[Malvina]

Just get to Europe and pull Euros from the ATM.

Exchanging currency is never a good idea.

[Flavio]

We, literally, spend at least two months a year in Europe.

An ATM is easy to find in the US, but not always so in Europe, depending on where you are traveling to.

Also, some do not translate to English as one would hope.

I would much rather know what I have, in cash, before I arrive.

Because using a card is not a guarantee, no matter what folks may say here. We travel all over the world for work, and cards are definitely easiest, (pay in native monetary units ALWAYS), but not always possible.

For example, today, we tried to pay for parking in two places (Italy) at kiosks touting contactless payments, but they were not working using coin euros we could pay to park.

This happens a lot.

Take money with you!

Buy it at a rate that is closest to the last market close.

Do not depend on hotels, they charge you to change money, and many ATMs charge, if you are in a non-English speaking country, you cannot always depend on the ATM to translate to English.

I’d rather depend on an established relationship with an American bank, than hope for a possibly decent one in the EU.

[Matilde]

In my opinion, the best way by far is to get a free bank account (such as Charles Schwab) that refunds all ATM fees and then just withdraw cash from an ATM as you need it using your debit card.

Just make sure to reject any offers to charge your account in USD.

Make sure it always does the withdrawal in the local currency, which your bank will then convert to USD at something very near the current interbank rate.

Schwab’s account is free and refunds the fees that the ATM owner charges for the transaction back to your account.

It’s what I’ve been using for years and it works great.

There are several other banks and credit unions that also offer similar checking accounts like Fidelity.

As an added bonus, having a separate checking account like this that you only use for travel also means that only whatever funds you transfer to it before the trip are ever at risk if your debit card is lost or stolen while traveling, not your primary checking account.

[Dimitri]

ATMs are the way to go, although I just spent 2 weeks in France and England and the only cash I used was to leave a tip for the housekeeping staff.

Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, uses contactless credit card or Apple Pay for pretty much everything.

[Becky]

If you are a AAA member and exchange at least $200, there is no fee for the exchange and you generally get your new currency within about three days.