Buying Euros in US
 

I will be leaving for Italy in less than 2 weeks and my bank has informed me that they will not charge me if I buy over 1000 euros. Why does everyone say we should wait to get to the Rome Airport before we buy them. Why???? We were going to get 1500 Euros at Citibank and not have to worry when we get to Rome. But reading the boards here everyone says that's not a good idea. They say 100 is enough. HELP!

Hi A,

The exchange rate righy now is $1.366/E.

1500E purchased at an ATM will cost you about $2070, including MC/Visa 1% charge.

How much does your bank want?

((I))

Google "euro to dollar" and you will automatically get the day's exchange rate. Compare that to what the bank offers you. Or go to http://www.xe.com/ucc/ for a different way of doing it.

I just checked the rate to exchange at BoA. They say there is no fee for orders online, but they list todays rate at 1.43. Whereas the XE rate is 1.336.

You will never get the exact exchange rate. But you are going to be carrying $1500 in cash. Why would you want to do that. You can go to an ATM every other day or so, or as needed. And you might check and see if your bank has a bank partnership so you don't incur ATM charges (from your bank). BofA does that.

With my ATM withdrawals I paid a .702% (less than 1%) fee.

Be aware...free does NOT always mean...free

For example, you will see exchange bureaus at airports and other touristed areas that say no fee currency exchange. You say...wow...it's free. But you would be wrong.

When it comes to currency exchange, be it at a bank, at a bureau de change, in a back alley....there are TWO factors to what it will cost you....one...the fee (bank says none, bureau says none...BUT...you have still have #2...the exchange rate. I will today offer, via Fodor's to exchange whatever amount of $US you would like into euros...no fees. Nice guy, right? But of course, I will set the echange rate to be WHATEVER I want it to be. So unless you know the exchange rate that day when you go to convert, you won't know how much you are being charged.

TWO factors....

Well, I for one like to buy euros before leaving home. I get a very favorable rate from a currency exchange near my office because I'm a frequent customer, but basically I'm just old school.

Some people get wrapped up in the analysis of cash exchange rates + fees v. ATM exchange rates + fees v. credit card exchange rates + fees, and miss how much money we're really talking about.

Consider: On your purchase of 1500 euros from Citibank with no fee, even if there is as much as $.05 difference between the exchange rate at Citibank and the rate at another currency source, you're talking about $75 (not counting savings for no fee). Your trip is presumably costing you thousands of dollars. How much would it upset you to find out later that you possibly could have saved $75? If that's not much money in comparison to your feeling "prepared," then get thee to Citibank. Just don't get more euros than you think you really need, because you'll lose money converting the leftover currency back to dollars. (Which begs the question(s), what is Citibank's buy rate and is there a fee at that end?)

For me, it would be a greater inconvenience to carry around $1500 in cash than to take out a couple hundred dollars at a time. To have to pay $75 for the added inconvenience doesn't make sense for me.

Yikes, I don't like walking around with $2000 cash in MY pockets -- ever!

I agree that carrying that much cash is not the best idea. The monitary difference between exchanging money at one rate versus another with fees or without - probably isn't that much.

I'd exchange some money at the airport to have euros in hand when I landed and then just take money out of the ATM when I needed more throughout the trip.

<i>They say 100 is enough.</i>

Calm yourself. It's more than enough. Don't you have a credit card or an ATM card? Or do you prefer to walk around with a fat wad in your pocket -- in Italy!!

What are you going to do with all that money on the plane ride over? That's a wad of cash to have sitting in a bag under your seat when you go to the rest room.

I don't think 100 is enough (if you are going to bother to exchange at all) but about 500 is my comfort level of cash to be carrying at any one time.

I really am curious how you plan to carry it, if you don't mind saytelling us.

Both on the plane over, and once you arrive in Europe. Leave it in your hotel room? Carry it on your person? Put it in the room safe? The front desk safe? Split it between you and your traveling companion? Hide it under the mattress (just kidding)?

saying, telling
:-)

Thanks for all your input. I just like being prepared so my husband and I thought it would be a good idea to get alot, and then after that going to the ATM in Italy. We've never been to Europe and thought that was the way to go, but you all bring up good reasons not to carry that much money. I don't even know what a Euro looks like, is it larger than our money? Citibank rep. told us they give you the rate the day you purchase the Euros and there are no other charges if you buy over $1000. Then if you have any left over they charge $5 to convert it back.

I am one of the few who likes to have some euro on me before arriving. This summer I went to the main branch of a bank in downtown and they have currency office. I got the XE rate, but then they charged $4.95 for any amount of euro up to $450. After that there was no charge. I figured it was $5 well spent for me to not have to find an ATM when we arrived in France. Now I would not want to carry a lot of money around, but having a couple hundred on me was nice for that first day.

mms, what city is this and what bank? That sounds like a very unusual but wonderful place. I've never heard of any bank in the US offering euros at the XE rate -- even with a $ 4.95 charge. I'm not saying it isn't true, but we sure don't have banks like that in our town!

I have just been infomed by my two banks, Wachovia and BB&amp;T that there is now a 2% fee to withdraw money from your OWN account at a European ATM. The charges are getting outrageous. Last year it was 1%, the year before it was a flat fee. What IS the best way to obtain euros at a decent rate of exchange and without exorbitant fees??

Hmmm...why would you want to carry that much cash? Well if you are like me and rented an apartment for a week. Most apartments want cash upfront. I wasn't going to try to get that out of an ATM at the airport so I bought eruos from Wells Fargo before I left. I just carried in a neck pouch. Nobody mugged me.

j