lucy0321

My husband and I are leaving for Rome on Wednesday. We have rented an apartment and the owner wants to be paid in full (for 11 days) in euros prior to turning over the key. That's 1590 euros. What now? Since my ATM has a limit on withdrawals, I have no choice but to get the euros here and CARRY them with me to Rome. I really, really don't want to do that. Any suggestions? If I get the euros from a bank in Rome, won't the exchange rate be awful? Help.

SAnParis

What about travelers cheques ?

kerouac

Nothing to worry about. Just pay him in dollars and give him $200 extra for the inconvenience. I'm sure that this would work in reverse in the U.S.

missypie

I did that. I had paid 1/3 as a deposit, then paid the other 2/3 on arrival, in cash. I didn't like it, but I did it. And yes, because of the ATM limits, I had to get the euro in advance through my bank. We arrived on a Sunday, so getting Euros from a bank was not an option.

Statia

I've heard of some people getting their daily limit raised by their bank and hitting a few ATM's on arrival in order to withdraw enough to cover the amount due.

I personally just get euros before I leave and have them ready to go. Seems easier then scouring around finding ATM's after a long trip.

I'm not certain that all apartment owners or agencies will accept another currency, but it's worth a try to ask if you want to go that route.

Christina

what nerve, a landlord wanting to be paid in his own currency! Well, it is normal you are going to have to pay the full amount in advance, they can't risk you skipping out and losing income, that is very normal.

You do have a choice not to get the euros at your home, you could get them there. Are you thinking the the exchange rate in your home is going to be better than in Rome? I don't see why that would be, since euro is the local currency in Rome, so they have plenty of them.

Although I do think that what kerouac said could work, just add on a generous margin, I don't think that solves much as if you are worried about exchange rates, that could be worse. And you'd still have to have a lot of money on you (unless he took personal checks in USD, which I doubt).

I think you have to accept you are going to pay for this, but that's the choice when you rent from private owners who make that requirement. I always rent from companies that take credit cards or let you mail them a cashier check in advance.

kerouac

In case anybody is still wondering, I was being ironic. I certainly cannot imagine what is scandalous about demanding to paid in the currency of the country where you live.

I argue with people all the time on other boards who seem to think that it is wonderful to give dollars to everyone in Asian countries since dollars are so much better than their own currency.

Underhill

Why not have your bank transfer the funds to the landlord's bank?

Neopolitan

For those of you who seem to want to accuse lucy of being outraged that the owner wants the money in his own currency, where did you get such an idea? I see no such indication at all in her post.
A tiny bit of travel experience or logic should tell you that the issue with lucy is being able to get all that local currency immediately upon arrival in Europe. There are issues such as daily withdrawal limits.
Meanwhile she has reposted her question on another thread and gotten some helpful hints such as how to deal with ATMs and how to get more than one withdrawal.
But the bottom line is "think ATM withdrawal". Or go to AAA and purchase traveler's cheques for most of the amount in euros -- which won't cost you more than a couple of percent. At least you won't worry about carrying so much cash on you.

Heimdall

When I need large amounts of foreign currency (£ in my case) I take my debit card into a British bank and get the money over the counter. Exchange rates are comparable to those in ATMs. That should work in Italy, as far as I know. The other thought that crosses my mind is a wire transfer of funds. Why not discuss it with your bank before you leave for Italy?

Henry

lucy0321,
Check with your bank, most have daily limits per card not per account so you can take out the daily limit and your partner using a different card on the same account can take out the daily limit. If the bankomat you use has a lower transaction limit than your bank's daily limit just let the machine reset then do another transaction.

If your bank won't raise the limit call around to other banks in your town. Find one with low out of network ATM fees, no conversion fees, and no monthly fees on checking (fees levied by the check) and free ATM cards. Deposit half your vacation money in the new checking account and now you have doubled the amount you can withdraw.

sardog10

Don't know if this would help, but this is what I do to "collect" euros from German ATMs for our mortgage and utilities (our primary bank account is in Seattle).

We have two checking accounts under the same primary account number. It was the most secure way to make sure my husband had access to money when deployed to Kosovo, but not to expose our primary household money to theft/card loss/etc.

The credit union would not raise our limit past $500/day for each account because of the liablility involved for them if someone accessed our account. That means I can get out 380 euros from each checking account once per day. The other really useful fact I discovered accidentally is that since our bank is in Seattle, and we're nine hours ahead, the "day" changes over at midnight Seattle time. That means that I can withdraw 760 euros from the two accounts at 08:55 and then again at 09:05, counting as two separate days.

I know this all sounds convoluted, and I could just go to the bank on the American base here and do the exchange, but I get two cents better rate through the ATM's and on the amount we're exchanging that's almost a thousand dollars a year! Well worth several trips to the ATM.

Now, my parent's are coming over to visit next week and want to pay for our trip to Rome and Sorrento (bless their hearts . My Dad doesn't like ATM's, and as much as I've tried to drag him into the 21st century he's just not budging. He checked it out with his bank and by buying 4,000 euros he will get a rate comparable to the ATM's here. He's paying $25 to wire it to my German bank and I'll withdraw it for him when they get here. This too sounds convoluted, but between three types of currencies (US, Euro and Canadian) it's the safest and most economical way we could figure out to do it.

Are we confused yet?

Michel_Paris

I often send money to Europe via a bank draft. These are payable in euros, drawn on a bank located in that country.
For example in France it is Societe Generale, in England Lloyds Bank. Good news is you get the money at the bank rate.

It is essentially "cash", but can only be cashed by the payee. There is no fee that I have ever heard of to cash this.

Check with your bank.

ira

Hi Lucy,

The first thing to do is to tell (note I didn't say "ask&quot your bank that you want your ATM limit raised to 1600E only for the day that you arrive.

Assuming that they won't, and that you have a $500 daily limit; you and your spouse can each withdraw 500E if you each have an ATM card.

You can also open another account and have two ATM cards issued. This will allow you to withdraw $2000/day, close enough to 1590E for government work.

sardog10

Ira, I like your idea of both ATM cards being used for $500 but that won't work at every bank. It won't work for our credit union (believe me, we've tried) and it didn't used to work for our Washington Mutual account, although I haven't tried it there in the last several years. The bank's position is that it's $500 per account, not per card.

Sher

lucy. I sent money via bank draft to Portugal last year for 3 apartments and my bank charged me $17 for each transaction fee and one apartment owner charged me another $17 because they said they had to pay a fee. Only one of three did this.

So, before you attemt to send a bank draft from your bank check. It might be more expensive than you think.

I wouldn't be concerned about the cost of the transaction if I were you. What I mean is that money taken from ATM's gives a good exchange rate. The concern is getting the money.

Remember, ATM's do run out of money, so be prepared. You might contact the landlord for machines in the area as backups.

Good luck.

Sue_xx_yy

Christina, I think Lucy is more concerned about having to pay cash, in whatsoever currency. As would I be: even going from an ATM directly to an owner with that much money on me would unnerve me.

The fee for a bank draft in euros is worth it, in my view, given the safety issues involved. (I did this some years ago, except the draft was in UK pounds, not euros.)

As for raising the ATM limits, I'd think hard about this one. There's a reason why there are limits on ATM withdrawals.

clevelandbrown

I hate spending more than I have to on currency exchange, but that's my problem.

I would handle this by getting multiple joint checking accounts (they seem to all be free now), so each of you can draw the equivalent of your bank's daily limit (say $500) each day. I have read that some people have their bank increase their daily limit, but I've also read that many banks will not do that.

A complication will be that ATMs almost always have a transaction limit, so that even if your bank's daily limit is $500 (lets call that 390 euro, just for convenience), the ATM may only allow you to draw 250 euro (perhaps even less) with a given transaction. My experience is that you can immediately make a second withdrawal from that ATM, but it would likely be limited to about 140 euro by your bank's daily limit. Its a little confusing, because the ATM won't tell you how much you can draw on the second transaction, only that you have tried to exceed your limit, if you have, and of course without knowing the precise exchange rate, you are guessing as to what it is.

Still, with multiple accounts and cards, you can get quite a bit of euro from an ATM, and I think it is very common that there will be a competing ATM right down the block, so assuming you will feel safe carrying that much euro from the ATM to your apartment, I think the ATM is the most economical solution. I am always highly vigilant around the ATMs, as that is where I would set up shop if I were a pickpocket.

I did do a wire transfer once, and while it worked, it was not inexpensive, and I worried that I might have transposed a digit or two in the receiving account, and enriched some stranger (recoverable, I would hope, but no doubt involving a lot of paper in a language foreign to me). I also recall that there was a hefty fee on my end for sending the transfer, and a hefty fee on the landlord's end, for receiving it.

nukesafe

Sher is right, it can be very expensive to send money by bank draft, especially for smaller amounts. Two years ago I needed to send a deposit in Euros to a hotel in Croatia to secure my reservation; only a couple hundred dollars.

Bank of America charged me $30 for the Euro wire transfer, plus I got a lousy exchange rate, and the recieving bank made a similar levy to proces it into the landlord's account. I had to make up this difference on arrival, so it cost me about $65 to move $200. That is a hell of a percentage, and a crummy way to do business, IMO.

There just has to be a better way to do international business for us little guys!

Christina

I don't think her concern is about paying cash, because the only objection to getting cash in Rome at a bank was the exchange rate, and the only objection to using an ATM with the limit. I think she just thinks it will be more expensive to use a bank in Rome for exchange and that she can't get that much out of an ATM due to the limits.

You could do it in a couple times, and maybe agree to pay the landlord half one day, with the rest the next day, maybe. But if I were a landlord, I wouldn't allow that myself.