Greece- ATM'S and Credit Cards questions
 

We will be traveling to Greece next week for a college mission trip. Any advise regarding ATM's? I am counting on being able to use it rather than carrying cash. Any problems with using credit cards? We will be in the Athens area.

I've had no problems in Greece using my ATM with a four-digit PIN. Absolutely none. I even found a Citibank on Syntagma Square in Athens so I didn't have to pay any fees (at the time). Just make sure your ATM card is part of Cirrus or PLUS and you should be fine.

Credit cards were another matter. But as long as you alert your bank of your travel dates, you should be OK. You should be prepared to pay a foreign exchange fee on each credit card transaction, which may or may not exceed the cost of taking out money from an ATM.

Do the research and find out what your particular bank charges. I don't know our bank, so I can't tell you the ways to minimize your fees. You have to be willing to do that much on your own.

Really Doug - you know better than this! You have to notify your bank as well as your credit card companies. Depending on your bank you are likely to pay foreign conversion fees for using your ATM card as well as for using credit cards, plus, again depending on your bank, there may be transaction fees.

Each bank and credit card company needs to be researched individually. The only company known to charge no credit card fees is Capital One, which also has current accounts that charge no fees - conversion or transaction.

My college-age daughter was in Greece for a month January 2010. She had no trouble withrawing cash at ATMs. However, since it was off-season and they ate at many little stands and restaurants, she found quite a few did not take credit or debit cards - so make sure you have enough cash.

Notify your bank and credit card company, of course. Some let you do it on-line, some make you call. She uses Bank of America and they were able to give her a list of affiliated banks in Greece that waived the transaction fee for ATMs.

Thank you for your replies and good advise. I've notified my credit card co and bank, so we are good to go. Thank you.