Get Euros for most of trip now or wait?
 

I went by my local American Express office today to get Euros for a friend's birthday, and was pretty shocked at the exchange rate.

Question - Is it better to buy Euros at the American Express office now for a trip in late August (my trip) or wait until I get there? If it is still increasing, what will it be in August? Is there a cheaper place to buy them than my American Express office? Any help would be appreciated, as this is my first trip to Europe. ;-)

I think you will get a better exchange rate using an ATM in the destination company. Amex usually charges a transfer fee. The exchange rate may vary, but it could go down by August.

Or UP!

My bank gives a better exchange rate than Amex..check yours.

Or else do what I do and don't worry about it...It may go up 2 or 3 cents between now and August...but then who knows.

definately use the ATM's in Europe. No one knows what the euro will do. Probably won't go down for a while.

If I knew the answer to your question, I'd be placing currency futures orders right now instead of responding to you. Why don't you post this question on a Wall Street forum?

BTW, regular banks including ATM and credit card issuers are cheaper than AMEX.

Do you ever follow the exchange rates by looking at the financial section of a big city newspaper? Or, you can look on the web for current information. Yahoo Financial has a good exchange rate section under currency. If you look there you will see the bank wholesale exchange rate. That is about the best rate you can get on a current basis.
If you get euros in Europe using an ATM card, you usually pay the wholesale rate plus about 1%. If you use your credit card assuming it is one of the cards that does not have a 2% fee tacked on, you pay the wholesale rate plus 1%.

If I buy here in the US, I usually pay about 5% for my euros. I usually wait.

Of course we don't know what the rates will do between now and August. I am taking my chances that the current rate of about $1.17 for €1 will stay about the same. The rate has been around that figure for several days. Let us hope it begins to vary in our favor.

I was just going to buy some euro for my trip this summer, thinking it would be nice to have on hand just in case and I wouldn't have to look for ATM, etc (which I've had bad luck with at airports). So, I called my local bank in Wash DC for a change, figuring it would be cheaper than Travelex here. I was astounded when they wanted $1.26 per euro and had a flat $5 fee on top of that for the privilege (which really amounted to $1.30 per euro as I wanted $200 worth). That's about an 11-12 pct markup right now I think. This is a wellknown, rather large, regional bank.

So, I decided to forget that idea and go sans euro -- I think even the change bureau at the airport in Europe won't be worse than that and will be more convenient if I can't easily find an ATM. I checked AAA also and they also wanted about $1.26 per euro.

Who can predict the rates, no economist I know. I personally don't think the exchange rate will get any worse over the next few months because it's so high now, and may get better, but that's a guess.

Thanks to everyone for all of the great info!! Unfortunately, my bank doesn't sell euro. I'm going to wait to obtain the rest of my money until I get there.

Bob - I really needed that information regarding the increase between wholesale and ATM use for cash withdrawals. That is precisely the information that I was looking for to make my decision.

RE: Uh_no_ying1

Is your rash acting up again? Lose the bad attitude!

What bad attitude dufas? I'm trying to do us all a favor and cut short uh_noy_ying questions!

I'm here to promote the use of common sense. Either that or the use of the search function. So in fact, I think I have a good attitude here on Fodor's!

>)

I checked out some of your posts and you have a bad attitude, plain and simple. Either that or your ego is as big as Texas.

uh_no_ying1,

>>I'm trying to do us all a favor and cut short uh_noy_ying questions!

I'm here to promote the use of common sense. Either that or the use of the search function. So in fact, I think I have a good attitude here on Fodor's!<<

Well thank God someone decided to take those responsibilities, what would this board be without someone laying down the law?!?!?!?