Italy
 

This is our 1st trip to Italy. Any advice on obtaining Euros? We arrive on Sat. Our US bank wants about 5% to exchg. We will be on tour part of time and at a agricult. tourism site for the remainder. Will report about that part.

Unless you are arriving in Italy by a hot air balloon descending into an open field, there will be ATMs where you arrive. Use your ATM card and withdraw euros from your home bank account -- the best rate you will find, and unless you have a "rip off" bank at home, there will me a minimal if any charge to withdraw the money.

Oh, and for those who may mention the tiniest of tiny possibilities that the ATMs will all be out of order, I'm guessing you will have some US cash on hand, that you could exchange at a currency booth should such an unlikely emergency occur.

Gosh, but what if the ATM is out of order and the currency booth teller has a heart attack?

Then try to find an American flying back to the US that has leftover Euro on them and try to do an exchange of money?

Plenty of ATM's but check your bank first. Some are now charging a hefty surcharge for using over seas ATM's.

Shar

Here's what I posted recently:

I just picked up BofA's Personal Schedule of Fees, and in it I learned that as of February 14, withdrawals from an ATM in a foreign country will be charged $5, up from last year's $3. That's 5% on $100, which could be a normal withdrawal since ATMs are ubiquitous in large cities.

But if the money is withdrawn from a bank belonging to the Global ATM Alliance, no fee is charged. These banks are: Santander Serfin, Barclays, Scotiabank, Deutsche Bank, BNP Paribas and Westpac.

I opened a checking account with Guaranty Bank on line and deposited enough money for my trip to Italy. By setting up a samll automatic withdrawal every month (200, I think), I avoided all ATM charges and get free checking. They will even refund you if another bank charges you a fee if you send them in the receipt. I use it when I travel in the US, too, and always get refunded any ATM charges to my account. The automatic withdrawal works out to be a nice travel savings account, too.

Michael-
Interesting you should point this out about Bank of America's charges. I just returned from Puerto Vallarta Mx. and was surprised when i returned home, checked my online account and saw a charge of $5.00 for using an A.T.M.
I learned my lesson on that one.

Hi dons,
Here are some lessons I learnt from my last week's trip to Italy:
I had bought Euros from my nationally recognized bank for most of our needs. From past experience, I had learnt that carrying cash is easiest way to pay during the trip.

It indeed is, except that upon returning I found that I got a cheaper exchange rate by using my MBNA Worldpoints card. Incidentally, I had done some research before taking the trip when I had found that my Amex charged me a 3% fee (which they deceptively potray on the statements), and had found that there are some credit cards who don't charge this fee - among those being Wachovia, Capital One, MBNA and all credit unions' issued CC.

My advise would be to buy only as many Euros as you think you would need to cover at places that would potentially not accept CCs - like cafes, some ticket counters etc. Make sure you call your credit card company to see if they charge this exchange fee - if not, most likely you would get the best rates from Visa/ Mastercard. I had read that MC/ Visa buy Euros in bulk several months ahead and during this time of falling dollar, you would most likely get the best rates by using Visa/ MC.

I haven't used the ATMs because I get uncomfortable about ATM fees of the Italian bank as well as its American counterpart, some ATMs have a 6-digit PIN others have a 4-digit PIN.

Happy travels!