snorris

Just want to share a major problem with ATM withdrawals while in Italy 2 weeks ago. Arrived Rome & no problems withdrawing ATM funds except couldn't withdraw more than 250 euro. Arrived Florence 4 days later & no problems with 2 withdrawals but again not more than 250 euro. Arrived Venice 3 days later & couldn't withdraw any ATM funds at 4 different ATM machines. Went to 3 different banks before we were able to get an explanation from a very friendly teller. He stated that according to Italy bank laws you are unable to withdraw more than 250 euro daily & 1500 euro for the entire month no matter what your daily limit is from your bank back home. I don't know if this is correct but this is what happened to us. Also we could not get a cash advance on our Visa from any of these banks. We found a "Travel Ex" (some type of reasonable cash advance company) in Venice & were able to get a cash advance on our Visa for only a 5 euro charge but they limited you to a 207 euro advance on each Visa. This enabled us to get enough money to finish up our trip in Italy & then on to Switzerland. I will add that once in Switzerland for 5 days we had no problem getting our daily limit withdrawn from any ATM machine. I did read on another forum where this was discussed that some travelers had no problems with any withdrawal amount on ATM machines but I just thought I would share our particular problem as being in another country having money problems is not fun.

LoveItaly

Hi snorris, interesting thread because that is what I have tried to tell travellers in the past. It does not matter what your bank at home allows you to withdraw from your account, it is what the banks in Italy allow you to withdraw that matters.

I did not know about the maximm of $1500.00 euro, but I knew that the maximum per withdrawal was somewhere around $250.00.

I always take 2 ATM cards, different banks and consequently different checking accounts. Just in case of emergency. I have never attempted to get a cash advance on a Visa credit card so do not know anything about that.

Henry

snorris,
The teller lied to you. While an ATM in Italy may limit how much it will give you per transaction your home bank sets your daily limit. That means that if your daily limit at your bank is $2000 and the ATM in Italy transaction limit is 500 euro you can take out 500 euro, conclude your transaction, then reinsert your card and do it all again.
Last month I withdrew 500 euro from several different bankomats.
With many banks and many systems there is no way for the Italian banks to know how much you take out a month, only your home bank could limit you by the month. I took out over 1500 euro in one week.

xyz123

So the solution is dirt simple..

Keep cash expenditures down. Use your credit cards everywhere they are accepted for every purchase no matter how small or large and you won't need very much cash....

LoveItaly

Hi xyz, that is what I have always done. And I take some Euro with me, as I don't want to even think about an ATM when arriving in Italy. The few dollars I lose getting it in the USA is worth it to me.

greg

I also refute the 250 euro limit claim. I took out 300 EU at a time, 3 days in a row in March.

LoveItaly

Well guys, refute all you want. All I know is what my experiences have been. I always carry at least 2 different ATM cards from 2 different banks with me. Perhaps, a thought, the ATM's didn't had enough cash in them so the cash available was limited. A thought perhaps? For sure my account had enough money to cover the withdrawals. I never personally talked to a bank person in Italy about the problem.

I won't tell you what your experiences were, and please do NOT try to tell me what my experiences have been.

delvino

Wow, our trip (the last 2 weeks of May), we had encountered some of these same issues. Certain banks limited the amounts of cash that could be withdrawn (i.e. 250), while others did give me a higher amount (i.e. 500). Our bankcard (i.e. Citibank) allowed a pretty high daily withdrawal, I believe it is about $1,000, however, my Mom's allowed only $500. Our initial attempt to obtain cash on her card (which she'd never used before) failed. Calling the bank, they did remind her that the $500 limit took into account the translation of currency and any fee's imposed by the ATM.

We eventually were able to get Mom's card to work, but never for more than 350 euro. Her bank was a local community bank.

Our Citibank card did allow 500 euro withdrawals (at one time) from selected banks.

We'd not encountered these limitations in the past.

ira

Hi sn,

>..couldn't withdraw more than 250 euro.

This happens a lot. I have found that having 2 cards at 1 machine or going to another machine for another 250- 300 E works.

>..couldn't withdraw any ATM funds at 4 different ATM machines.

I think that you were either very unlucky or you were trying to make withdrawls at times when the ATM couldn't contact your bank's computer.

>.... explanation from a very friendly teller.

More friendly than informed.

Dick

I just got back from Italy and had no problem withdrawing 370 euro at a time....my bank daily limit was 500 usd.

It only cost me 1.50 per transaction without all of the nonsense fees that a CC would charge.

xyz123

I don't know...part of 2 travelling in Paris (Italy can't be all that different)

Breakfast €6 CASH
Metro Tickets CREDIT CARD
Museum Entrance CREDIT CARD
Lunch CREDIT CARD
Souvenirs CREDIT CARD
Eifel Tower Entrance - CREDIT CARD
CAFE STOP DRINKS €8/person CASH
Internet Cafe - €3 CASH

I think we had a very full day...total cash expenditure €20/person...total of €40/day so a withdrawal of €240 would last 6 days. I also found many taxis in Paris take credit cards...perhaps Italy is different. Even when I travel in North America, more and more fast food places are taking credit cards.

Yes I know you can blow a whole wad of cash on such things as petrol as many petrol stations do not take credit cards without chips...but the autoroutes that are tolled take credit cards.

Are there small towns where credit cards are not taken? I suppose so...I haven't run into that problem yet.

(I do understand that sometimes small flats one might rent for a week or so only want cash, that's a different story; might be tempted to take the cash with me for huge amounts like that but for every day living, can't see why people would not want to use credit cards and not worry too much about the next stop at the ATM)

JMHO

Sher

We were just in Portugal and were only able to withdraw 200E at a time from any of the ATM machines we used.

Usually that isn't a problem, but our lodging was all cash. So we had to make more withdrawals then we usually do.

So if a limit was imposed by the banks, this would present a problem. In our circumstance, we had to have cash.

Statia

I don't doubt anyone's personal experiences with ATM's or what they have been told by bank tellers, but we had no problem withdrawing 600 euro at a machine in Venice. Strange.

clevelandbrown

1. Your bank imposes a daily limit. Not knowing the exchange rate of the day, it is sometimes hard to guess just how many euro you can get with your $500 daily limit. In fact, it could change from day to day. I've not run into this, but I think your daily limit resets at midnight of your local bank's time zone, so it could reset in the middle of a European day. Also, if your local bank goes offline for maintenance or repairs, your card will not work during the outage. I know one of my banks tries to schedule these outages when people at home are asleep, but that doesn't help us when we are in a far time zone.

2. The owner of the ATM sets a transaction limit. I don't think a law governs this, because it seems to vary from machine to machine. My experience is that if you draw out an amount limited this way, you can just reinsert your card and do a second withdrawal (subject, of course, to your own daily limit).

I think the friendly teller was just trying to get rid of you. We like to rent apartments when we travel, and have gone over 1500 euro/month more than once.

I'm sorry for your troubles; you appear to have experienced just about everything that could go wrong with the ATM system that is, in my experience, very reliable.

In our neighborhood, many banks are offering totally free checking accounts, so we actually have multiple accounts (with cards for both me and my wife at each), and can transfer funds between accounts via the internet. Despite these precautions, we have never had to use other than our primary account, knock on wood.

Lovejoy

"But I think your daily limit resets at midnight of your local bank's time zone, so it could reset in the middle of a European day."

Not all banks work on a calendar day withdrawl limit.My bank limits me to my daily maximum limit on a moving 24 hour clock.For example if I withdraw my daily limit at 10:00AM on a Sunday I canot withdraw money again until 10:00 Monday.

platzman

I don't understand why you couldn't at least get a cash advance on your credit cards from the bank tellers. What was that about?

allanc

Never experienced a problem though I think that the most we withdrew at one time was 500E. We always pay cash for the places we stay and always get discount. Then withdraw enough money on the last day. Found this to be a good savings over using our credit card. Like others, we always travel with 2 ATM cards-for money and for safety(keep them seperate from each other) in case we are the victims of a pickpocket-which we were in Naples.

snorris

platzman - don't ask me. We didn't understand either. Were just told by all 3 banks that they do not give cash advances on Visas. One guy in one of the banks said "no speak English". My husband kept asking questions & he finally understood our English & replied the bank doesn't give cash advances on Visas. Short of robbing the bank we gave up & left.

ed

It helps if you call your bank and tell them that you are going to be out of the country.

They may make adjustments to the limit.

:-B

P.S. I had big troubles with ATM's in Venice but nowhere else

mercy

Recently in Italy, I attempted to use my ATM card at a Bank of Rome. The card was accepted and I put in the amount I wished to withdraw--350 euros. Usually, there is a whir and eventually the door opens and money appears and a print-out arrives. None of this happened. I went in to the bank and a teller told me the machine did not work--there was no indication of this on the ATM.

I proceeded to another bank--tried my card; this time, I got the message "over the limit." Since I had gotten nothing at the first ATM, this made no sense. Called the US and my husband went to the local bank and after some discussions, was told that $470 had been withdrawn from our account at approx. the time I was using the ATM in Rome--interesting??

The ATM card provider was contacted and she directed him to get all the info on bank location, address, etc. and told him that what probably had happened was that the ATM was out of money, but had taken my ATM info and processed it. Told him to have me wait 24 hours, and to try my card again. This is because of the $500 per day limit, he was told. In 24 hours, at another bank, no problem.

A temporary credit was issued to our account and we were told it would be resolved in about 90 days, as they were dealing with a foreign bank. We recently received a letter saying that the credit had been authorized and our account credited. Thank Heavens!!

I did have another card that I could have used and also had enough cash to exchange if necessary, but wanted to resolve this origional problem.

One never knows what might happen and I can certainly sympathize with the origional poster. mhm