<p>I’m saying that firstly, it’s virtually no risk to go to Europe with no local cash in one’s pocket since they’re arriving at an international airport with plenty of ATM type machines to get cash. Secondly, the exchange rates at these ATMs are usually pretty good - probably not the rates you have in mind for the money exchange windows and definitely not the rates at hotels. Thirdly, it’s a fairly small sum of money anyway if one’s smart about it since they really should only get enough for a small number of days so they’re not wandering around with perhaps several weeks worth of cash on them so they’ll need to get more money anyway. Fourthly, people like me hate going to banks and hate dealing with bank people and it’s more hassle than just hitting the ATM once one arrives. It’s not a matter of fees for me - more of a matter of convenience. Fifthly (??) if one’s going to multiple countries where different currencies are used, for example England, France, Switzerland, then it gets even less convenient trying to carry around enough cash all at once for all of those places - it’s much easier to just pull what you need from an ATM once there.</p>
<p>I’ve traveled to lots of countries in Europe both before and after the Euro and many other countries and have never had a problem. Probably the biggest issue was trying to get rid of some Israeli Shekels once I returned here from that country since their inflation rate was so high no one here would buy them back. I think they’re sitting in a jar somewhere. One kind of cool thing is that I traded some pounds back in at Heathrow on my way home from there once and they gave me back some old silver certificate dollars. They had no idea what they were and I don’t know why they had them but I was happy to get them.</p>
<p>Ha - we went exactly there - England, France, Switzerland - this summer (one week apiece) and that’s exactly what we did - one phone call to Citibank and 3 envelopes with $500 each in pounds, euros, swiss francs that I just carried on my person til we got there. I don’t find going to an ATM when I’m traveling to be “convenient” - I’d rather swing by my local bank at my leisure and have the cash in hand.</p>
Yes (but they may have somewhat more collector value) - but I liked the novelty and historical aspect of it - kind of like getting wheat cents or the older coins with actual silver content.</p>
<p>pg - It looks like getting the cash beforehand works well for you and you don’t mind carrying around at least $1500 in cash (it doesn’t bother me that much but a lot of people are uncomfortable carrying around that much cash) but ‘not’ bothering to get the cash beforehand works well for me as well and I realize I’ll usually have to hit an ATM anyway if I’m there on a longer trip but really, it’s either right there at the airport or I’m walking right past them when I’m wandering around. I do, however, usually go through the ‘jar’ beforehand to see if I have any Euros, pounds, etc. in there and will take them along with but it’s usually minimal since I try to end the trip in the country with as little of their denominations as possible (partly due to the lesson learned from the Israel trip).</p>
<p>I’ve sometimes bought foreign currency from my bank in advance, sometimes just done a cash withdrawal from an airport ATM upon arrival. I think the cost works out pretty close to the same. My bank (Wells Fargo) doesn’t charge me a fee for cash exchanges, but they don’t give the best exchange rate; today, for example, they’re quoting $1.3774 dollars/euro, while the online quotes for the current wholesale inter-bank exchange rate are $1.30569 dollars/euro. So the rate I’m being charged by my bank represents a mark-up of about 5.5% from the wholesale inter-bank exchange rate. (That’s still a whole lot better than airport or railroad station currency exchanges, though).</p>
<p>On the other hand, my bank does charge a flat $5 fee per foreign cash withdrawal on my debit/ATM card, plus I’ll pay whatever ATM fees the foreign bank charges (usually around $2 or so, but it varies). But it’s my understanding that I’m getting the wholesale inter-bank exchange rate in that transaction; the foreign bank just adds up everything Wells Fargo owes it for withdrawals by WF customers in euros, which adds up to millions of dollars. So if I withdraw, say, 200 euros from a foreign bank’s ATM, Wells Fargo will debit $261.14 from my account (using today’s quoted interbank rate), plus the $5 WF service fee, plus the $2 foreign bank ATM fee, for a total of $268.14. Which works out to an effective rate $1.3407/euro, or still slightly better than Wells Fargo would give me if I did the cash transaction through them in advance. But it’s not a big enough difference that I’ll really notice either way.</p>
<p>I will admit there’s some added peace of mind in knowing you have the cash in your pocket and don’t need to worry about whether the airport ATM will be broken upon your arrival, or charge excessive fees, or somehow it won’t read your debit card because it’s not part of the same network or something. Also, if you’re planning on using a smaller amount of cash, the ATM fees will represent a higher “tax” on the effective exchange rate, in which case the cash transaction in advance may be more economical. On the other side, there’s the convenience of not needing to schedule a trip to the bank to do the exchange; just remember to bring your debit card, arrive at your destination, pop your card into the machine, and voila, you have a pocketful of euros.</p>
<p>In Switzerland all your bills go away super fast… then you look in your pocket and it is loaded since they have those 5 franc coins.</p>
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<p>yes! this is obnoxious. They look at you like you are the worst person in the world. The money came from their ATMs! It did not give me a choice in bill sizes!</p>
<p>When I was in the Czech Republic I went to the ATM and it gave me options for how much money to get. I pressed the button for 2000 koruna. Imagine my surprise when the machine gives me ONE BILL with 2000 in the corner, rofl. I spent it at the hostel to pay for our beds for 2/3 days.</p>