<p>Daughter went to AAA the other day and exchanged $200 for pounds. She is studying abroad in England this spring. She said she will get euros over there for when she is traveling around.</p>
<p>I just got back from Belgium and South Africa where I used my plain old Visa card with absolutely NO difficulty at hotels, restaurants and retail establishments…car rentals, etc. No problem anywhere.</p>
<p>When son went on study abroad, we converted some US currency at our local bank. Took a few days. </p>
<p>He used his debit card/credit card all the time. He did have to alert his bank that he was going to Europe so they would be aware.</p>
<p>Yes, you can get euros in advance through AAA. Also in NYC many banks will exchange for their customers. Mostly use ATM when arrive. Only problem we had with trip last year was using our credit card for paying for parking in garages. Machines would not accept either our Visa or AMEX and dh had to go to ATM to get euros to pay our parking garage charge. This was in Den Haag where we had stopped for the afternoon en route back to airport in Amsterdam. We had no problem with that in Belgium and toll booths accepted our credit card.</p>
<p>You mentioned not traveling often. That’s the case for most. It might be helpful to know what regular travelers do, people who head off to any country on demand for business…they don’t get foreign currency in advance. They’ll get some from an ATM machine upon arrival and then as needed.</p>
<p>Foreign ATMs will often charge fees. If you’re a long tern customer of your bank and keep several thousand a a minimum deposit, often you can call and they will reverse the fees.</p>
<p>Are you serious? I travel frequently for business (this January - Dubai, Russia and Italy) and I would never go abroad without getting $200-300 in the local currency. I would never count on using a foreign ATM.</p>
<p>I’m with those that recommend getting cash from an ATM upon arrival. Some banks and credit unions offer debit cards that don’t charge foreign transaction fees and reverse ATM fees. Since the cards have the Visa or MasterCard logo, they can also be used like credit cards. As long as the merchant will accept magnetic stripe credit cards, your card will be accepted, though it might take the merchant time to find the correct credit card machine.</p>
<p>Note also that in other countries (including Canada) you can’t get cash back with your US-issued debit card when you make a purchase. </p>
<p>Overall, there is really no need to get local currency until you get to your destination. All major airports have ATMs and many businesses accept credit cards. If all else fails, you can always exchange currency at the airport.</p>
<p>Another thing to look for: When we rented a car liability insurance was included but not insurance for damage to the car itself (that was a pricey extra.) Two of my credit cards (including Capital One) covered that if I paid for the rental with that card, but the others didn’t. So you might look into the “extras” that come along with your different credit cards when deciding how to pay for stuff.</p>
<p>And when looking into the extra of the CC covering a rental car you really need to make sure it covers a ‘non-domestic’ rental since some only cover domestic. Like Kluge said - read the details to make sure of what the coverage is.</p>
<p>Your credit cards should work in most places, but you CAN get Chip/pin cards at Travelex stores, either in pounds or euros. They come in handy as debit cards at subway/tube/train stations; at grocery stores and gas stations… they can be used as ATM cards. </p>
<p>Besides notifying your Credit card companies and bank about international travel, find out which, if any, international banks are affiliated with your US bank. Barclays and Paribas were linked to B of A a few years ago, so no ATM fees, but I don’t know if that’s still true. I personally like having at least $50 worth of Euros and/or pounds before I arrive, which I can get at AAA or my bank (or hold onto from previous trip). Ask around, you might even have friends or relatives who still have a little foreign currency…</p>
<p>One other thing when traveling in Europe is to have change (I still haven’t gotten used to all the euro coins–those 1/2 euros coins sure do look alike). Generally, when you change money, you get larger bills, like 50 euros. Many stores, cabs, tourist shops will not have change (or be willing to make change) for those large bills, esp if the purchase is small. I always try to break the larger bills whenever I can where I know they will have change – larger grocery store, subway, etc. Last year, I had several 100 euro bills that I wanted to exchange for 20s. It took me 4 banks to find one that would make change, and the teller only did it as a favor because someone had just made a cash deposit and he had the bills (500 euros in 20s)–and I asked him very nicely in French. Normally, he said he wouldn’t have had that.</p>
<p>I can’t explain why we would be so different, but in our smallish city, none of the banks nor the AAA office will provide foreign currency. I checked with all of them (ok, I might have missed a couple of the banks). </p>
<p>The only place I could get foreign currency was a local travel agency, and they didn’t keep much on hand.</p>
<p>I absolutely did not want my son arriving overseas without some cash. He did, however, find that his Visa card worked in <em>most</em> places.</p>
<p>Lots of great info, knew I could count on ccers. I will try the banks in our small town, not too confident, but will take the first step and see where that leads.</p>
<p>Thanks very much again.</p>
<p>As much as I HATE Bank of America, if you have one of those in your small town, you will be able to get Euros from them…it will take a few days.</p>
<p>Re: having money on hand. Family member traveled to Italy a few years ago. Didn’t have one cent of foreign cash with her. The currency exchanges were all on STRIKE. She was unable to exchange U.S. Dollars for Euro. Luckily her Visa card worked to get her where she was going. </p>
<p>I’m with PG…I would never travel to another country without a little local cash IN my pocket.</p>
<p>I work for a European company and travel extensively (5 continents in 6 weeks this past May/June!). For me, it’s often a personal challenge to see how I can survive without any local currency! </p>
<p>In Europe, it’s fairly easy, except for the chip/pin issue. It’s annoying that Scandanvia doesn’t use the Euro, so I rarely get the local currency, as my quarterly trips there are <24 hours, then over to the continent. </p>
<p>US cc’s are readily accepted in Australia/NZ, South America and Asia. Unlike the US, I have found most taxis in large international cities accept credit cards. </p>
<p>Another place to get a small amount of pocket change is your hotel’s front desk. Most large hotels will readily accept US$ and convert to local currency. While the exchange rate is not great, they don’t tack on a service fee, so for amounts <$50 it’s generally worth it. In Southeast Asia and Africa, people like US$ much to the chagrin of my European colleagues, so I just negociate prices in US$, knowing what the local prices are.</p>
<p>Exchanging currency in an airport would be my absolute last resort. Their exchange rates are atrocious!</p>
<p>In this day of ATMs there’s no need to go to Europe with a pile of local currency (or traveler’s checks - an obsolete item) in your pocket and usually no need to go to the currency exchange window. When you land at the airport just seek out one of the many ATMs located in the airport and withdraw enough local currency to last you for at least a few days of your stay there. As a backup plan in the event your card doesn’t work in the ATM for some reason you can always exchange some dollars there but this should never really be needed. Cash can be exchanged at the airport, many train stations, banks, and hotels (lousy exchange rates at the hotels usually).</p>
<p>Another thing to check first - make certain your ATM card will work in Europe. A friend ran into a problem where her CC issued ATM card on an account with no checking didn’t work. Luckily she was able to straighten it out with the CC over the phone and start drawing money out before she ran out.</p>
<p>I guess I don’t understand why, if the choice is between a) being prepared for any eventuality AND getting a good exchange rate through your bank, or b) hoping that nothing goes wrong AND getting a poor exchange rate through your airport / hotel, that so many of you are favoring option B. I mean, yeah, I could also travel with no toiletries and buy toothpaste and deodorant at the airport or hotel, too – it’s POSSIBLE, sure, but it’s stupid since you’ll spend $20 on stuff you could have gotten for $5. Given that getting foreign currency upfront is a simple matter of making a phone call to your bank, I don’t see any reason to forego it and get ripped off later at the airport or hotel.</p>
<p>pizzagirl - the issues that many of us are raising are you will probably be ripped off by your local bank buying foreign currency in the US and that foreign ATMs are generally the best bet for large amounts, however you need to know what charges will hit your bank statement by either your US bank and/or the owner of the foreign ATM. Either way, you need to look at the NET exchange rate you receive taking into account all fees. For small amount under the equivalent of US$50, you might be better off taking a poorer exchange rate at a hotel versus paying a $5 fee and getting the inter-bank rate.</p>
<p>Oh - ok. Perhaps it depends on how important you are to your bank. I have no service fees for getting foreign currency through my bank and I get exchange rates through them that are markedly superior to anything I’d get at an airport or hotel. The net exchange rate definitely favors me getting a few hundred bucks in currency before I get there and using my credit card as much as possible for the rest - esp AMEX.</p>