or do you buy with dollars as you need?

I always use ATM machines as needed.

We always buy about $50 in British pounds and about $100 in Euros. Partly just so we have cab fare or Tube money when we land.

It's not necessary, but it is fun to look at the money.

We also take some American cash with us (about $100) just so we can eat in an airport coming and going without having to find an ATM.

Jules

I never exchange money beforehand and prefer ATMs. For convenience, I keep leftover Euro for next trip and have about $100 for back-up.

ChevyChasen, if you meant your post as a two option deal, it is very weird. I never do either of those.

I never "exchange money" and I never buy things with US dollars if I'm not in the US.

Like most travelers today, I use ATMs when I get there and withdraw money from my home bank account in local currency. And I use credit cards.

Hi CC,

Hardly anyone brings cash or traveler's checks these days.

Get local currency as you need it from ATMs.

Well somehow you need local currency... so either use an ATM to withdraw directly (best option), or buy some currency either before your trip or after you arrive.

For multiple currencies, I just get an appropriate amount that I estimate I need. Since I need pounds only for Heathrow, I withdraw ~$50USD worth which lasts for several trips thru this airport.

Then upon arrival in Switzerland, I use an ATM to withdrawl CHF (Swiss Franc). etc. etc.

We generally have money left over from previous trips. If not, we change about $50 cash in the departure airpot. The rest we pull from ATMS as we go - but charging all major expenses (hotels, meals, car rentals, sight admissions etc).

We use ATMs after arriveing, and we carry emergency $$$$ just in case. Haven't had to use the emergency cash very often, but it sure saved our bacon a couple of times.

Nope, never exchange, I take some dollars, and just in case, a couple of hundred dollars (not much) in travelers check-sort of a safety net, if both my bankcards were to somehow disappear (but I never carry both with me, everything goes into the safe except driver's license, ATM card and one other credit card). And of course, I take personal checks, because I can use my AMEX card to get checks cashed, if need be.

I use ATM machines at the airport to get cash.

I never exchange in advance, but I have traveled enough to generally have a little local currency left over from a previous trip. And since everybody in my office travels, we can usually come up with even the most obscure currencies to help each other out.
Otherwise, everything comes out of the ATM, even in Vietnam....

I don't do either. I just did a trip with multiple countries, and I did exchange money for local currency, but I used the money of the country I had just left, except when it was euro and then I saved it as I knew I'd use it in the future.

I may have lost a little on the exchange at the train station (although I exchanged POlish zloties at an exchange bureau in Paris I know well and they give me a very good rate), but I have one safety rule -- never get rid of all your local money until you have physically left the country. This has saved me a lot of trouble when planes have been cancelled on the runway and I've had to return for a day, when I accidentally got on the wrong train in CR and needed local money to buy a short ticket the other way, etc.

Besides, I had to get rid of some of that local currency as I suspected it might not be in use the next time I was in that country, if they switch to euro, or I didn't know how long I'd be back and it didn't make sense to save it.

So, why would you buy with dollars in every country if you were visiting multiple ones? Aside from exchanging the leftover currency, I basically use the ATM for more when I need it. ON my recent trip, I didn't get any in advance before I got into Poland even though I had only a small amount of zloties from a prior trip. I did have to get more at the train station. In my other countries, I actually had all I needed from prior trips (euro and koruna) so I didn't need to do anything the first day.

We NEVER exchange beforehand. Just use ATMs to get what we need. When leaving one country and heading to another, just change the leftover money at the airport to whatever you need next.

I like to have a little currency of the first nation I visit when I arrive, but if London (Gatwick) or Zürich, I know that ATMs are available.

If you exchange dollars for another currency, you will pay more than the rate you normally get from an ATM.

For example, the exchange rate today as of 1:20 pm between euros and US dollars is $1.2817 = €1.00.

In previous years, at that exchange rate, I would expect €100.00 to cost me $129.45. The usual add-on for aTM withdrawals is 1%.
So 1.2817 x 100 x 1.01 = $129.45.

I normally try to use a credit card where I can. However, beware the 3% fee many banks now hit you with when you use your credit card outside of the US. The 3% add-on is euphamistically called a "conversion fee." Legal banditry would a better term.

Also, do not do what one fellow I know did. He is the kind who does not shut-up and listen when you try to tell him something, so he ended up using his credit card for cash. That of course constitutes a cash advance for which you pay a princely sum.

Moreover, if you visit one of the airport two arm bandits, you pay a very nice rate for the exchange. No "fee" of course, but the "clip rate" is around 10%. They go by various names, like "Change Buro", "Cambrio", "Geldwechsel",
and "Currency Exchange," but the end result is the same: You pay dearly for the purchase.