Help for euros on arriving!
 

I need to pay my rent in cash, but it will exceed my daily ATM limit. Any brilliant ideas out there? I thought about sending $$ to my credit card so I could do a cash advance (which would be immediately paid off, therefore not incurring interest). Or maybe I should just take travelers checks and bite the bullet. It seems so vieux jeu. Hate to buy euro travelers checks because you lose so much on the exchange.

Any advice?

Stay away from travelers checks, they're nothing but bad karma. Can you buy one of those American Express cash cards, where you put actual cash on the card ahead of time? I'm sure you could use one to withdraw cash from an ATM.

A couple of ideas. Will your bank increase your limit? Could you access another account? Can you spread your rent payments out over a few days?

How much more than your daily limit? I have frequently arranged through my local branch bank to temporarily raise my daily limit for just this sort of situation. I have raised it to as much as $700 when I usually have only a $300 limit

But if you need thousands, that probably isn't an option.

As for a cash advince - there is a fee even IF it is paid off immediately.

Sue, how much is your rent? When do you arrive in Europe? When do you check in to the place that requires the rent?

My wife and I can each get $500 a day on our ATM cards (same account). That's $1000. If your rent is more than that, will your landlord accept 1/2 today and 1/2 tomorrow? I would check and see. Worth a try.

Push comes to shove, get a cash advance and pay it off when you get the statement. Yes, you will incur interest, but it will be less than getting Euro travelers checks.

If your credit card is 12% interest per annual, that's 1% per month, and on $1000, it's only $10.

Now, you have some options -- ATM/Cash Advance -- much better than exchange rate on euro travelers checks -- rip off in my opinion. ((b))

Maybe there is a good exchange bureau in your area, and you can get Euros before you go. I get interbank rate + 2% and no fees. A bank would not give you rates like this - you will have to shop around.

Also, be sure to check whether "front-loading" your credit card will prevent you being charged the significant cash advance fees. I seem to recall reading that someone found it did not, which doesn't seem fair, but nothing surprises me when it comes to CC companies.

Wow! Y'all are great! For one thing, you made me get off my butt and look for Cash advance fees, and in so doing I read that with my CU ATM I can take as many withdrawals out a day as I want. (I will call to verify that.) I only need €800 and I will be there one day ahead, so I should be able to do it fairly easily. My limit is $515 for some odd reason. (It used to be $400, so I have learned another new thing.)

I will have a backup plan, however, maybe advance pay to the CC that has the lowest fee. I take Capitol One and MBNA. Cash advance fee: 3% of amount of the cash advance, but not less than $5. Seems exorbitant.

Maybe travelers checks would be better as a backup. I have some that I have carried for about 10 years just in case. Anyone know what the fees are in France?

Am I obsessing? I'm sure if worse came to worse the landlord would wait a day. It's just that once in Cannes the ATM ate my card.

Ten year old travelers checks? What currency are they in?

Another idea - get some Euros ahead of time and bring them with you. We always get a small amount at our local bank (they charge a small service fee) as an insurance when we travel to Europe (just in case we need $ before we can get to an ATM). With my bank, I can order the foreign currency online. It's simple, they debit my account and about 5 days later I receive it in the mail (have to sign for it). Maybe that will help, too.

Hi LV,

>...with my CU ATM I can take as many withdrawals out a day as I want.<

BUT only up to your daily limit. Your daily limit of 515CD is 320E.

a) Ask your bank to raise your daily limit for the 24 hr period in which you will want to withdraw money.

b) open a second account and withdraw the additional amount you need. There might be a minimum balance requirement.

c) You will probably be limited to 250E per transaction at one ATM.

d) The ATM you use might run out of money or not permit multiple transactions on one card. Find another machine.

e) Ask if you can pay 250E per day.

Enjoy your trip.

((I))

Remarkably, despite having a $300. (US) per day ATM w/d limit, I can make multiple $3000. (MXP) daily w/d's (about $265. US), but not a single $5000. (MXP) w/d - go figure.
I never needed to try same in Europe.
M

See if they'll take a check as a deposit against your rent until you can convince an ATM to cough up the entire amount.

Amex TCs are redeemed without additional cost at their outlets.

I've been playing ostrich with this problem. Yes, Ira, you are right, multiple w/d per day, only up to limit.

So I went to CU to get clarification; I have a regular ATM card after reading about how you could get cleaned out if a debit card were stolen ($0 liability, but temporarily $0 in your account). Of course, the gal had no clue, but we got out the fliers and read a lot.

I had had a little trouble with the regular (non-Visa) ATM card in Nice, so I was thinking of changing back to a debit card when VOILA! There was my solution. I will do as Ira suggested: open up another account with a Visa debit card and keep my account with the regular debit card. That way it will be easy to tell which account is which (when I'm using the card) and I will have a spare card/account in case of loss or theft. YAY!

By the way, Mikemo, what's MXP?

Even with fees I don't think Travelers Checks are a worse deal than a cash advance on a credit card, are they? Get them in U.S. rather than euro and go to a bank.

Personally I would be willing to carry, say 1/2 that much money in euro or U.S. to exchange in some secure way on my person ... then get the other 1/2 from an ATM.

Ask who you are renting from if you can spread the payment out over the 1st few days, is another idea.

Or if you are 2 people traveling together, than's just 400 euro each to carry with you.

"Even with fees I don't think Travelers Checks are a worse deal than a cash advance on a credit card, are they?"

Maybe not, but in my opinion you've just named the absolute "dumbest thing" anyone can ever do to get money. Why on earth would anyone ever get a cash advance on a credit card? That has no relation to withdrawing money from your bank via at ATM.

Actually, Patrick, back before ATMs, we used to get cash advances all the time in France. The bank would write it up like a restaurant charge, and Visa was none the wiser! It went through as a regular charge.

One of my cards charges 3% (min $5) for a cash advance. If I prepay my account, the money is there so there's no daily finance charge. If I charge on my card, they add 3%, so what's the diff?

I may stand corrected as I've never done it. But I've always been under the impression that cash advances on a credit card DO mean interest charged from the day you "borrow it", and having a "credit balance on the account" or in other words, prepaying makes no difference. A cash advance still incurs the interest charge. Also I was under the impression that percentage of interest is in ADDITION to the 3% or whatever your card charges for international transactions. So if your card normally charges 3% for purchases in euros, then you will still get that charge for withdrawing euros as a cash advance, in ADDITION to the interest percentage your card charges.
Maybe I'm mistaken, but others have sure indicated that that IS the case.

By the way, "before the days of ATMs" and today are worlds apart. What happened then has NOTHING to do with happens these days.

Don't get huffy, P. That was just anecdotal, a funny (maybe not so much) story, if you will, of days gone by. We really enjoyed our interactions in the banks in little towns.

I never thought about whether or not the bank would charge an additional (!) 3%, but you're probably right.

Anyway, now I'm considering AAA Cash Passport, a prepaid card that costs $3 to initialize w/$2 ATM charges.

I'm astounded to discover that these prepaid cards seem to be replacing travelers checks. (Modern life just keeps sneaking things by me!) And some of them really sock it to you: AmEx's costs $15 and EF Educational Travel Cards cost $25! Hope some of those parents do some investigation before they hop on the bandwagon.

>I will do as Ira suggested:...<

Glad to have been of assistance, LV.

((I))

Am I the one you refer to as P? Will you explain where I was "huffy"? I think you totally misread my very calm and almost apologetic post. What did you read into it?

I know some banks do indeed charge you for a cash advance on a credit card (the 3 pct of withdrawal or $15, for example) regardless of whether you have a credit balance or not. I asked them when someone proposed this idea on some thread somewhere. They said that fee was for the service, had nothing to do with your balance.

However, they did say they would not charge interest, though, if you had a credit balance, so you can avoid that. That is strictly related to whether you are "borrowing" money or not. Another way to avoid the interest charges which I did once when I had to take out money that way (can't recall why, it was pre-ATMs), is to send them a check to cover the amount ASAP even before you get a statement. YOu can do that, and I did the only time I've taken one out, so as to incur only a few days interest. I had to get a special address from them as to where to mail that check to make sure it got credited correctly. Now that won't work when on vacation very well, but that was just to illustrate the principle that the interest depends on whether you actually owe them money, the other charges are for doing the transaction.

Sorry, Patrick, I guess it was the caps that threw me off.

That said, I found a local bank on the net with a Silver Senior account, no fees at all and free checks, and a branch in my supermarket to boot. Only drawback is $1.50 ATM fee, but you can't have everything!

Of course, I wasn't content to leave it there and checked BofA, Wells Fargo, Citibank, Colonial Bank. None had fee-less accounts, so Nevada Savings it is!