geoflag

Has anyone bought Euros through any of the on-line services, ie. foreignexchange.com? We'll be flying in late in the afternoon (from the US) and our B&B wants cash, Euros, up front. Their current exchange rate is 1.37 with no fees or shipping charges. Any comments? Thanks.

travelinsue

Ask at your bank if you can get Euros through them. You'll probably get a better exchange rate. We have successfully purchased Euros, Yen & Swiss Francs through our bank. We are about to order British Pounds for our upcoming trip.

janisj

Get your € from an ATM at the airport. If both of you have ATM cards you can get even more.

And you'll only pay about $1.27 give or take per €

Neopolitan

You need an ATM card attached to your bank account. When you arrive, use an ATM and get the cash. Problem solved.
If you need more than 400 or 500 euros for that first night (expensive B&B?) you might have to use a second ATM or use a second card or a second account.
I don't need to know what country you are flying to, as every airport in any country using euros has a number of ATMs.

Budman

I would get Euros at the ATM in the airport, unless you don't mind paying the extra 6-7% to get them elsewhere.

bob_brown

No fee! Not likely.

The wholesale bank rate right now as of 12:55 on August 1, 2006 is $1.2814 = €1.00. You are paying 7% above the wholesale bank rate.

If not a fee I guess you could call it a service charge.

If you really need the euros in currency form NOW, then you may well have to go ahead and do it.

AAA normally charges about 5% over wholesale for travelers' checks, but many businesses in Europe don't want the things.

Try your local bank and see if you cannot get the € notes for less, perhaps by 2%. Unfortunately if you live in a small town and the foreign currency has to be sent to the branch bank, the charges may be even more.

Kate_W

Almost all airports (certainly the ones in larger European cities) have ATMs. Sometimes, though, there is only one nearby. On our last trip home to Paris, the only ATM we could find in our terminal at Charles de Gaulle was out of service, so we had to find a cab that would take a credit card (possible, but it took a few tries). If it is relatively easy and inexpensive to get euros from your local bank, or at the airport from where you'll be flying, you might want to get enough before you leave.

One question, though? Do you think it is wise to pay the entire cost of your stay up-front, in cash, to the B&B owner? What if there's a problem with your accommodation? You've lost all your bargaining power. If you're planning to stay for more than one night, I would insist on: (a) holding back a percentage of the amount owing (ideally at least 50%, but certainly at least 20%); and (b) make sure that you thoroughly inspect your room before turning over any cash. If you're just staying for one night, make sure you inspect your room before turning over any money.

Neopolitan

Interesting. What terminal in CDG has only one ATM? There are many. I'm not sure why they would be hard to find. Usually they are very obvious.

Larryincolorado

Today, Wells Fargo is charging $1.338/€. That's 4.4% above the interbank rate, but they are, on average 5% above. Bank of America is usually about 1/2% higher than Wells Fargo. Last time I check AAA, they were a little higher than Wells Fargo for cash, but if they are convenient, it's not worth the difference. However, you have to join AAA to get the best price.

I have never been unable to get money from an airport ATM, but once I had to use three cards before one worked. To be safe, I would take along enough Euro to get me through to whenever I could straighten out problems with my bank. I always bring home several hundred Euro to start my next trip.

lyb

No, I always get my money at an ATM at the airport...so far, never any problems.

jrecm

I just got a few Euros from my bank. If you belong to a credit union they usually charge a little less. Also their credit card conversion rate is less than my bank of america card.

xyz123

I don't know...I've never been able to understand this paranoia about having euro or whatever other local currency you need before arrival..it won't do you any good before arrival anyway.

This, folks, is the 21st century. ATM's work very well thank you. I think once in about 30 or 40 trips into Europe have I had difficulty finding an ATM if I had no local currency left over...so you know what I did...I walked over to the exchange counter in the airport and changed cash taking my lumps on the exchange rate....the point being 99% of the time ATM's will work fine; but you have to have a back up...in my case my back up is to bring about $200 is nice crisp (well maybe old and folded) US $20 banknotes and am ready to exchange them.

Of course in many cases, local transport takes credit cards anyway to get into town.

janisj

Kate_w: &quot;<i>If it is relatively easy and inexpensive to get euros from your local bank . . . . .</i>&quot;

One (just one) of the reasons we see so many of this sort of question posted by Americans is it can be pretty difficult getting foreign currency unless one lives in NYC, Chicago or some other metropolis. I live outside a pretty large city and only one branch of Bank of America (out of probably 30+ local branches) has a foreign exchange desk, and Wells Fargo has ended issuing foreign currency at all except by mail and then only to its account holders. Neither my bank (a small regional chain) or credit Union deal in foreign currency. Not that it is an issue for me since I use ATMs pretty much exclusively.

ira

Hi geo,

ATM is the best way.

If both you and your spouse have cards, you double your daily limit.

If you open a second account, you quadruple your daily limit.

You can also have your bank raise your daily limit.

mulifat

Geoflag, you do not say when you will be traveling. If it is in the fall or beyond, and if some economists are correct when they predict the dollar will get even weaker, it might serve you to get some Euros in advance now, even with that surcharge, to at least know you will not take more of a beating in the conversion. This is a gamble of course, as the dollar could get stronger, but that is doubtful with the current trend

Kate_W

You're right, Neopolitan, I'm sure there is more than one ATM in our usual terminal at CDG, but I had mentioned &quot;the only ATM we could find&quot;. We were wandering around, tired, hot and cranky after a long, delayed flight and couldn't find one, so we decided to grab a cab and use our Carte Bleue instead. But there are some small airports that only have one ATM - or they might have several ATMs but all from the same bank (which for some reason has decided that day that it doesn't like your card - I've had that happen, too).

But I usually don't worry too much about the risk of not finding an ATM in the airport at the end of my journey, since there is usually at least one other opportunity along the way (e.g. the airport from which I depart or the airport I'm connecting through) where I can get local currency. Worst case scenario in Europe, if you arrive Euroless at the airport and can't extract any euros at the airport terminal, is that you might have to pay by credit card to take a taxi into the city (and wait for a taxi that will take a credit card). For the OP, who wants a stack of euros for their B&amp;B, another worst-case scenario option would be to take a taxi that takes a credit card and stop at a bank machine en route to extract euros from an ATM.

Christina

I don't think there are that many ATMs at CDG, either. It depends what is meant by &quot;terminal&quot;. If one means all &quot;halls&quot; of Terminal 2 together, sure there are more than one, but I think I only remember seeing one ATM in each section (2A, 2B, etc, also). People really don't want to be walking from 2A to 2B to 2F, etc to find an ATM.

Mayber there are several in each section, but I haven't seen them, either, although I haven't had a big need to search them all out as I usually bring euro from a prior trip nowadays.

DeborahAnn

geo, also if possible get your bank which issues your ATM to raise your daily allowance amount that you can withdraw. We had no problem yesterday using an ATM at CDG near the car rental counters at Terminal 1. It's near door number 20 I believe. Deborah

Larryincolorado

I just talked to Wells Fargo in Colorado, and at least three main branches in Colorado Springs, Denver, and Boulder still sell foreign currency over the counter. Their online, by mail, service does not take credit cards and is therefore only available to account holders.

Larryincolorado

According to my information, not only is Wells Fargo NOT discontinuing sales of foreign currency over the counter, they are about to expand the sale to ALL branches, so you will no longer have to go to a downtown branch.