I am going to be traveling to Europe in the next few weeks and I was wondering if it is more beneficial to exchange currency at your local bank or through other means? Any suggestions as far as currency exchange agents?

Best is a debit card in an ATM. Second best is a credit card in an ATM. Those will give you the best rates and lowest commissions.

In any case, get your money out of an ATM in Europe -- the rate will always be better than at a bank in the U.S. or an exchange office at the airport.

"Second best is a credit card in an ATM."???

Not in my book. Not even close. That's taking out a high interest cash advance/loan from your credit card company.

I have always advised to order a small amount of "destination" currency from your bank before leaving for your trip. Years of travel experience has PROVED this to be a great idea. If the small cost of this is really a problem to your budget, you might reconsider taking the trip at all.

These threads always remind me of the famous story of the first America's Cup race in the 19th century...the American vessel America was up against many other ships...all British....

Queen Victoria came down with her orderlies and whatever to welcome the winning British ship...

Suddenly one of the ships appeared on the horizon....the Queen asked her orderly which of the British ships was that...the orderly said, "I'm afraid it's the American ship." Oh, said the Queen, "which of our ships is second?" The orderly looked through his binoculars and said, "I'm afriad there is no second your majesty."

What is the best way to get cash for those few occasions you choose not to use a credit card to make a purchase while on holiday (mostly because the shop doesn't take credit cards)...the answer is using an ATM with a debit or ATM card...

What's the second best way? There is no second best way.

I don't think using a CC in the ATM is as bad as some think.

If you have a CC that charges 24% interest on cash advances and withdraw $1000 from the ATM it would cost $240 interest for one year. If you pay it off in one month the interest is $20 or 2% of the amount withdrawn. With a CC that charges 1% on foreign transactions, the total is 3%.

Not bad for an emergency.

If I may editorialize, you shouldn't be travelling if you can't pay off the CC charges in a month..

I've never withdrawn cash with a credit card, but my recollection is that you are charged a &quot;Cash Advance Fee&quot; of several points <i>over and above</i> the interest on the deferred balance.

Best advice I can give is: make sure you know what you're doing before you do it.

The CC card I use most charges 7.24% on purchases and 21.24% on cash advances. That's why I used 24%.

Other good advice, look both ways before crossing the street, especially in London.

Credit cards always charge a fee for cash advances and they can be fairly steep. Use your bank debit card.

Another vote for debit card.

Get cash at your arrival airport, you don't need it in advance.

Use your debit for cash, credit card for train tickets, major hotels or rental cars. Expect to use cash for smaller items and small businesses.

A back up debit card is a good idea. My wife and I each bring a debit and credit card for different accounts. We both sign on the checking/debit accounts. If we lose a card, we call the bank, cancel one card, transfer money to the other account and use the backup debit.

So far haven't needed to use the backup, but better to have a plan for a lost or stolen card.

Using the CC is &quot;Not bad for an emergency&quot;.

Did you not read that part?

Well, Bank of America charges $5.00 for all off-net uses of one of its own ATM or check cards to withdraw your own money. The amount of money withdrawn is immaterial: The fee is a flat $5.00.

For credit card purchases, B of A charges 3% of the US dollar equivalent. As near as I can tell all transactions are based on the interbank exchange rate which is about the best we little folks can do.

In the case of an emergency, anything kind of goes, but a CC is worse for an emergency than just dividing some annual rate by 12. It isn't just the interest charges, there are also extra fees just for doing a cash advance that way, on top of the interest.

I think the credit cards I have charge 2-5 pct for cash advances, and that is in ADDITION to the interest. Some of them have minimum flat amounts that would make it even more than 3-5 pct, depending on the amount of cash you withdrew. I am not talking about the foreign exchange rate here, which is in addition to both these fees (interest and cash withdrawal fee).

For example, I have one VISA card that has a 20 pct APR on cash advances, plus a 3 pct of the amount fee (minimum $10, though), in addition to the foreign transcation fee of 2 pct.

If you took out only the value of US$100 in a cash advance, you'd have a $10 fee, plus $2 for the foreign conversion, plus about $2 for the interest. That would be about $13-14 in fees to withdraw US $100 from an ATM. Sure, in a real emergency you have to, but I would say that is a bad deal.

I found a resonable rate at my local bank. I have to order euros at least 3 days in advance and I get the exact denominations I want. I find the convenience of this worth not using local ATMs. (also I spent a long weekend being followed around after using an ATM) I travel with children and try to minimize tasks. Why worry so much...get money in order ahead of time and enjoy your trip.

A long weekend where?

Because it will save you at least 5% of your total expenditure by using credit card (to charge) and ATM (to pull cash) instead of getting cash in advance.

If you really want cash in advance change $100 at the bureau de change in your departure airport. Takes 2 minutes. Much faster and easier than fooling around with a bank - and the rate is awful either way.

like_to_go: I'm sorry - but hundreds of people used that same ATM machine that day. What makes you think that had anything to do w/ you being followed -- and followed for a whole weekend??

You'd feel safer carrying around thousands of pre-purchased &euro;? That simply does not make any sense to me. And especially to pay MORE for the privilege of worrying about securing all that cash.

Why would someone follow an ATM user for a whole weekend -- without attacking them to steal their money? Something doesn't make a lot of sense there. I agree with Janis -- spending more money to have more cash on had to worry about being lost or stolen? I don't get it.

I LOVE my CapitalOne credit card for Europe. I got the Prime for Life offer a few years ago. My cash advance fee is zero (really), and my rate is currently 5.25% for advances. Apparently this card was not widely available at the time, but I spotted it on a mail offer. It makes my really happy...