How do you exchange your money when in Europe?

Question -- I've only been to Europe once and we exchanged our money into Euros (Belgium) when we first got there and of course paid terrible fees. :-P

Now I'm heading to London next month, and was trying to figure out the best way to exchange USD to GBP. There are so many different things being said on sites and was curious about what anyone here has done.

Some of the exchange offices at the airport offer you no fees to change your money there when you arrive if you order the currency ahead of time and just pick it up when you get to Heathrow.

Others are saying that its better to just use the ATMs out there to get the best rates - but there are fees associated each time you do this depending on your bank.

I'm not sure which is the best option...we bank with Chase, and I'm gonna call to ask, but I'm assuming we won't have a problem with using our check/debit card to use ATMs but I'm getting paranoid trying to figure out how to get the BEST rate since our dollar is incredibly weak out there


ETA: Chase just told me they will charge me 3% per withdrawal plus whatever the foreign ATM fee is

Message edited 10/20/2009 12:21:44 PM.

Re: How do you exchange your money when in Europe?

We just use our ATM card whenever we're in Europe. DH does exchange a few dollars to euros at the airport when we land for transportation/tips. Definitely call your bank to see what the fee would be. If we had any fee it was really very minimal. In my experience, you would do better just using your ATM.

Enjoy your trip!!!!

Re: How do you exchange your money when in Europe?

same as the above poster... we did it at the airport. There's someone who will exchange. Then we used the ATM. We paid mostly with our CC. Find out which of your CC has the least charge when paying with it in another country and of course let them know you'll be out of the country

Re: How do you exchange your money when in Europe?

I used to be a big fan of just using ATMs but the fees can be killer!

What my dh and I did on our last trip to Europe (Paris, Spain and Italy this past August/September) was check and see if our bank had relationships with banks in the cities we were visiting.

Turns out BOA has a relationship with Barclays and BNParibas where if we withdrew money from those ATMs we didn't pay any fees. In italy there was a bank that was an affiliate of BNParibas and we withdrew money from that atm. Again no fees. Citibank actually has quite a bit of ATMs overseas.

If your bank doesnt have affiliates overseas another suggestion could be at one the exchange counters (i forget the name) in the airport (jfk and newark), if you exchanged $500 they waived the fees.

You could also see if you can order Euros from your bank so that you can have some money to get you started. We have done that as well and I felt we had a better exchange rate than the rates at the kiosks in the airport.

Whew! Sorry this is long but while I know we will lose some money when exchanging cash I try to lose as little as possible. Hope this helps!

Re: How do you exchange your money when in Europe?

We exchanged money at the Post Office . We also used the ATM twice. The charges for that were about $3 each time.

Don't forget to call your CC companies and tell them the dates you will be away.

Re: How do you exchange your money when in Europe?

thats right, you can use your Bank of America card at Barclays for free, Barclays are everywhere, so you shouldn't have trouble finding one. The post office is good also for exchanging money, however I say head for a hole in the wall at Barclays.

Re: How do you exchange your money when in Europe?

I rely on my ATM card, except for a few $$$$ that I get immediately at the airport just so I am not entirely cash-less. Check with your bank re fees - for example, when I was in Canada, I found out that Bank of America has an agreement with a Canadian bank and they if I used those ATMs I wouldn't get charged fees. Your bank might have similar agreements in other countries.

You can also try using your CC for most purchases, like dinners, reputable stores, etc. I know my Capital One card is pretty good about not charging me fees.

Re: How do you exchange your money when in Europe?

Re: How do you exchange your money when in Europe?

I just use an ATM. Yes, there is a fee but I try to take out as much as possible each time. Last time I only had to visit an ATM twice, and paid about $3 each time.

Re: How do you exchange your money when in Europe?

I use an ATM.

Do you have an HSBC account? I have one and it is much easier in the UK to take out money. From what I remember, there are no fees, just the exchange rate. However, it has been about 5 years since I was in the UK, so I may be wrong.

Re: How do you exchange your money when in Europe?

OK, please look into this. I spent the time to do a little research and found that (in Italy, so not sure about London), the best thing to do is to take money directly out of the ATM. ALSO, my Chase and Citibank cards all said that they would charge a 3% fee for each time we did this. HOWEVER, we opened a TD Bank account because they do not charge ANY fees. So we literally opened a TD Bank account, got our Visa ATM card, deposited the amount of money we expected to spend while there, and took it out as needed when we were away.

Make sure you call all your CC's and Banks to let them know where you're going and for how long. You never know if you'll want to charge something last minute and if you haven't let them know beforehand, your purchase could be denied.

And I agree - do not let them charge you in american dollars if you use your cards. You will get a better rate if they charge you in Euros or whatever and then the cc company will exchange at the bank rate.

Re: How do you exchange your money when in Europe?

I just use the atm..I will say if you use a word make sure you know the numbers bc some of the atms in Europe so not have the letters the same as the US.

Re: How do you exchange your money when in Europe?

Re: How do you exchange your money when in Europe?

In the UK we use something called "chip & pin" for all transactions, they will hand you a keypad and you have to put your pin number in it. If your card doesn't have a chip on it, you will most likely have to sign. When you do this, make sure that you haven't been charged twice for any services. This happened to my sister when she came to visit me in the UK.

Re: How do you exchange your money when in Europe?

ATM's.

Have fun

Re: How do you exchange your money when in Europe?

I usually exchange a small amount at cooks in JFK or at my bank if I have time before I go just for tips, etc.

Upon arrival, I head to the nearest ATM.

Re: How do you exchange your money when in Europe?

We went to Europe this summer for our honeymoon and decided to exchange money in advance -- I think we got a really excellent rate, and saved a lot on fees. I went into Citibank where I had my checking account and asked to change X amount of dollars into Euros and they ordered them for me. A few days later, I went to the bank and picked up my Euros.

It felt very odd carrying that much value in cash, but it was fine (plus the B&B we stayed at in one city required cash!). We did use our CC a bit there (don't forget to call your CC company before you go or they will reject your card while you're there!) and used the ATM once, but the fees were astronomical.