PatSox

Help, please! We are traveling to Paris for 8 days and Venice for 5 in the Spring and would like some advice on fellow Fodorites experiences with the AMEX Cheque Card, travelers checks or regular credit cards. On the few foreign trips we have taken we always used a credit card, but now have read about the 3% fees which could add up on a 2 week trip!

Our bank does have an agreement with BNP Paribas that we could withdraw funds fee free, but I would prefer not to walk around with cash.

Any suggestions or experiences???

Thanks,
k

FrancineSF

I am about to head to Paris, Turkey and Greece in May and this is what I have been told regarding money and the best rates. I will carry some traveler checks and a AMEX Cheque card, as well.

In addition, bring your ATM card. The best rate of exchange is through your ATM, getting cash as you need it.

Also, I remember this from my last trip, because of credit card fraud, make sure to call your bank and credit card companies (for the credit cards you may or plan to use) and let them know you will be traveling abroad. Otherwise, when you try to use your card too many times, they might deny it. But, if you have it on record you are traveling, they will have it in your record.

Have fun!

janisj

No to Travelers Cheques, and no to the Amex check card.

Your best exchange rate will be via ATM cards and credit cards. The AMEX card costs to open, costs to add money, costs to withdraw money, and even costs to close out when you get back home.

And travelers cheques are basically useless. You can't use them to pay for things - you must first go to a bank to cash them and pay very high fees to do so.

The 3% visa and mc charge is still much less than you will pay for other methods. And you can't beat an ATM card for getting cash.

cls2paris

ditto what janis said.

Worktowander

We rely almost entirely on our Visa-branded debit card - no interest to pay when we get back, all the advantages of a credit card and an ATM card.

(We do take a "real" credit along for backup).

yakamozkar

Hi:

MONEY IN TURKEY: I believe the days of travellers check is over. I spent 4 months in Turkey last summer, 2 months in May- June and two months in September - October. I was all over Turkey, in Istanbul, Ankara, Cappadocia, Sivas, in many towns and cities along the Mediterrenean coast,
Kushadasi, Ephesus, Pergamum, Bursa, Cannakkale, Gallipoli, Edirne and more places. No where I had any difficulty using my ATM card. Even in the smallest towns, ATM was available. Most of your purchases can be done with credit cards. For some reason, many merchants do not prefer the AMEX card. When I asked, one said that because, they take more commision. Master card and Visa cards are more acceptable. Cash always make their life happy. From ATMs you will get your local currency needs. As in everywhere, there is a limit. If the bank does not give you the highest amount you listed, then go down to down. Some times, once you try one bank, you ask the highest amount, if you are rejected, try another bank with lower amount. Make sure to call your bank and tell them that you will be travelling and using your Credit card for your purchases and you will be also using the ATM in those countries. You can buy phone card, not the local ones but the kind you can call overseas, make phone calls easily, i.e. for 10.00 YTL (New Turkish Lira) and you can talk for 52 minutes with your bank, with anyone in the USA. But, if you make a local phone call with the same card, it just goes faster. So, I suggest take some cash with you, and use your ATM card.

Always watch your purse where ever you are. My father in-law was pick-pocketed in Paris Metro station as he was getting in a car. My wife's lipstick purse, looked like a wallet, was gone in Prague, I stopped a young man snatching a camera from a British tourist lady in Barcelona. It can happen anywhere....

Have a safe and a happy trip.

Keith

Debit card for cash when you need it, and Visa or MC for purchases.

The time when Traveler's checks were a good idea has passed. Though a few people like to carry a couple in case their wallet is stolen.

Keith

paskee

Just a minute though. Am I missing something? No one mentions the advantage of purchasing traveller's cheques in one's home country in order to take advantage of a strong domestic currency. For example, when I went to Amsterdam last June, it cost $1.62 (Canadian) to buy 1 Euro. Now it costs 1.40 Canadian. So now that we are going to France this August, I am stocking up on T. Cheques and will be cashing them at Paribas in France, fee-free.

Budman

Some conversion fee and/or commission is usually charged when cashing traveler's checks.

Look for banks that only charge the normal 1% conversion fee for credit card transactions.

Look for banks that don't charge you for taking your money out of your checking account (ATM card).

If you buy Euro now for 1.40 Canadian and when you go to Europe in August and you can buy Euro for 1.30 Canadian -- you lost!! To purchase Euro now for a future trip is pure speculation -- if you're willing to take that chance, go for it.

lincasanova

glad you know where to cash traveller's checks, and free, besides. Worth the trouble to find those things out BEFORE your trip.

a friend had a guest here in valencia for the weekend, and NO BANKS will take them, and our largest department store finally took them against a minimum purchase.

paskee

I agree it is speculation, but one must at least consider this aspect.

ira

>when I went to Amsterdam last June, it cost $1.62 (Canadian) to buy 1 Euro. Now it costs 1.40 Canadian. So now that we are going to France this August, I am stocking up on T. Cheques ...<

And if the Euro falls to 1.30 CD? Today it is 1.37.

Do you get your TC's at the bank rate?

Bigal

I must say that Janis has the best advice. A combination of cc and ATM.

I cant agree with the suggestion that a debit card has the best features of the ATM plus CC. It means that you must have in your checking account before you leave the entire amount of cash that you think you will spend on your trip.I have better places to keep my money. The ATM (and debit) are best used for cash expenditures to be kept to a minimum. The cc makes more sense on the trip than a debit since one doesnt have to give up the cash till about a month later in the cc statement.

Budman

I agree, ATM card (checking account) for spending cash, and Credit Card for hotels, restaurants, rental car, and major purchases. Look for ones with low fees.

bob_brown

Travelers checks: Almost useless except in rare occasions. They might provide psychological warmth in your passport case or money belt. I used some once to calm an overheated French waiter but none were used.

Europe is more cash oriented than the US. ATM machines are common. In some cases your American bank will have a correspondent in Europe and ATM withdrawals are treated as "on net" and you pay nothing extra. Example: Bank of America and Barkleys Bank have a working agreement. I paid no extra charge at all to use my BOA card at Barclays.

Not all credit card issuers charge the extra 2%. (1% is the Visa or MC fee that is as far as I know unavoidable.)
The last I heard (and I am a little out of date), Capital One did not charge the extra amount.

Some credit unions issue cards and do not charge the extra fee. I think it pays to ask, and change cards if need be.

I know I have a BOA card, and when I found out that an extra 2% was involved when I used it, I put the card aside and carry other cards.

You will not beat the 3% by trying to buy euro notes or British pounds over here. You end up paying about 5% above the wholesale bank rate of exchange.
I know, places like AAA say there is "no fee." Well, any way you total up your bill, your bottom line is higher by a substantial percentage than the wholesale bank rate of exchange.
Call it what you will, but doing business with banks or other money changers is more costly than the 3% credit card add on.

I checked the exchange booth rates at the Atlanta airport last year before leaving. I figured I was paying almost 10% for exchanging.

Michael

I agree that ATM and credit cards are the way to go. However, if the fees bother you (BofA charges $5 of every withdrawal from a non Global Alliance bank), try to establish a travel account in a bank or credit union that does not levy such fees. That's what I did with my local credit union--no fees for ATM withdrawals, and 1% on credit card transactions.

tomboy

Lest the above is not clear:ATMs are everywhere (including small towns in Poland, Hungary, Czech/Slovak Rep, not to mention France, Germany, UK). I dare say one cannot walk more than 100 feet in a central part of any town without passing an ATM with the Plus or Cirrus symbol (connoting interchange with my bank, at no fee, at the wholesale bank exchange rate). Only once in 6 years has an ATM not given me money (Frankfurt airport); that time I continued walking 30' more and used another one. I don't even bother getting any cash for a trip anymore.

carolll

We rely almost exclusively on ATM cards when traveling abroad. Credit card companies charge foreign transaction fees when they convert your foreign charge into American dollars, upwards of 3%. Who needs that?
Carol L

Mimar

Carolll, not all (Visa and Mastercharge) credit cards charge more than the mandatory 1%. Credit unions and certain banks do not. Using a credit card means you don't need to carry so much cash.

suze

Janis said it all up top.

The problem I see for PatSox is they don't want to "walk around with cash"... which is what an ATM gets you!

I use the cash/ATM + credit card combination, but I am a cash-spending person both at home and while traveling and am extremely comfortable doing so.

k- Why don't you want to carry cash?