Is a prepaid visa card a good idea for cash withdrawl in Italy?

No, no, and no. All you need is an ATM debit card tied to your checking account.

and in case StCirq wasn't clear enough -- No, no, no, and no . . . .

In case StCirq wasn't clear.

NO, NO, NO.

Fees to purchase + fees to use it to withdraw money = BAD IDEA.

LOL janis. same time posting

I was referring to a prepaid visa debit card which is different from a credit card.

We understood what you meant.

NO.

we knew exactly what you meant - as StCirq, J62 (my twin ) and I said - they are not a good idea . . . .

did it again - maybe we ARE twins . . . .

We all know what you are talking about and they are a bad idea!! There are fees to open them, fees to close them, limits on use, etc. etc.

You want a normal ATM card tied to a bank account, a charge card, and possibly some cash or TC's. ANY of these are better than the prepaid Visa card (unless you are a teenager who can't get a bank account for some reason, that's about the only time these may possibly make sense).

To repeat, no, no, and no.

May I add: NO!

OK - that is settled . . . .

Next question?

You can find the disclosure on Visa.com for these kind of cards. Some are not even accepted outside of the US, although some are. The major drawback, as you might deduce from above, is the expensive fee schedule applied to any transaction you might want to make with the card (loading it, using it, emptying it, etc).

The only time they might be useful is to hand over to a teenager who might need their own 'credit' instead of carrying cash.

When we sent our fifteen year old to Spain last summer we did use a prepaid CC. Now I wonder how much $'s we wasted. It did come in handy when, of course, we had to reload from home. That part was pretty easy...for a fee!

thereyet