly with those banks, and there is no "Network" charge, but you have to use ATMs belonging to those banks.