Dawn

Has anyone been able to get italian lira travelers checks? We plan on using our credit card as often as possible and our ATM card but want to limit this as much as possible since our bank charges $5 per transaction out of the US. American Express says that they don't make travelers checks for Italy. Are they the only company that has travelers checks? Any suggestions? (we don't want to bring American $ checks, don't really see a point) A couple of places that we are staying don't accept credit cards and said that we can pay by travelers checks or cash.

Al

Take along a few travelers' checks merely as a safety backup. They don't have to be denominated in lira. In fact, being denominated in U. S. dollars they will actually gain in value if current trends continue over coming months. The U. S. dollar is on an upswing against almost all other currencies. As long as interest rates in the U. S. continue their upward march, look for this to continue. Send Mr. Greenspan a 'thank you' note when you come home.

xxx

In over ten years' of traveling, I have never heard of travelers' checks issued in Italian Lira by any company readily available to Americans. <BR> <BR>The government has experienced too many roller coaster ups and downs in the past 50 years. You'll notice that even the best "spreads" on Italian Lira are always twice or three times the spereads on USD, GBP or DEM. Same phenomenon as with a penny stock. It's just inherently more volatile to be long or short their currency.

Jack

I would suggest that you change banks.A $5.00 charge per transaction is outrageous. My bank allows 2 charge free withdrawals per month anywhere and $1.50/transaction after that. I use Bank of America

elvira

Get your TC's in $US - if you don't use them all, you can deposit them into your bank acct at home (as xxx pointed out, you lose on the spread when you buy the lira, and again when you sell, which you'd have to do if you didn't use all the lira-denominated TCs). <BR> <BR>And ditto what Jack said - find yourself another bank. $5 per withdrawal is highway robbery (I have two banks, and one charges $2 and the other $1.50). If you don't have time to change banks, and your ATM card is a debit card (Visa or Mastercard), you can get money from a cambion or a bank teller - it goes through as a "merchant transaction" - unless, of course, your bank has a fee for THAT.

dawn

Tell me about it..it is highway robbery for the $5 charge though don't get any other monthly charges from them (Fleet bank for all of you north easterners) We have another debit/visa card from another bank and are thinking of just depositing a large sum into that account before we go and just use that card ($.75 per transaction) We only have $2 in that account as of now (my husband never officially closed it when we moved) but are worried as to what would happen if for some strange reason that card didn't work (though I can't imagine that it wouldn't) and we wouldn't have enough $ in the other account to cover the trip. Does anyone know what the limit is for how much money you can take out per day at an ATM? I don't remember this problem on our last trip, I must not have given much thought to it and remember using the ATM card from the other bank.

Sjoerd

Officially, the Italian lira does NOT exist anymore. (since 1 January 1999, when the euro replaced the ITL and 9 other currencies) <BR>In practice, until 1 January 2002 you will still use lira banknotes and coins in Italy, as euro coins and banknotes will only be introduced in January 2002. <BR>The exchange rate between lira and euro is fixed and will never change again. So you could ask your bank for euro traveller's cheques.