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

Portland, Oregon...another great thing about it, lol!

Don't forget - you can also use your credit card for a lot of things in Europe, so you wont need cash for everything.

We paid for meals and incidentals with cash - hotel rooms, cars, and train tickets with a CC. It would have taken us the better part of 2 weeks to go through the 1500 euros :)

We also have rented an apartment (in Venice) that requires cash on arrival. I am going to get the Euro for the apartment before I leave. Even with a charge for the Euro, our apartment price is the best I could find for a nice place, so I'm not too worry. But it happens that people need to exchange money and have cash upon arrival.

Raydotman,

Do you have a credit union in your area? Mine charges the .7% previously mentioned. Yours might be just as good. If you cannot use the credit union during the year, just set up an account for your traveling days and pre-deposit what you think you'll need to withdraw abroad.

Annej,
Your bank's rate of the day is $1.44 for a euro not the 1.36 interbank rate.

Raydotman,
See http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/cc/20050624b1.asp for some of the different charges by different banks.

mms,
would really like to know what bank you use.

Henry

I like to have 100E to take with me. I get it at the departure airport and bite the bullet for the poor exchange. After that we charge on a CC all we can and get cash from ATMs.

I would also like to know which bank mms uses.

I admit I'm in the minority in bringing lots of euros from home, but I don't understand why this is such a crazy idea. My husband and I split the cash in half before we leave home. If hotel rooms have a safe, we leave some there, and the rest we carry in a secure manner. To get the money, a thief would have to cause bodily harm in which case the loss of any money would be the least of our problems.

So, on Day One of a 2-week trip, we each are holding about 350-400 euros. Not exactly a &quot;wad,&quot; and obviously/sadly it gets smaller every day. We use credit cards for most meals, purchases and train tickets. If we run out of cash towards the end of the trip, we hit an ATM.

Annej, however much you buy in euros, get at least 100 of it in smaller denominations. Italians have an aversion to giving change from large bills. They want you to present a note that is as close as possible to the amount owed, so it's sometimes difficult to get rid of 50- and 100-euro notes.

Jean, I think the objection most of us have to your plan is not just that it is inconvenient to carry, store, and protect that much cash, but that it costs you MORE to buy it to begin with. It would be different if you could buy the euros cheaper at home, but unless you have some unknown secret, people are getting them considerably cheaper by using ATMs in Europe and not have to deal with the &quot;protection issues&quot;.

If you lived in California where gas is $3 a gallon but you were taking a long trip to Tennessee where it is cheaper, would you stock up on expensive gas at home and take it in containers with you so you wouldn't have to deal with buying gas there?

Well, NeoPatrick, I do happen to get a very favorable rate at the currency exchange near my office because, as I mentioned in a previous post, I'm a frequent customer.

I don't find it &quot;inconvenient&quot; to carry/store/protect the cash, at least no more inconvenient than carrying/storing/protecting my passport/tickets/confirmations/Blackberry. I've been traveling this way for at least 15 years and never had a problem. (BTW, I think the gas analogy is a bit silly. Volatile liquids, difficult to transport, not useful for anything but powering the car v. a few pieces of paper, easily carried and secured, useful for purchasing anything, including gas.)

But to each his own. I'm not trying to convert anyone. Just trying to point out there is another way to travel other than being tied to ATMs, working pin numbers and bank fees.

I would get at least enough Euro to cover you for a snack in the airport if you have to connect through a European city, a cab to your hotel and spending money for the day if you don't make it to an ATM. For us US$200 is usually enough but these days that doesn't go quite as far.

Is &quot;favorable exchange rate&quot; less than 1%? What bank is this, may I ask?

Funny that you use phrases like &quot;tied to ATMS&quot; whatever that means, and &quot;bank fees&quot; when you clearly pay a fee to get your money too. But I do understand that it is a terrible burden to have to remember an entire 4 digit working pin number that you keep for years and years -- it must be mind boggling to have to remember those four digits, so never mind. Now I understand. Have fun.

Geez. I give up. You go your way, and I'll go mine.

Forgive me for trying to explain. I thought when you posted this:
&quot;I admit I'm in the minority in bringing lots of euros from home, but I don't understand why this is such a crazy idea.&quot;
That it was basically asking why some of us think it is a crazy idea. So I told you. Sorry you didn't want to hear the explanation. If you hadn't asked, I wouldn't have tried to explain.

But come on now, you have to admit that dealing with &quot;a pin number&quot; is a real stretch of a reason for not wanting to do do ATMs.

Didn't you have an ATM problem (or two?) on your recent trip to Rome?

Over and out.

Yes. But it all worked out. So?

Another reason for getting smaller denominations is to be sure not to get the 100E and 1000E bills mixed up. This may not be as much a problem with Euros but back in the lira days, I gave a cashier a 1000Lira (or maybe 10,000) and got change for the bill 1/10th of it--and being unfamiliar with what the currency looked like, didn't catch it in time.
And we have travelled with wads and wads of cash many times (China, Russia, etc) and it isn't fun trying to keep up with it.

I don't understand the &quot;convenience&quot; factor of getting euros from home. There are ATMs literally everywhere in Europe. We have never had a problem finding one even in the smallest of towns. I would think it would be more inconvenient, and probabably take longer, to drive to my local bank and exchange the money then it would to simply stop by one of the many ATM's in Rome as I am walking about every day. I've been to Rome several times and trust me, the ATMs are plentiful.

I think a lot of people heading to Europe for the first time get a little freaked out about the exchanging money thing. I admit that on my first trip to Europe we exchanged dollars for pounds from my local bank. We were young, naive, and hadn't yet discovered fodors. But after we got there we realized two things: the charges we paid were a lot higher than if we would have waited and it was unnecessary because exchanging money is a nonissue.

Tracy

Why do people find it more &quot;convenient&quot; to get euro or any other currency in advance also escapes me...and the one argument I just don't comprehend is that I've always done it that way and I'm not about to change something that has worked for me in the past.

Times change, technologies evolve. It used to be a big event to call home from say London...$3 or $4 a minute...now I can carry around a mobile phone and call home for 3p/minute (6¢/minute) and have people reach me by just dialing my home phone number...yet I listen to people say well I never needed a cell phone before and don't even carry one at home....duh....I can't believe anybody in this day and age would even think of getting into a car without a cell phone at home...yet people brag they don't need one.

This is the 21st century...technology works very well 99.9% of the time and there are things not to worry about if it doesn't....when I travel to Europe I always bring $200 in nice crisp 20's....in the very very very unlikely event there is a problem with the ATM's on arrival (and it has never happened to me), a few steps over to the foreign exchange window and exchange $20 or $40 for local currency; rarely need more. In many European airports, Heathrow and DeGaulle come to mind immediately, you can purchase public transportation into town with a credit card...many many carservice companies take credit cards, a snack at the airport? Almost all places at the airports take credit cards.

And oftentimes I find the most adamant people once they've been exposed to the technology and its value sheepishly said I never knew.

I was thinking. If I had gotten all euros in advance for my four cash apartment rentals this summer, I'd have been carrying around over $3000 in cash worth of Euros for 6 weeks, since that's how long I had been gone from home by the time I reached Rome. No one will convince me to carry around that much cash for that long, and PAY MORE for the privilege of doing it. If some want to do that-- that's fine, but they should be ready to hear how &quot;silly&quot; they are being, especially when they openly ask &quot;why is my idea so crazy?&quot;