What is less expensive: Using American Express Traveler's Cheques in US dollars or Euros when exchanging in European banks for cash?

We will be needing some large amounts of Euro for balances due on apartments in both Vienna and Rome. Any advice? Is there a limit at European banks as to the amount of cash taken? I believe ATMs have a 250 Euro (or dollar?) limit.

I'm not sure which country you're going to, but I did not have a good experience in Germany trying to use/cash American dollar traveler's cheques. I didn't find a single store or resteraunt that accepted them and even in a huge city like Munich I only found 2 banks that would cash them and that was with a horrible exchange rate and a heavy fee. So I'll never do that again! But like I said, I'm not sure about other countries or about the Cheques in Euros...that could be totally different. I just know that next time I'll take cash and credit card only.

Some do , but you can use multiple ATMs

I would investigate other means of paying rather than losing 8 to 10% on that large a amount of money in Trav Checks of any kind. It's true that it's getting difficult to find anyplace - including a lot of banks - that are willing to change them.

Perhaps you can use PayPal instead? Or you can have your bank raise your daily limit and go to a couple of diffrent ATMs? Or make a couple of partial payments?

As always, No fee ATM and low (the 1% V/MC fee rebated at year end) fee CCs.
No Dynamic conversion(s).
Where have you been??
M

Also, if you know about what the amount will be (i.e., at least E800, or so), has anyone tried to have your bank make out a cashiers check in Euros before you leave, and make up the difference in cash once there? That would take care of carrying extra cash on you, as well as the need for getting all that cash while over there. However, I don't know how much banks will charge for doing this, or even if all banks will do that.

The problem with getting cash at ATMs is with the daily limit set by your bank, not with the limit set by the ATM. So you can't go from ATM to ATM and accumulate more and more money. The daily amount of money you can get varies from bank to bank, but usually is in the range of $300-500 (or its Euro equivalent).

As Jaimie said, traveler's checks can be hard to cash in Europe. In Greece, for example, very few banks will take them (the last time I was with someone who had them, only the National Bank would cash them).

You might check with the apartment owners about doing a direct bank to bank transfer, yours to theirs. That might be the easiest since you are talking about a limited number of vendors. I have done this before and it works. The cashiers check idea sounds good, but I've never done it so can't comment further.

From a slightly different perspective: we already have some UK pounds (cash) and will want to buy euros (also cash) in London. Is there any particular bank or exchange agency that offers a better deal than any other? Thanks.

I can't predict about those places as I've never used them there, but in other places, like France, you come out a little ahead by having them in USD. The reason is that they charge you to convert them to cash even if they are euro-denominated, so if you add that into what it cost you to get them in euro in the first place, it's more than the commission on them in USD (which I am presuming you could get free). If you had any left over you couldn't use, you'd have to pay a commission again to convert them back to USD.

I never get them in anything but USD (I'm American and get them free that way from AAA or my bank, also, as I have a premium account).