abcdc

Headed to Portugal in a little less than 2 weeks for a 12 day jaunt all over the country. I've traveled extensively in W Europe in the 90's, but haven't been back in a while and have never been to Portugal.
I've heard that credit cards are less widely accepted there and ATMs hard to come by - does anyone have any advice as to the best (and most economical) way to deal with cash flow? Thanks!

elaine

I can't speak to Portugal specifically, but to Europe generally.
Paying with credit cards has been considered best,2nd would be getting cash from ATMs, vis a vis the best currency exchange rates. But, two developments are being reported with increasing frequency: 1, Banks and credit card companies levying extra transaction fees for credit card purchases and ATM withdrawals. You should find out what your bank's and c. card's policies are.

2nd, and I don't know if this happens with frequency in Portugal but it has been reported often in Italy, for example, is that some hotels and other vendors are preparing final bills in dollars rather than euro. That is, they are calculating their own exchange rates and trying to require customers to pay their bills (even by credit cards) in dollars, at a less-advantageous exchange rate than the bank or credit card would offer. Customers are being advised on this forum to insist that their bills be calculated in local currency, but I don't know if they are being successful with this challenge.

xxxx

Credit cards were fairly widely accepted. Only in a few very small restaurants were they not accepted.

suze

I'm having a hard time picturing no or few ATMs in Portugal. Will be interested to hear from others who've been recently.

P_M

I think you were misinformed about ATMs being hard to come by. I was in Portugal in 2003 and ATMs were everywhere.

abcdc

Thanks for the feedback; in particular, this hotel-dollar shenanigan is new to me. I was surprised to read that ATMs were not prevalent, but check this out:

http://www.igougo.com/planning/journ...p;EntryID=1022

Granted, it's not exactly current, but I've seen similar posts in several places.

Definitely interested in hearing any other thoughts or experiences ...

P_M

This is dated 8/21/2000, much too old to be reliable. I didn't use credit cards when I was there so I can't help you with that but I hope someone else can.

clevelandbrown

Do a search for "ATM locator" and pick a site appropriate to your card, then plug in some locations where you will be and see what pops up.

elaine

Wow, I didn't realize that article was 5 years ago. Even New York City has MANY more atms now than it did five years ago, as do European cities I've visited. It is often recommended that one use ATMs attached to banks, especially while traveling. You might want to investigate the CIRRUS or PLUS networks to see where they have ATM outlets in Portugal.

Suspaul

Another vote for using ATM's. We've used them all over Europe and the Middle East and had good luck. Be sure to find out the daily maximum $ you can withdraw and do quick conversions before each withdrawal. In Germany a few months ago we found that due to the bouncing Euro, if we entered an amount that was even a few dollars over our daily limit of $400 USD we could not withdraw any $. Have a great trip.

crefloors

Personally, on my next trip, it the charging the credit card in dollars thing is still going on and expanding, I'm going to be paying cash for a lot more things. I always have all the money I need for my trips set aside before I go so using the ATM would not be a problem. You can take enough out to last you each time you withdraw so you don't have to make a withdrawal every day.