I hear what you say Ira. I dont pay for a Bank Draft but when I use credit card and purchase anything in a different currency, Canadian bank charges a 2.5% fee over and above the exchange rate on each transaction. Banks say it is the cost of the service - !!!!!! Bank is not giving me any interest in my chequing account even when I keep a reasonable balance.

Hopscotch-I travel to Europe everyweek and the one credit card that most store people along with restaurants DON'T want to take is American Express.Seriously,it has been shunned for years over there.
I take money out of an ATM everyweek for meals," misc.stuff purchased" (don't tell the husband) and groceries which I bring home to the states. Most of my coworkers (including those who have to pay in cash for hotels and apts. when on vacations) have never used a credit card over there-we just stockpile the euros and save those stupid charges.

Christina, it's not that I "like" paying in cash on arrival. As often happens, I talk myself and my poor DH into an "extra" trip to Europe each year, and the extra trip requires shopping for the best place to stay at the lowest price. Thus, the apartment we chose is very well located, looks great, has a decent review on slowtrav.com, was available, and the rent for a week in Venice was cheap.

I would prefer to pay entirely by credit card, but in my experience, only a small minority of holiday apartments take credit cards. In February, we were able to make a partial payment via Paypal. But this time, it's cash. I chose the apartment, not the payment method.

Like yourself, I've been closely watching the dollar value. I was aware of yesterday's development. That said, I haven't noticed too many days where the euro went down against the dollar in the past two or three weeks.

The cut in the discount rate by the Federal Reserve surprised markets by its size, not by its coming. This cut was a telegraphed punch. That said, the increase in stock market values more than offset -- no, overwhelmed would be a better word -- for any rise in the value of the Euro. In fact, our coming vacation in Italy was more than paid for -- in total -- by the rise in the value of our stock investments. It pays to diversify. It's hardly rocket science. Just simple economics and a tolerance for risk.