Buying Euros in the USA

The best currency exchange rates are available if you simply use ATM machines to get your Euros. However, you need to arrive with some native currency to get out of the airport (by train, taxi, or bus).

First step, find out what the exchange policy for your bank is, and make sure that they know you'll be traveling abroad.

Make sure you have a four-digit pin code for your ATM card (other length pin codes don't work in foreign ATM machines).

Know what the maximum transfer per day is in the country. For example, in Italy, it is 250 Euros per day.

The apartments we're renting in Italy all work on a "cash only" basis. Now, I'm not going to understand all the reasons for a cash-only transaction, but you need to pack a wad of cash to do that. Each of our apartments costs over 250 euros for the three or four days we'll be staying at them. You can't withdraw everything in one day.

Solution one: Multiple cards with different numbers to the same account. I'm not sure if this will fool their system into thinking that you are different accounts. My wife and I have the same number on our ATM cards, so we'll not be able to try out this system unless I get another card issued to us with a different number.

Solution two: Multiple banks.

Solution three: Pre-paid credit cards with Pin numbers. These have slightly higher fees than straight ATM machines, but are still much lower than the currency exchange mechanisms in airports, travel agencies, and most banks.

Speaking of most banks, the best currency exchange rates I found were for Bank of America. The day I wrote this, the base exchange rate was $1482.80 USD to 1000 Euros. Expect to pay a point or two more to buy, and get a point or two less to sell.

• Wells Fargo quoted $1,558.80 plus $8 for shipping = $1,566.80 5.13% mark-up
• US Bank (through My Travel Wallet) quoted $1578.28 plus $12 for shipping = $1590.28 6.44% mark-up
• Bank of America quoted $1,557.90 with no charge for bank-pick-up. 5.06% mark up
• CitiBank quoted $1571.60 with no charge for a bank pick-up. 5.99% mark up

So, what are we going to do?

I'm going to buy a minimal amount of currency from Bank of America. Enough to get me to my hotel and buy some food at a grocery store. I'll use the ATM machines each day for the 250 euros a day I'll need. Fortunately, our first hotel is prepaid, so I'll have the extra cash I need for the cash-only hotels by the time I get there.