While traveling through Italy from 9/20-10/11, I would prefer to pay for most everything in cash, including my hotel stays and rental cars, etc.

My question is if it is acceptable/customary to receive a better deal if you are using cash while traveling? In the US, of course, you can often can a better rate from smaller business owners when using cash.

However, perhaps it is not the best strategy to go through Italy with that much cash on me. Maybe the experienced travelers can discuss their strategies for paying their way through Italy?

I have never heard of a rental car company that takes cash rather than a credit card.

Hotels sometimes offer a 10% reduction for cash. You can ask at check in. Usually it's the smaller and cheaper hotels who do this. If you've booked large hotels or chain type places then you won't get a discount.

I pay for things in Italy the same way I do in all European countries - cash for most things and credit card for car rental, hotels, large purchases.

You do not carry cash around but get what you need when you need it from an ATM machine - the same as you do at home.

If you look on this board you will see that there are thousands of threads about how to pay for things and they all say the same thing.

There is so much information on this board that it would be to your advantage to read through some of it since perhaps you will find information for questions you haven't thought to ask.

Don't carry more cash than you need for two or three days. Use ATM machines which are available everywhere. There are a lot of posts on the best way to get cash and most agree that ATMs are the way to go. We have run into situations (mostly some years back) where paying in cash resultee in a small reduction in the hotel bill.

You can easily pay in cash in hotels. It is doubtful that cash will work for rental cars.

Do you have a particular reason for wanting to pay in cash and preferring to carry large amounts with you?

I'm a major Colombian drug lord.

No just kidding I just don't want to come home to large bills. And of I keep hitting up the ATM ill be getting charged a few dollars each time.

Hi cd,

>I would prefer to pay for most everything in cash, including my hotel stays and rental cars, etc.<

You will not be able to rent a car without a CC.

Some hotels will give you a small discount, but often require payment in advance.

Why not join the twentieth century and use a CC and an ATM card for the small amont of cash you will need?

Hi cd,

>I just don't want to come home to large bills.

What difference does it make if you pay the large bill when you are in Italy or when you get home? It's not as if you have to do work?

>If I keep hitting up the ATM ill be getting charged a few dollars each time.<

Take out 100E for when you NEED cash. Charge everything else.

I agree with everything that's been said above. Have you thought about getting a credit card that doesn't charge for foreign transactions?

We generally try to withdraw our daily maximum whenever we use an ATM. You pay the few dollars whether it is for 100 Euros or 500. My husband and I split the cash between us.

<< I just don't want to come home to large bills >>

I don't understand this logic. What's the difference if you take money out of your checking account at ATMs and carry it around with you in Italy or if you take money out of your checking account to pay a bill once you get home.

If you don't want to see the bill then transfer funds from your checking account to your credit card during your travels.

In the old days (80's and 90's), we prepayed our credit card by the amount we expected to spend on the trip. No large bills when we got home. If we underspent our estimate, we sometimes even had a credit.

Large amounts of cash are a bad idea anywhere. As you will see when you scan previous postings on this forum, the possibility of getting your pocket picked, your purse grabbed, forgetting your bag on the restaurant banquette is >0. Why risk losing more than a hundred dollars or so in "walking around" money?

I would be really surprised if many of the urban dwellers on this forum carry around rolls of cash. I never withdraw more than $100 a month and usually share that with my Adored One. I carry more cash in places where I don't know where I will find the next ATM.

Señor Dispoto: I'm sold. I now believe your "major Colombian drug lord" confession.

Buena suerte, mi amigo

How are you going to get the large amount of Euros in the first place? Your bank will charge more for the original exchange than you will pay in ATM fees.

Unless you're planning to borrow some farmer's Fiat, there's no way you'll be able to rent a car with cash, so forget that. Small, independent hotels may give you a small discount for paying in cash, or not. For everything else, use a cc that doesn't charge foreign transaction fees or just withdraw cash as you need it from ATMs. Italian banks don't charge fees for that; if your bank does, change banks. The absolutely dumbest thing you can do is walk around with loads of cash.

My bank does not charge me ATM fees (Wells Fargo). Since I am paranoid about getting my ATM card eaten by a machine, I opened another account at my bank that I only use when traveling. I transfer an adequate amount of money to that account for the trip in case I need to access it. It also comes in handy when you need to withdraw more cash in one day than you are allowed on one account.

For example, in Venice last year I wanted to purchase a gold winged lion of St. Mark pendant and would get a significant discount from the jeweler if I used cash. I went around the corner to the ATM and withdrew the amount of cash I needed using my ATM cards from both of my accounts.

I don't, however, ever carry around large amounts of cash.

Your trip is not that lengthy that you will come home to enormous bills. You will need to pay for the car with a cc. I would be more concerned with either carrying around large amounts of Euros or having to find ATM's on a frequent basis. We use our no exchange rate fee cc for almost everthing we can, and since it is also an airline card, we are accumulating miles towards the next trip, a very good feeling.

discount for cash unlikley and not welcomed by local tax authorities. Some countries use cash a lot still, for instance many German business people I know will only carry cash but I wouldn't walk around Italy with a wad as any loss (error or theft) is hard to make up.

ATMs are extremely common in Italy in the smallest towns and all over Europe. You won't need to search far to find one.

And, for ATM withdrawals, find a bank/credit union that charges no transaction fee and the Interbank (or slightly above) conversion rate. The bank ATMs in Europe do not charge a transaction fee; that's your bank.

I have 2 credit union accounts. Both charge only 1% over the Interbank rate for both ATM withdrawals and credit card charges.

Finally do not accept any bills that are in dollars instead of the local currency. You will lose on the conversion rate and the local merchant will make money.

No one is going to rent you a car without a credit card - OR whatever the deductible is on the insurance (often 1000 euros) as a deposit until you return it.

And, IMHO walking around with thousands of dollars in cash is close to madness. How will you carry it all. Will you leave it in your room during the day? Store little bit of it in a bunch of different places?

Also - this will insure that you get the worst rate of exchange. If you walk into a restaurant with dollars you will get a laughable rate of exchange - if they will take them at all. If you change at a cambio it will cost you 8 to 10% of your money - versus 1 to 3% for using a credit card or pulling cash from an ATM.

Every place you pay for anything - from hotels to restaurants to shops to museums to car rental etc - would have to give you 10% off for paying cash for this to make any sense at all. And, believe me - most of them aren't interested. I can;t imagine car rental, trains, local transit or sights would ever do this.

Delaine: "<i>My bank does not charge me ATM fees (Wells Fargo)</i>"

Curious how that works? I thought WF preferred customers could get their ATM fees refunded, but not according to my branch manager and vice president.

janisj, we left Wells Fargo a couple of years ago because of their currency conversion fees on ATM withdrawals. Our daughter, who banks in Northern VA had the fees waived by her Wells Fargo branch. Our branch, in another part of the state, said it couldn't be done.
We moved our business to a bank with no fees except a $5 charge per ATM withdrawal out of network after the first 5 per month. We just take our maximum per withdrawal and rarely need to exceed our 5 free.