november_moon

You don't want to link an ATM to your savings account for overseas travel anyway - the ATM machines wont give you the option to withthdraw from 1 account or the other, it automatically defaults to your primary checking.

Just open a regular old plain vanilla checking account - seperate from your other accounts if you are worried about fraud. You don't need a special "Travel Account" - in fact, if you asked most bank employees about opening one, they would probably wonder what the heck you are talking about.

This doesn't have to be complicated.

nytraveler

Do not take cash - you will get an awful rate of exchange and carrying so much is risky. Do not pull cash with a credit card - that is taking out a loan - at a very high rate. Pull cash from your checking account with a debit card - then all you will pay is 1 or 2% above the interbank exchange rate.

kybourbon

If your withdrawal limit is $500 per day, there is no way a thief could empty your account. They would only be able to withdraw $500 in a 24 hour period. Normally you would report a lost card within 24 hours and even if they took $500 you would only be liable for $50 if reported per the bank guidelines.

I didn't mean to imply there is an account called a travel account. I have a joint checking account with DD that isn't linked to any other accounts. If one of us is out the country and run into a banking problem, the other can handle it. We opened this account when DD was getting ready to live in Spain for 6 months. I use a credit union so there are no big fees for using the ATM card and no fees for the account being dormant.

P_M

I have a travel account at a credit union because my regular bank has high foreign ATM fees. Of course the credit union does not call it a travel account, it's only a travel account in my mind. I opened that account because the foreign ATM fees are only $1/withdrawal. If a thief drains that account he won't get much, and of course I will still get my money back.

alanRow

Stupid question - but how do you get the dollars in the first place if you don't have an ATM card?

Do you go into a bank and cash cheques?

P_M

Alan, almost everyone I know gets cash from the ATM machine. But if for some reason you can't use the ATM machine (for example: you want certain denominations of bills, or if you do not have an ATM card, or if the ATM is down) then you can go into the bank and make a withdrawal. It is not necessary to write a check, the teller can draft the withdrawal for you.

Christina

yes, Alan, some people do just get cash from their bank. I didn't use to have an ATM card (well, none of us did in the old days), and I would just keep a couple hundred dollars when I deposited a check. At home, that would last me several weeks or more as I charged big things to a credit card and am not a big spender. In the US, you can also get extra cash at many grocery stores when you write a check, I used to get some that way, also. Some would let you write a check for $25-50 over the amt. of your groceries. They still do where I live.

Gary_Mc

My Daughter had an ATM card associated with a SAVINGS account and it would not work in Germany. Luckily several of us were traveling together. When we got back, the bank said that SAVINGS account ATM cards will not work overseas. I have read online of someone else having the same problem. I have no idea if this is true across the board. It might be worth verifying in your case.

Christina

That's a good point, I've heard something about that but I think the issue is really if you have a bank account that is someone both (checking and savings) and your ATM card is tied to your savings, it won't work in some places because they don't allow a choice of what to withdraw from, and it defaults to the primary account. Or something like that. At US ATMs, I know you get a choice of what acct you want to withdraw from and I don't think you do in Europe (actually, I'm blanking as I don't have an ATM card tied to my savings for my main bank account, so just do it automatically in Europe).

However, it is definitely not the case that an ATM card won't work in Europe unless it is tied to a checking acct. My Capital One Money Market acct ATM card works fine in Europe, for example. I don't know what you call that as it isn't a typical checking or savings account, but of course it is savings to me. I can write checks on it, though, but never do.

nytraveler

If you can write checks on it it's a checking account - no matter what you call it. And you can pull money from it with an ATM card.

Simply pay for as much as possible with credit cards and pull cash with an ATMm card from your checking account (either in a machine or in a bank). If that won;t let you pull enough money per day (my limit is $1000 per day - set by the bank, not me) ask your bank to raise it. (Note: they won;t raise the limit to a lot more than you have in your account - the money has to be in the account before you leave home to be safe.)