Dollars to Euro Currency Exchange
 

How much euros I will get after exchanging my dollars with a Bank in Spain after the included charges and taxes. I'll be flying to Europe from Letsflycheaper very soon so, I am a little confused with the private currency exchange agencies and bank exchange rates. where can I get a good sum of my money with least decrements of my Cash.

Whatever you plan on saving with Letsflycheaper could be lost excanging US Dollars for Euros. I take it you have never used an ATM to obtain cash. So much to learn...

You will almost always get the best deal by using your own bank's ATM card in machines abroad to draw money direct out of your home bank account. There is then no intermediary to add their own charges and choice of exchange rate. Talk to your bank first.

There have been a lot of threads about this and suitable alternatives.

Exchanging dollars to Euros you were thinking of doing gives you the LEAST sum of your money with MOST decrements of your Cash. You are talking about bad to terrible. 10% or more get chewed up in exchanging $100.

Using ATM using an ATM or Debit card can be as good as 0% over official exchange rate, 1% from most credit unions, 2-3% from greedy big banks, and 3% plus $5 from the greediest banks.

If you, however, use a credit card instead of debit/atm card to extract cash from an ATM machine, it can be as expensive as cash exchange due to 3-5% at the point of withdrawal plus immediate interest accumulation.

All these percentages are disclosed in the fee schedule sheet if you have bank accounts.

As above, just note that the UK (in your tag) does not use Euros, do not, therefore, change $ into E and then E into £ as costs will hit you twice

Andrew, another possiblity is to just use your credit card (make sure you ask your bank if you can get a card with a chip in it) exclusively and not even bother with cash (whether Euros or Pounds).
I just returned from two weeks in Norway and never once got Norwegian money. I bought everything (and I mean everything) with a credit card. Buses, museums, food, taxi, .... and never needed or bought anything with actual money.

and as greg points out do not ever use your master card or visa at the ATM to get cash! It'll cost you a fortune in fees and interest.

<< and as greg points out do not ever use your master card or visa at the ATM to get cash! It'll cost you a fortune in fees and interest. >>

Sometimes it's necessary to use a credit card for cash in an ATM machine. I've had to do it occasionally when my debit card did not work.

The fees and interest do not amount to a fortune unless you consider 60 cents to be a fortune. I paid close attention to what I paid for a transaction and it was 60 cents. It would have been less if I had paid it off right away.

I don't think exchanging dollars to euros really gives you the LEAST sum of money. In fact, I think it gives you a little more than if you exchange USD travelers checks for euros (I think those exchange bureaus typically give a slightly better rate for cash). And it is simply not true that it always eats up 10% or more. IN many places it does, but that isn't true as a general rule. I agree it's a bad idea but one can't make blanket statements like that.

And in fact, using a credit card could well give you least sum of money, because if you take out about 100 euro, you may well be assessed not only interest from the date you do it until you pay the bill, but a flat fee which may be a $10 or more minimum charge. So that would be worst.

I'll admit I don't know what adrienne is referring to as an example, every credit card I have has a flat fee for cash withdrawals, in addition to the interest. ANd it is $10 or more, regardless of the amount you withdraw. Maybe there are some who don't have that flat charge, but most do as every card I've ever had has had it (and I have everything, VISA, AMEX, MC, etc). So as general advice to the OP or anyone, I agree, one should enver use a CC except some emergency. For example, Capital One CCs (as I just looked them up), charge a 25% APR interest rate for cash advances PLUS a flat fee of the greater of $10 or 3% of your amount.

Perhaps it depends on what business you do with the bank - but we are charged nothing to pull cash from a credit card or to use a debit card to pull cash from your checking account. Just got a new notice from Citibank and their new terms are a minimal deposit of only $10K in any accounts in order to avoid all bank fees.

Obviously if one has another bank - or doesn;t keep any deposit (day to day savings or CD or whatever) this may not work but it looks like it would for anyone with sufficient funds to travel regularly.

Wow.

"Just got a new notice from Citibank and their new terms are a minimal deposit of only $10K in any accounts in order to avoid all bank fees. Obviously if one has another bank - or doesn;t keep any deposit (day to day savings or CD or whatever) this may not work but it looks like it would for anyone with sufficient funds to travel regularly."

I'm not aware of any bank, not even Citi, that would pass up the opportunity to slap you with a heafty interest rate charge and fee when using your credit card to extract cash from the ATM, regardless of how much cash you keep in your account.

According to Citi Bank: The standard variable APR for cash advances is 25.24%. Cash advance fee — either $10 or 5% of the amount of each cash advance, whichever is greater.

From Bank of America: A credit card cash advance is a withdrawal of cash from your credit card account. Essentially, you’re borrowing against your credit card to put cash in your pocket, which can be convenient when you are occasionally short of funds. That said, there are costs to taking a credit card cash advance, and in some cases, limits on certain cash advances.

Transaction fee: You will pay a transaction fee for credit card cash advances
APR: The APR for cash advances is often higher than for credit card purchases
Interest-free period: Cash advances often begin accruing interest at the time of the withdrawal, meaning there’s no grace period

http://www.creditcards.com/credit-ca...rates-1276.php

Good info, nytraveler. There is also a no-fee Citi debit/ATM card, which we got for our son who is spending a semester in Spain. No minimum deposit required.

Here is a slightly outdated but fairly accurate Points Guy post about the best and worst banks for ATM charges:

http://thepointsguy.com/2014/02/the-...eign-atm-fees/

And here, the best credit cards for no foreign transaction fees:

http://thepointsguy.com/2014/09/no-f...e-weekly-wish/

We travel to Europe often and rarely use cash except places like flea markets, so we don't really worry a lot about ATM fees. Much more of an issue in Asia and Latin America. We do care about CC transaction fees, and have been very happy with our British Airways Visa, especially because we each got 100,000 ff points when we signed up.