Euros - cash
 

We are travelling to Germany/France next week - wife thinks I should have Euros on me - I said we could handle it with ATM machines.

Who is right?

It would be nice to have some cash on hand though. Better to change in US or over there?

Thanks

You will get a lousy rate in the US. If you want to have some € cash upon arrival, then change $100 or so, and use ATMs for your other nneds.

In the 21st century, there is no need to purchase euro in advance...at the arrival airport there will be ATM's which will give you by far the best rate of exchange.

Should for some reason there be a problem with the ATM's (very very very rare) you can saunter over to the exchange desk, if you really need euro and change a small amount minimizing the loss you get when you exchange cash (although it will increase the percentage of the exchange being fees)...

The reality is you don't necessarily need euro even after your immediate arrival in Paris. The RER station takes credit cards for purchasing tickets to get into Paris as well as purchasing whatever other tickets you might need (carnets, single tickets, cartes orange)....most car services if you are doing that take credit cards.

I know there are people who feel better having some euro in hand upon arrival but in this day and age, it isn't really not totally necessary.

THANK YOU superheterodyne and xyz123 - just the advice I needed.
My wife has 'card-phobia' I guess.

>RER station takes credit cards
Yes, but they wanted my PIN number, which I don't remember, or coins. The queue at the ticket window was endless and the pâtisserie at the corner refused to change 20€, not even if I bought something. After trying 5 german cards, my standard german Citibank banking card did the trick. :-) No fees at all, btw. It has no chip. And I didn't have to use the PIN or sign at all.

Beat me to it...yes, CCs can be used, but you will need to let a person do the transaction, not one of the automated machines...due to the PIN requirement.

I agree on ATM use. It's not a totally wrong idea to have a little cash on hand when you arrive, since I would predict that airport ATMs would tend to be the place where the may be lineups or maybe mahcine breaking down. In that case, you just head to the RER station, taxi stand...When I do buy euros, I get them at my local bank, to avoid the exhorbitant bureau de change fees at the start/end airport.

Mike

tigerman,

There are some important things to do BEFORE leaving home to be sure your ATM cards and credit cards will work in Europe. Read this helpful article: http://tinyurl.com/k3vy6.

How did it go with the Euro/ATM/credit card stuff?

Oops, I was trying to ask tigerman how it went in the money dept.