How much local currency do I need?

[msmama]

Title says it all...
Going to Canada in a little more than a week (yay!) but also thinking forward to Norway cruise next year.

I have a CC with no foreign transaction fees, and obviously I'll have some American cash, but how much more would you have? And where would you get it? ATM once you get there? Exchange at airport? Can you exchange on the ship?

We have no excursions planned, just going to wing it in Canada (but will do excursions on next cruise). Do you tip tour guides in local currency? What else would I need to plan for in "real" (non American) cash, not CC?

 

[Quellman]

In my experience, border cities in Canada typically will take US dollars and adjust the price of the items upon checkout, but this is not a guarantee in smaller shops and should not be expected. I cannot comment about DCL ports of call.

I travel overseas frequently and pull cash from an ATM. Lowest transaction fee generally.

 

[apathetic]

In Europe, make sure you have the chip card and know the code. Most there use it over the swipe method. Our bank card is Visa/MC, so we had no problem getting cash from ATMs. The cities we visited had ATMs everywhere. Airports will also have the exchange counters (currency for currency) and most big cities have them all over the streets. I would use your credit card whenever possible, you will get a better exchange rate. Any of the exchange places are getting a fee for the service and almost always is worse than what your credit card will give you, especially with no transaction fees. Check with your bank too. They may have additional fees for foreign withdrawals at ATM. Most places in Canada are ok with US dollars, though they may give you a bad exchange rate. The ship may exchange currency, but there is no guarantee. Really you just need money for tips and smaller souvenirs that cost too little to run a card for.

 

[FigmentSpark]

Most places in Canada will take credit card, even for small purchases. It would be just tips, I would think, that you'll need cash for.

 

[Anchors Away 2016]

. Any of the exchange places are getting a fee for the service and almost always is worse than what your credit card will give you, especially with no transaction fees. Check with your bank too. They may have additional fees for foreign withdrawals at ATM.

I agree with this. Credit cards are your best bet. No fee, excellent exchange rate.

ATM's are next best. It gives you local currency, for times you can't use credit cards (like Taxi's in many cities.) But they usually do charge a fee. (Mine was $5, but if you get a bunch of cash at once, that is still better then the currency exchange places, where the rates are often lousy.

One other thing, although Europe does use the chip reader cards not the swipe cards, when I was in Toulouse, France last year, most of the merchants had card readers that could do either one (like we are getting in the US now), the only thing is the merchant didn't know how to "swipe" it. So, with their permission, I swiped it for them, just like our swipe readers in the US, and it worked fine. Of course, most US CC's have the chips now, so it probably won't matter.

 

[clten]

How I get my local currency depends on how much of it I will need. If I just need it for tips (and I always like to have enough for a taxi ride back to the ship in case something happens on an excursion), I may just exchange some onboard the ship. I'm sure their exchange rate isn't the best but for small amounts, it is okay (over paying an ATM and transaction fee for a small amount). The other positive about exchanging it on the ship, they will buy back any paper currency at the exact same exchange rate -- so money I didn't end up using (like my emergency taxi fare) didn't cost me to exchange and exchange back again.

In Canadian ports (Vancouver and Halifax) we used US currency for small things with no issues.