help with currency
 

My husband and I are going on our very first European tour to Italy in September. Although most expenses are included in the tour, we still need spending money. We have been told to bring money (Euros) not travellers cheques. I am a little nervous about just carrying cash, but we are not sure of cashing travellers cheques since we have never been to Europe before. Any advice would be appreciated!!!

ATMs and CreditCards are by far the best way to buy things abroad.

ATM hooked to your checking acct or a debit card - 4 digit PIN works in zillions of ATMS

best rate of exchange. Foolish to bring Euros IME - every airport has ATMS or manual currency exchange if all else fails. Bring a few hundred $$$ in US cash for emergencies if ATMs aren't available or can't use credit card.

Advise to bring euros is very very poor advice - you lose so much typically buying them here and then yes have cash to carry around - ATM when you need it just like at home.

Travelers cheques are often hard to cash and carry large fees - in UK about $10 often per transaction. Many banks in France won't cash them IME.

There have been volumes about this on Fodor's so do a search for Changing Money , etc.

Welcome to Fodors! I would second the recommendation to NOT bring travelers cheques- they will doubly charge you, as there is a charge to get the cheques, plus many stores will charge extra to use them (those stores that will even accept them).

I would recommend bringing ATM cards and credit cards, and contacting your bank and credit card companies to find out what they charge for overseas purchases. Some banks will not charge extra charges for European ATMs- defintely worth investigating!

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You use your ATM card to get Euro, just tell your bank before hand

You buy a small amount of Euro in the US so that when the bank forgets you told them you were going to Italy and your ATM card is rejected you can still eat while you wait for the bank's overseas contact line to open for the day because of the time difference

You carry a few USD TC's for cases of dire emergency - but be prepared to spend a lot of time (or lose a lot of money) in the process of exchanging them

Do a search for ATM for moe information

rather than buying euros in US simply take some US cash to the airport you land at and buy euros there at the exchanges which will always be open - you'll be dollars ahead due to better rate and fewer charges IME - then carry euros around for alanRow's scenario - which to me in 15 years or so using ATMS only happened twice - both times in Italy when there was some kind of national strike.

I always stay a few hundred euros ahead in case. But credit cards now seem to get a better bottom line rate and you can always use those even if ATMs for some rare reason would spit out euros.

Just as in the US, in europe they have reached the 21st century and the bulk of banking and payment is electronic.

Take credit cards (at least 2) for larger charges (meals, etc) and ATM cards (linked to your chekcing account) to pull cash for walking around money (ice cream, drink in a cafe etc).

If you're nervous having no euros change $50 or $100 into euros at the bureau de change in your departure airport., You will get a bad rate - but for so little it doesn;t matter.

Carryinng a lot of cash is silly - in europe - just as in the US - too much chance of losing it. And Trav Checks are accepted at very few places (even a lot of banks won;t take them except for their own depositers).

I pretty well agree with everything said...but IMHO if you do want a few euros "just in case" I would buy them at home, not at any airport currency exchange booth...they charge way more than your bank would (forget the sales pitch of "no fees", they'll ding you good with the exchange rate)

ATMs (4 digit pin, connected to your chking account), maybe a bit of euro for when you land.

Enjoy the trip!
Mike