Re: currency conversion
- From: Hatunen <hatunen@xxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 08 Oct 2007 11:28:17 -0700
On Mon, 8 Oct 2007 10:13:45 +0200, Frank Hucklenbroich
<Hucklenbroich01@xxxxxxx> wrote:
Am Sat, 6 Oct 2007 12:19:40 -0700 schrieb Donald Eagle:
We are going to Italy in about 10 days from the USA. A guide book we have
suggests getting euros from a currency conversion machines found at
airports, train stations, and elsewhere.
I've seen a few of them, but never tried them out.
They say feeding dollars into one
of these machines for euros is a good way to convert, and avoids some of the
ATM fees and limits. Has anyone here used one of these machines, and what
did you find? Is cash conversion by machine really a good way to go, and
does its cost compare favorably with ATM conversion using a debit card?
I would use the ATMs. You don't want to carry large amounts of US-$-cash
around in Italy (pickpockets!).
Just use your card (if it has maestro/cirrus it should work). The limits
shouldn't be a problem, you can usually get up to 500 EUR a day from an
ATM.
There are *two* daily limits you have to meet. The ATM machine's
bank may have a daily withdrawal limit, and your own bank will
have a limit. You can have your home bank raise your limit, but
there's little you can do about the limit at the ATM. The
limitsserve a good purpose in protecting you: they prevent a
thief from using your card to withdraw a lot of cash all at once.
And the exchange rate will be better than changing cash. The fees
depend on your card, bur it is not really that much (we talk about 1 or 2
%).
The international sytems, like Cirrus, charge about 1% on the
transaction. The bank in Europe generally does not charge
anything for using a US card. But your home bank may also charge
a "not our machine" fee of a couple of dollars; the fee varies
and some insitutions such as credit unions don't charge this fee
at all. Ten years ago the only charges made for transactions on
my credit union card were the 1% systm fee.
The last fee is that your bank may charge around 2%. This fee is
becoming more and more common. The bank does nothing to earn it
since the charge comes back through the system just like a charge
made in the USA, but banks just can't resist an opportunity to
pick up some of your money just because they can.
Nevertheless, the 1% and 2% make 3%, and a $2 fee on a $200
equivalent withdrawal is only a 4% fee, which is still cheaper
than changing cash at the For-Ex booths, or even using travelers
checks which must be converted.
Places that change money have two ways to make a profit. They can
charge you an exchange fee, seperately stated. And they can use
an exchange rate that is not the same as the international
standard rate. This can be easily detected by the agency's use of
"by" and "sell" rates; find the average of the two rates and you
will have a close approximation to the "true" rate (the one the
ATM system charges the 1% on).
It is possible to buy foreign currency cheaper here in the US at
some places. American Express seems to be charging 1.5% for
selling euros, a far cry from the 7% I saw at an AmEx office some
years ago. But if you exchange money here in the US you will be
carrying large sums while traveling. The extra charge from an ATM
would seem to a worthwhile security measure.
--
************* DAVE HATUNEN (hatunen@xxxxxxx) *************
* Tucson Arizona, out where the cacti grow *
* My typos & mispellings are intentional copyright traps *
.
- References:
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- From: Donald Eagle
- Re: currency conversion
- From: Frank Hucklenbroich
- currency conversion
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