Getting Euros at Waterloo?
 

Does anyone know if it is possible to exchange traveller's checks in USD for Euros at the Waterloo station in London? (or do they only exchange for pounds?) My husband and I are taking the Eurostar to Paris and upon arrival will have to pay for our apartment in cash Euros in an amount that is too large for us to withdraw from an ATM in one day. We were thinking about taking traveller's checks for that one expense and exchanging them when we arrive. We will have more time on the London side of the trip, so we were wondering if we could do that exchange at the Waterloo station (or somewhere else nearby?) before we cross the Chunnel, or if we will have to wait until we get to the Gare du Nord. Anyone know? Any other suggestions?

you'll get a horrible rate trying to do that. I hope someone comes up with a batter option, but you might just exchange the moeny in the US- dollars to euros. It's got to be better than US traveller's checks to euros in the UK!!

Don't &quot;change money&quot; <i>anywhere</i>. And don't carry traveler's checks except for emergency backup. Always get local currency from ATMs, starting with the one just to the left of the Eurostar arrivals area at Gare du Nord.

First, see if your landlord will allow you to pay over a few days.

Or explain the situation to your card issuer, and request that your cash withdrawal limit be raised for the date of your arrival. (This might require hitting more than one ATM.)

Never attempt to buy a currency that is not the currency of the country you're in. If you find someone at Waterloo who'll accept TCs at all, they'll charge you for converting them to pounds. Then they'll carry out a second transaction, converting the pounds into euros. For which they'll charge you again. In my experience, that's what happens absolutely everywhere in the world when you try to do anything like this.

If you have a proper bank, they'll arrange for whatever size withdrawals you like (mine does whenever I tell them and have funds). Or just cash your TCs in Paris.

There is an International Currency Echange in the Waterloo International Station so you can do the exchange at either end.

Hi abc,

Some suggestions:

Ask your bank to raise your daily limit for the day you will arrive in France - you might have to use more than one ATM.

Ask the landlord if you can pay in 2 or three installments.

Get Euro traveler's checks or change your USD TC's to Euros in France.

((I))

Agree with the point about the exchange rate being better in Paris. It doesn't take long to make the exchange so it won't be a schedule breaker.

&gt;If you have a proper bank...&lt;

Do you mean exchange for Euro's in the US? Why carry a large batch of cash around? That doesn't seem smart.

I have the same situation and the best way I have found is to get a money order from your bank in Euros. I sent our deposit that way and will utilise the same means to finalise payment on arrival.

&gt;If you have a proper bank...&lt;

&gt; Do you mean exchange for Euro's in the US?&lt;

No - a &quot;proper&quot; bank would be happy to raise abcgirl's daily withdrawal limit so she can get enough &euro; from an ATM(s) after they are in France.

Getting &euro; using US$ TCs in London is a VERY expensive way to get &euro;

my bank has told me that my daily withdrawal limit is set by VISA and is unchangeable. would you then recommend that we wait until we get to Paris to do the exchange? Our apartment is in the Marais (near Musee Picasso) and we've told the landlord that we would meet him there about a half hour after our train arrives. should we contact him to request a later meeting time? I'll also consider the option of finding out from the landlord if we could pay him in installments. thank you!

My bank has given me the same information about temporarily increasing limits, abcgirl. Guess we don't have &quot;proper&quot; banks. Gosh.

Make the exchange when you get to Paris. Although it shouldn't take more than a few minutes, I'd consider extending the time to meet your landlord. 30 minutes doesn't give you much buffer time in the event of a delay.

Have you considered opening an additional checking account and getting an ATM card for that account? You could have account #2 at your present bank or at different bank.
That way you would be able to draw out the maximum daily amount, in Euro, from each account. Would the maximum daily amount from 2 accounts be sufficient to cover your apartment's rental?
You'd also get the peace of mind of having one ATM card in your possession and the other card in your husband's possession.

I agree about the 30 minutes not being enough time to allow to meet your landlord.
There can be a very long line of people waiting for taxis after a Eurostar arrives at Gare du Nord.

oh, erm, taxis. we were planning to take the metro. should we DEFINITELY postpone our meeting time?

We took the Metro from Nord to Marais with no problems. The only thing that might delay you, is if you're a little confused on arrival - where to go, buy tickets, etc.

Walk down past the front of the train and out the gate.

Turn left and get some cash from the first ATM you come to. Be aware that pickpockets work the station.

Keep going in the same direction all the way to the east end of the station. Follow the signs with an M in a circle. The ticket office is down a few steps on your right. Buy your transport tickets/passes.

What is the address of your meeting?

abcgirl: &quot;my bank has told me that my daily withdrawal limit is set by VISA and is unchangeable.&quot;

That seems very odd to me. By any chance are you talking about taking a cash advance on your Visa?

Both of my banks and the banks of several people I have traveled w/ have been able to raise daily limits w/o any problems. I have done it probably 9 or 10 times over the years (usually when I've had a big bill due right after arrival).

I'm probably talking about 8-10 different banks here -- small local ones, nationwide chains and a copuple of credit unions. Maybe you need to talk to the manager of your bank branch and find out what the problem is. Don't do this over the phone - bank customer service call centers are notorious for giving out lousy info.

Heck, many banks even tell their customers they don't charge ATM fees - &quot;The only fees you will have are from the European Bank&quot; - as most of us know, that is not correct.

I would go into your bank personally and tell them what you need to do. They should be able to provide you with several good options.

There are international money orders, international bank drafts, money can be wired, etc. If you do the transaction directly from $ to Euros you won't lose as much as exchanging the amount twice. Avoid traveler's checks; nobody wants to cash them anymore. Everybody just pays by ATM/credit card and gets cash the same way.

I did the two bank account thing when we went to Europe 2 years ago. Got pickpocketed our last day in Paris and was able to go quickly to an Internet place, get online and transfer all my money from the stolen card account to the other account. And notify the bank of the stolen ATM card. Our trip kept right on, thieves didn't get a cent.

Never heard of a bank not being able to temporarily raise an ATM limit. I asked mine to do that when I wanted to buy a new refrigerator. I wanted to pay from my checking, not on my credit card, but I didn't want to fuss with a check. Same when I got my new computer. All it took was a phone call. Since then I dumped Wells Fargo and now I bank with a local bank and it has a much higher ATM limit so I just don't have the problem anymore.

Notify your banks that you are traveling to Europe so they won't suspect fraud and deactivate your cards. Find out what kind of fees they will charge. Find out how many daily transactions you are limited to as well.

If you pay for a transit pass, buy a couple of museum tickets, buy lunch, buy dinner, get out some cash, buy other stuff, you might quickly exceed the number of transaction limit even though you didn't exceed your daily limit. Having 2 ATM cards helped with that, too.

Have fun on the Eurostar. Be aware that the lines are sometimes really long.

thanks everyone for the suggestions!

robespierre: our address is on the rue de thorigny, apparently right across the street from the musee picasso. thanks for the detailed train station directions!

I suggest you take M&eacute;tro Ligne 5 (Direction Place d'Italie) to Bastille. Exit the station on Rue de Lyon, and you will be right at a bus stop.

Get on the #29 bus (Direction Gare St-Lazare) and ride to the Rue Vieille du Temple stop, adjacent to the Museum.

A map of the area can be downloaded and printed from

<b>http://www.ratp.info/orienter/plan_telech_quartiers.php</b>

Select Bastille from the first pull-down and hit OK.

This is probably the fastest route even though it involves a little backtracking. Its principal advantages are that it doesn't require any connections in the M&eacute;tro, and takes you practically right to your door.

is transferring to a bus from the metro easier than transferring from one metro line to another? and can i buy tickets for the bus at the same time that i get metro tickets? or do i buy them on the bus?

thank you!

Bus and M&eacute;tro tickets are the interchangeable, as are the RATP passes. You can pay bus fare onboard.

Transferring lines in the subway often (although not always) involves long walks through tunnels and up and down stairs and escalators. Transferring from the M&eacute;tro to a bus requires only coming up out of the subway, which you do at the end of a trip anyway. So the bus usually nets out less strenuous.

just out of curiosity, can anyone tell me approximately what we might pay if we DID take a taxi from Gare du Nord to the Musee Picasso?

I think you should take a taxi and all this other stuff with metro and bus etc is a waste of time and energy for hardly any savings. There isn't even a metro stop right near the Picasso Museum, what stop were you going to? The closest ones are about 4-5 blocks away, if I'm not mistaken. I would expect that taxi ride to cost in the range of 5-10 euro. I would take the metro and walk that distance if I had no luggage from a trip, but not otherwise. I have had to wait a little bit for a taxi after a train because it can get busy there, but never that long.

If I were doing this, I would take the M&eacute;tro and bus right to the door, and spend the &euro;10 on something more fun.

Since I always have an RATP pass for my travel within Paris, my ride to the museum would be basically free. And probably faster (depending on traffic).

sorry the message posted before I could correct it!!

It should read:

If you take the metro, they suggest you take the number 4 line towards the Porte d'Orlean and change a Strasbourg St Denis to the number 8 line going towards Creteil-Prefecture (Hotel de Ville) and get off at the Saint-Sebastien-Froissart. As others have said you will have about a 5 block walk to the apartment (the metro site says 7 minutes walk).

For the bus, the ratp site suggest the number 5 toward gare de Lyon. Be careful to catch it going the right direction. Then you get off at the Oberkampf Filles du Calvaire stop. You will still have about a 5 minute walk from there.

I agree that the 29 gets you closer, but not sure you gain much with additional metro trip.

Author: jpie
Date: 03/20/2005, 01:46 pm
Message: I think whether you take bus or taxi may depend on how much luggage you have, but I personally don't think 30 minutes is enough, particularly if you don't know the neighborhoods, need to change money etc. I would make it an hour and I doubt you would be waiting too long, unless you figure out a way in advance to change the money as suggested here and you catch a taxi fast (no line). Then 30 minutes might be okay.

FYI, The Ratp.fr site suggests the following routes:

If you take the metro, they suggest you take the number 4 line towards the Porte d'Orlean and change a Strasbourg St Denis to the number 8 line going towards Creteil-Prefecture (Hotel de Ville) and get off at the Saint-Sebastien-Froissart. As others have said you will have about a 5 block walk to the apartment (the metro site says 7 minutes).

For the bus, the ratp site suggest the number 5 toward gare de Lyon. Be careful to catch it going the right direction. Then you get off at the Oberkampf Filles du Calvaire stop. You will still have about a 5 minute walk from there.

I agree that the 29 gets you closer, but not sure you gain much with the added metro trip.

The RATP itinerary tool is stupid.

It's a straight shot from GdN to Bastille on M&eacute;tro Ligne 5, with 11 minutes enroute. Then a 1-minute bus ride to the museum. No walking the streets. At all.

The only other reasonable route would be to take the bus all the way, starting with the #65 to Chemin Vert, then the #29 to the museum. This would take about 27 minutes.

&lt;The RATP itinerary tool is stupid.&gt;

Actually Robespierre, I think you are a bit harsh here. I realize the tool may not be perfect, but when I went back and put in the bus with the least amount of walking, it came up with another good idea (that I should have known!)

You could also take the #38 bus from the gare, which is its terminus, and take it to the Centre Pompidou stop on rue Beaubourg. Cross the street and you can pick up the #29 on Rambateau and take it across. Yes I know it means 2 blocks north, but it is still another viable alternative....

Anyway abcgirl, you can see there are many choices! Let us know after your trip what you decided :)

But that's NOT the least walking, is it?:)

Okay, relatively stupid. Because it doesn't consider M&eacute;tro-bus combos the way the Transport for London Journey Planner does. RATP's is either all rail or all bus, which frequently doesn't yield the most desirable outcome.

If you plan to be carrying that much cash with you, then take a taxi. I would not like to do a metro/bus combo upon arrival in Paris if I had luggage AND a large amount of cash on me. The taxi shouldn't cost you more than 10 euros, is a lot easier than schlepping that luggage around, up and down stairs, etc. and also worrying about pickpockets. AFTER you get settled into the apartment, take mass transit. (Although a taxi ride across Paris at night can be a memorable experience.)

you read my mind, BTilke. just last night i put the beginning and end of this post together in my head and realized that i wasn't sure if i wanted to juggle unfamiliarity with a city, unfamiliarity with a mass transit system, 3 smallish pieces of luggage and a big wad of cash while looking extremely like a tourist (carrying luggage kind of gives that away...) and worrying about theives. while i'm all for saving a few bucks, this may be an instance where it's worth it to pay a bit more for peace of mind.

Oh, for heaven's sake. Carrying luggage doesn't mark you as a tourist - Parisians do it all the time. And besides, there's a lot more to <u>not</u> looking like a tourist than luggage. Don't worry about it. Carry your money where it can't be snatched, and get on with it.

As far as the transit system is concerned: get some good maps (see above) and figure out what you're going to do <u>before</u> you get there. Nothing says &quot;tourist&quot; like looking around and referring to a map.

abcgirl- Go with BTilke. It is so much better to grab a taxi when you step off the Eurostar.
One thing confuses me a bit - the acquisition of euros? France will not let any South African into the country unless we have a minimum amount(which they stipulate as 100euros a day), stamped into our passports as having been issued to us by the bank in cash or tavellers cheques, or reserved in a credit card account. To get the bank to purchase euros on our behalf and write this in our passports we have to submit an airticket. The next step is when the ticket and passport are sent to the French Consulate General for approval and stamped accordingly. So therefore we always enter France with euros in our purses. I usually take some in cash which is handy for the cab fare etc., some in cheques and a lot on my credit card.
When I leave France I bring all that left over and sling it in the wall safe at home ready for the next trip.
Things must be SO different for USA citizens?

&quot;Oh, for heaven's sake. Carrying luggage doesn't mark you as a tourist -Parisians do it all the time. And besides, there's a lot more to not looking like a tourist than luggage. Don't worry about it. Carry your money where it can't be snatched, and get on with it.&quot;

Why so testy and hostile, Robespierre? What are you trying to browbeat abcgirl into taking mass transit? A short taxi ride is not a bank breaker. And riding taxis through the streets of Paris can be a pleasant experience.

When I go to Paris on day trips and have no luggage, I take mass transit or walk from the GdN. But if I have luggage (and we haven't driven to Paris), I find taxis the most cost effective use of *my* time to get to my hotel. After checking in and dumping of my luggage, then I go back to mass transit or foot power.

If abcgirl opts for mass transit, fine. If she opts for a taxi, that's fine too. They are both perfectly acceptable options, each with its advantages and disadvantages.

Taking a taxi isn't wrong or immoral, Robes--relax a little!

I don't see &quot;wrong&quot; or &quot;immoral&quot; in any of my posts - but I do see a lot of bogus reasons for not taking public transport in those of some others.

If you choose to spend the money on a taxi, godspeed to you. But know that the faster, cheaper way is not a mind-bending, pickpocket-baiting, street-walking ordeal.

Robes, of my roughly 75 (and counting) trips to Paris, at least 25 have been through the Gare du Nord. I know that route very, very well. The metro is the cheapest, but it is NOT always the fastest. The number 4 line has its share of pickpockets and stairs. Given the relatively low cost of a taxi ride from GdN to an apartment in the Marais, and given that abcgirl will have luggage and a lot of cash, a taxi is a perfectly reasonable AND cost-effective alternative to the metro or metro/bus.
Cheapest is not always best. Un point, c'est tout.

I don't think the number of times one has been to Paris has any relevance here. If it did, then <u>my</u> opinion would prevail and there would be no discussion.

And you've <i>got</i> to be kidding when you say that a taxi is faster than the M&eacute;tro. You can't go 2 miles in 11 minutes in Paris unless you're under ground or in the sky. In the subway, there's also no queueing for a taxi when the Eurostar arrives.

RATP is faster, cheaper, and as safe as the street. But how one reaches a destination is ultimately a question of <i>chacun &agrave; son bout</i>.

Not kidding at all. I have taken a taxi to OECD meetings held at various venues within the city, for example, and arrived well before colleagues who took the metro. I have also gone from GdN to the Marais in 10 minutes via taxi on more than one occasion. When we lived in Brussels (from 1999 until the end of 2004), I hopped the Thalys down to Paris about every three weeks for business or leisure. Got very familiar with how to get around town using the GdN as a starting point. Sometimes the metro was faster; sometimes the taxi was.
You are free to cling obsessively to your notion that the cheapest way is the ONLY way worth doing things. That seems to be the view you hold on almost any topic when one option costs more than another. But not everyone shares that view and, believe it or not (which you obviously don't and never will), others have perfectly valid reasons for their differing views.

&quot;...believe it or not (which you obviously don't and never will), others have perfectly valid reasons for their differing views.&quot;

I guess if you aren't going to make an effort to read and understand what I write, we can't discuss anything. I have never said that anyone else's reasons are invalid - I have only said that if your preferences are speed* and economy, the RATP wins. And as far as my frugality is concerned - I find that the reason I can buy anything I want to is <u>because</u> I don't spend any more than necessary.

* I, too, have taken that route using both modes, and the M&eacute;tro always has won. Your Velocity May Vary.

Just be sure to wear your low cost MP3 player while riding the Metro!! Certain to get you there faster than listening to a genuine iPod in a taxi. LOL.