Madelaine Dalton

Do you believe this. I have never used an ATM card! Understand from this forum, it is the only way to travel. My small local bank offers ATM using "Cirrus" which they say is huge and good world wide. Am I o.k. in England and France with this type of ATM card? Your help is appreciated by a country bumpkin! <BR>

anna

Never had any trouble finding a machine that took Cirrus in London. Usually passed by several everyday. Never been to France, but in Denmark even the tiniest little island we went to had one right at the ferry landing. Your bank should have a book that lists locations and I believe Cirrus has a website where you can search locations by city. Type Cirrus into any search engine. <BR>

barbara

You can use Cirrus at virtually any bank in France -- we traveled in Paris, Normandy, and Brittany, and never had a problem.

AllanJ

You should definitely get an ATM card, it's much more convenient than using traveler's checks. You'll have no trouble using it in England or France.<BR><BR>Travel tips:<BR>http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/travel.htm<BR>

StCirq

Your ATM card is definitely the way to go in France. You will get the best exchange rate that way, and be able to access you account for money in just about every location.

ab

Using your ATM card is the best way nowadays, in my opinion. Up to last year we used traveler's checks but after many positive comments, this year we brought two ATM cards and our Visa cards. Using the ATM's are so simple; in Paris we looked for BNP Paribas' ATM's because they're connected to our bank's Plus system. There are many other logos that are accepted and Cirrus should be one of them. They give you a choice of language to do the transactions and it's the same procedures as home. Receipt follows at the end with a conversion in francs.

Patrick

No problem finding ATMs to take it, but since you are a novice at this, I suggest one thing.<BR>Check with your bank and make sure that this card is actually taking money from your checking account. Also ask them what your bank will charge for the service of doing so, as well as what your daily limit is for withdrawals. I sent friends off to Europe who thought they were withdrawing from their checking, but actually their &quot;bank card&quot; was a credit card and they were &quot;borrowing&quot; money from that credit card account. Those cards will charge you interest from the day you take it out of the machine as well as some pretty hefty extra fees.

read

Madelaine is asking this question over 4 years ago!

Patrick

Duh. When am I going to learn to look at the dates on these things when I answer them. I understand the idea of someone topping a thread when it is relevant to current discussion, but banking and the use of ATMs and money handling has changed drastically in the last 4 plus years. Bringing this thread to the top, especially when there are many similar ones from recent or current dates, is nothing short of stupidity!<BR><BR>As mentioned on another of these old threads, apparently this character named Alan, who doesn't have a clue how this is supposed to work, is bringing up &quot;eye-catching&quot; old threads so that he can add his website information as illegal advertising. I wish Fodors could just ban all posts from him.

Elisa

No problem using ATM in England &amp; France. I recommend, as I did, changing your PIN to a 4-digit # in case it is more now. I've heard some of the ATM's only recognize 4-digits, so I changed mine b4 I traveled which was easy, &amp; I had no hassels. Have fun.

anon

Read the date is right! AlanJ strikes again. Let's be more aware of the orginal post date, folks. This guy is pulling up ancient threads for no apparent reason except to see his name in &quot;print&quot;. It's a colossal waste of our time.