Tropea: ATM's, credit cards, traveler's checks???
 

Hello,
My husband and I are looking forward to spending a week in Tropea in late October. My question is this--are credit cards widely accepted? What is the availablilty of ATM's? Would traveller's checks be a better option? We prefer not to travel with a lot of money.
Thanks for advice about this or anything else we should know about.

ATMs are generally plentiful throughout Italy. Tropea could be the exception to that rule. I would recommend that you do a Google ATM search.
We no longer use travelers checks. To cash them apart from a hotel means spending a lot of time at a bank, standing in line while the bank's one clerk uses rubber stamps to beat the band. HOtels give poor rates.

Credit card companies have tacked on foreign currency conversion rates, so that you now pay an additional %3 fee with each charge.

My husband and I now use each of our ATM cards when necessary, in order to have enough $ to pay both hotel and food costs.
Carol L

Your debit card to withdraw from ATMs is either part of the Cirrus network or the Plus network.

Google Cirrus and/or Plus (I found it convenient to have two cards, one for each network) to locate ATMs.

P.S. Most banks have also added a 3% conversion surcharge to withdrawals from ATMs...

I don't think it's the banks that have added it on, but VISA. I got a notice from my bank about that, but it only applied to debit cards with the VISA logo on them. Yet another reason not to have one, as it doesn't apply to a regular ATM card. I have never wanted a debit card so I verified it does not apply to me, but when I called the bank to query them on that (as they used the term "foreign transactions" which is not defined), they said that even for debit cards, the extra 3 pct only applies for purchases, not at an ATM. So that is lucky for those with debit cards. They said it was because cash withdrawals from ATMs are processed differently than purchases by VISA.

I have ATM cards from two banks that are also debit cards.

Both of the banks, when I phoned them, told me that they have no surcharge on foreign ATM withdrawals.

When I went to the banks' Web sites, the story was totally different: There IS a surcharge on foreign ATM withdrawals. In my case, because both banks are Canadian, the surcharge is ONLY 2.5% instead of 3%.

I am in the process of changing local banks, and one I just looked at has the 3% fee on undomestic ATM withdrawals. I think that is actually 1% charged by Visa or mastercard, with the rest gravy for the local bank.

I can recall at least two banks in Tropea that had ATM's and most restaurants took credit cards. We always had some Euros on hand and resupplied with the ATM.
It may be off the beaten path, but it's certainly not a third world country.