We are getting our ducks in a row for our trip to Italy (one month from tomorrow). I am making arrangements to deposit funds in a couple of separate accounts so that I will have access to cash from ATM's while in country. I want to make sure that I will have access to those funds, because I really don't expect to find too many Wachovia and Bank of America ATM's on every street corner. Does anyone know which electronic funds transfer sytems (Interlink, Cirrus, etc.) are found in Italian banks? I don't want to get over there and not have access to my funds because the Italian banks don't support some of these systems.

If anybody knows this, I would very much appreciate it.

gravysandwich

BofA is our bank and every single atm we found was accessible. The Deutsch Banks (which you will find all over the place) converts without a service charge for BofA.

Cirrus is widely used - not sure about Interlink

We use Cirrus and have never had a problem in Italy. In cities, it's similar to the US. Even smaller villages seem to have ATM's, internet cafes and the usual conveniences we often take for granted - for better or worse.

Hi g,

Our ATM cards are Plus and Cirrus. We had no trouble while in Italy (Venice, Florence, Naples, Praiano, Rome).

you'll have no trouble. We used BoA checkcards and Bank of Tx. cards with no problem.

I would suggest you do an ATM/debit card from Bank of America, and not an ATM only card. We found several banks in Italy, including BofA partner Deutsch Bank where an ATM only card from BofA would not work as their international transactions are now handled by Visa services and won't work if there is no debit or Visa connection on the card -- even though interbank or cirrus are present. THIS IS A NEW CONCERN AS OF THIS PAST SUMMER, AND NOT AT ALL BANKS.

I second Patrick's suggestion for a Visa Debit card instead of a regular ATM card. I was able to use my regular B of A ATM card in Italy, but that was 2 1/2 years ago. Based on Patrick's post, I can see that things have changed since then. More recently I have not been able to use my ATM card in France or Belguim, but my Visa debit card worked just fine.

One other thing--Bank of America recommends that your PIN should not start with a zero.

Heeding Patrick's advice from last summer, I changed two accounts from ATM-only to ATM/VISA/debit cards, but had the VISA and debit amounts set to 0. Now I'm wondering if the card will still work in ATMs in Italy with the other "features" at 0. They still work here in the U.S. Anyone know for sure?

cirrus is what my family uses with no problem.