How does one do this safely and securely? Use a CC after notifying the card company of the travel? Use a prepaid card or travel card of some type? Is there any need to obtain and carry much in euros? Haven't traveled internationally in several years and I'm not up to speed on it.

We traveled to Sicily last summer and I only got cash to tip our guides (which isn't even necessary because they don't expect tips). I paid for everything else with my cc, the exception being some local taxes we had to pay at our Airbnb.

Cash is completely not necessary, and the ATM fees have gotten out of control, if you ask me. It's no longer just a flat fee, but a percentage of the amount you take out - usually 20-30%. This is in addition to the flat fee your bank might charge.

I don't have to notify my cc ahead of time, but that's probably not a bad idea. Mine just sends me emails or texts if there is a charge it wants me to verify.

Just got back from that area.

Ordered euro's from my bank, but mainly used my credit cards (normally have a better exchange rate). Had too much cash with me towards the end (mainly since I thought the cruise ship would be euro and not USD, but they just ended up room charging).

Also, tipping is not always customary in Italy. With cash I would tend to just leave the change...credit card around 10% because I could.

Order a small amount of Euros from your bank before you travel (small fee typically)

Use no foreign fee credit cards

Don't use an ATM over there if you can avoid it due to fees.

You could get a Charles Schwabb checking account with debit card. No transaction fees or ATM fees.

Just withdraw cash from ATM when you get there.
Make sure you decline the conversion rate. That's where they get you.

ATM fees for me were like $7-10 bucks. If you have a decent bank account status, ATM fees are refunded.

I was able to use my CC everywhere in Italy. Hopefully you have one with no foreign transaction fees like Chase Sapphire or Cap One Venture

Worst case they'll send you a text to verify the transaction

Watch out for pickpockets. i had a guy try to get mine in Pisa at the train station. Tried my jacket and back pocket, but I had my wallet in the front pocket. it all happened faster than you can imagine. Also very bad at Naples as I understand it. But be alert around people.

Use cc 99% of the time. Euros for tips only. At this stage of the 21st century, the need for physical currency as a traveler is all but useless.

Never use a credit card even if it has no FTF. The exchange rate is set by the vendor and they screw you.

Get the wise app and open a wallet in the local currency. Then fund w a US bank account. Then use the digital Wise card. You can exchange USD to local currency for $1.95 plus a tiny exchange fee.

We live overseas and Wise will save you hundreds in transactions costs and exchange rate conversions.

For example: USD to MXN is 18/1 right now. If you use a CC w no FTFs at Chendraui you get 17.25/1 and Pemex or La Gas 16.25/1. So you avoid the FTF but get duffed on the conversion. Wise pulls from the local currency first and then reverts to your USD account once exhausted. Yesterday I converted USD to MXN and got 18.02/1 after fees when the rate was 18.04/1. That was just before seeing that Chendraui dropped their CC conversion from 17.5 to 17.25. More and more retailers are doing this setup so no FTF doesn't really help much when you consider the underlying conversion rate they're using. It's a way they increase their margins and the average America travel has no idea. They think because they have no FTF they're getting a good deal. WRONG.

Just my 2 cents but we do live overseas…

This works for drawing out cash 100%. Yesterday took out $1000 US at ScotiaBank here in Akumal. The conversion rate I decline was 16.28 when peso was 18/1. After I declined, the conversion rate was 17.48. Not great when I can get pesos on Wise at spot but the best you can find on getting hard cash.

So you pay for items using the Wise app through Apple Pay?

Yup. You can download the digital card to your Apple wallet.

I hate hooking my bank account to an app. But I just downloaded it. Seems legit enough

Are there any annual fees for this service?

Nope. They're VERY transparent with their fees.

We pay our rent through Wise and when you do a direct bank to customer transfer they show you ALL of the various other exchanges that process payments (Santander, Banamex, PayPal, Western Union, Moneygram, etc). They show you which ones they best and which ones they don't and let you make the decision. Usually the only ones that beat them are tiny credit unions and it's by like $2-10 dollars on like $1500. For our rent they beat PayPal by a couple hundred bucks a month.

I also like that you can adjust the daily limits through the app so that you don't have to worry about getting had. Plus they usually confirm the first purchase through most vendors through a 2 factor authentication which is nice if you lose your phone. We use it all the time and love it.

It also lets you take out up to $100 cash a month w no fees. It's not much but it's enough to get through taxis if you aren't traveling frequently. A lot of our taxis take wise transfers though.

We spent 10 days in Italy/Greece/Turkey last fall. Used Cap One Card for almost every transaction. I did the math when we got back and it was a very fair conversion rate. We may have paid in total an extra of $25, and that is well worth the convenience of not having to get Euros and worry about keeping them safe. There are fees on that conversion, too.

I can see how using that app or doing more work to avoid CC fees would be important if you lived there or were spending several weeks, it would eventually add up. But in our experience, for a typical 2 week or less vacation in Europe, we felt the extra fees that went to the CC company were well worth the convenience it provided.

What I'm saying is the way the game is being played by individual establishments is changing. We travel to Spain to see family 3-4x a year and live abroad and mostly travel abroad because it's easier than the US. When we go out to eat, the exchange rate on the ticket may be anywhere 5-15% below the spot exchange rate. Sometimes it's not but sometimes its even more. We were in France visiting college friends and Venice on vacation and in France several restaurants were 1.15-1.20 to the dollar when the dollar had parity w the euro and the same for Venice but not as pronounced. it's something to start checking if you haven't in the past. It's not what the credit card company charges in fees, it's the conversion the restaurant tells the card for the total to charge before they hit you w fees (if they hit you with fees). The vendor pockets that difference. With inflation going crazy and vendors getting pinched to not raise local prices more, a lot of places are now creating margin through a weaker conversation rate. It's a way they don't piss of the locals but still catch some rake. It's becoming much more prevalent.

Not all places give you the chance to decline the conversion. They will usually provide the exchange rate they use at the register or provide it if asked. It's almost always printed on the bottom of most first set of bills you get from a restaurant if it's not posted at the entrance or somewhere else. When you can decline the conversion yes you always do it. That's also includes taking out cash.

I'm not sure that you always have a choice.

This was not a huge issue for us when we traveled to Italy last summer, but the one charge that was affected was my rental car. And as best I could tell, there was no way to avoid it. Because it was a relatively expensive purchase, it added a fairly significant cost to my total bill. And I couldn't really tell what the actual cost in US $ was until I got home and checked my cc balance and compared that to the original estimate.

I imagine as more vendors realize they can do it, it's becoming a bigger issue. Everyone wants something for nothing.

Thank you for the clarification. Pretty much everywhere we went to offered us the exchange rate, but we declined for the reasons stated.

The only place that I think I got screwed was in in Istanbul, but otherwise no issues.

Rental car companies here are the WORST. We had friends come in and rent from enterprise because it's a US company and they trusted them. On Expedia the bill showed as like $478 for the week. When they go the final invoice it was almost $614. They used a 14/1 conversion when the original receipt was quoted by Expedia at 18/1.

Many thanks for providing this invaluable information. I travel a lot to Europe (for holiday and business) intend to reside (at least on a seasonal basis) there at some point in the future. So this info would be a huge deal.

Usually what we do for the rental car is we book it under our United Quest CC for the auto protection and then at the final bill, request them to instead charge our wise card.

Never convert to USD at the establishment. Always pay in local currency. I've been to Europe dozens of times and have never had any issues paying in Euros, pounds, or local currency. The exchange rates are very fair with CCs.

We went in June. The only thing we used cash for was tipping guides/drivers. Our trip was pretty heavy on those. We tipped roughly 40 euros per day for full day or 20 half day. If you aren't dong much of that, then you'll need very little as stated. I wasn't able to get cash before I left b/c of the storm shutting Houston down. ATM's were terrible.

When I visit Italy I usually carry cash for hitting kiosks when I want a walking beer or need to buy a bus ticket, cab, etc. That and anything under 10 Euros. Otherwise, every restaurant and the majority of services will accept CCs. As others stated, make sure your card doesn't have FTF, and when given the option, pay in local currency and let your CC make the exchange, not the vendor.

If you have to get cash from an ATM, go into a proper bank. Don't use one of the euronet ATMs, they have a horrible conversion rate.

Currently in Italy the last fews weeks, as many stated above I would recommend getting some euros ahead of time from your bank. What I have also found is restaurants all accept CC but the majority don't allow tipping on your CC. I've found having euros for tipping, taxi and vendors is helpful

Nm

Unless the vendor does the conversion for you, which would be obvious because you're charged in USD on the receipt instead of the currency of whatever country you're in, credit card exchange rates are almost universally the best, just ensure you're being charged in the currency of the country you're in.

Credit card exchange rates are literally on their websites as well: https://www.mastercard.us/en-us/personal/get-support/convert-currency.html

Bayou City said:

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Never use a credit card even if it has no FTF. The exchange rate is set by the vendor and they screw you.

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I use my Venture X card in Europe a lot. When given the option to pay in Euros vs Dollars, just select Euros. Capital One does the conversion on the back end at a rate close to market. For cash, I just get euros from a local ATM when we're low. It's nice to have cash to pay for an espresso instead of using a card.

Not all places give you the option to decline the conversion and more places are moving to exchanging at a flat rate far below spot and not given the ability to decline. It's going to become more and more prevalent.