I was wondering how everone is obtaining their Euros. With the worry about pick pockets, I don't imagine anyone would want to carry a large amount of cash.
Do you use your bank card at the ports? What if there is a problem with the card.
Do you bring Euro travelers cheques? Some shops may not accept them.
Do you buy them onboard
DCL? Perhaps you can deposit an amount (USD)with DCL into your onboard account and buy Euros from DCL as required (ie use them as your bank)?
I was wondering how the others here are handling this. Thanks
As of yesterday,
Exchange rates posted on MSN Money were $1.34 per Euro for yesterday. Expect to pay much more than that when you really exchange money. This is more of a "commodity" rate used for trading similar to stock. It's also close to what the bank exchange rate would be if you used a charge card. To compare, the cheapest I could buy Euros was at $1.4128 per Euro. This was through a military bank. Through regular banking it was closer to $1.44 per Euro.
Back to the charge cards. It used to be that using a charge card ensured you got the very best rate since they used the "bank" exchange rate, not what you'd actually pay for cash. Credit card companies have smartened up in recent years. Most credit card issuers now charge a surchage on exchanging money. Even with the surchage, it's often still cheaper than it would be to exchange the money into cash and then purchase the item. Here's an example:
A 100 Euro item:
Bought with cash: It's cost you about $144 (using the regular banking exchange rate).
Bought with credit: It'd cost you $134 and then you'd have a surchage. Using the 2.5% quoted earlier, the surchage would be $3.35 for a total of $137.35.
As you can see, it's stlil cheaper with credit - but not as cheap as it used to be before the surcharge.
You can exchange Euros on the ship. You will pay the worst exchange rate doing this. You are paying for the convenience.
You can extract money from an ATM. This will give you the "bank rate" similar to a credit card along with any ATM surcharges you might have. ATM machines are very prevalent in Europe. You will find more ATMs there then you will in the US. Cons: you are limited to the daily ATM withdrawal amount. There is also the concern the bank will shut off the ATM card since it's having "unusal" behavior by being used out of the country. A phone call in advance to your bank should help - but it isn't guaranteed.
Ways to help: Carry multiple ATM cards, Call you bank in advance and notify them of your trip. Carry their regular (not toll free) number with you so you can call using a phone card if you need to.
You can carry US$ travelers checks and cash them at a bank. Pro: If you cash at a typical "ex-pat" or "hostel" location you will likely get the best exchange rate going. Con: This is the least convenient.
I've also heard that very few places in Europe will take US$ travelers checks. Imagine walking into a store here and handing them a Euro traveler check. Most clerks wouldn't have a CLUE what to do! Even a US$ traveler's check is often hard to use.
You coulc carry those US$ travelers checks to Barcelona and cash them in at the AMEX office. They are located about half way down Las Ramblas and have banking services there.
As for carrying cash. You can carry a lot if you use a money belt and don't flash the contents in front of everyone.
What we are doing:
I'll be purchasing some Euros before the trip. The remaining will wait until I'm in country (better exchanges rates are usually available in country vs. before you leave). This will allow me to take a cab from the airport to the hotel and grab some food before I have to go hunting for the neighborhood ATM machine.
We will have:
1) Nominal amount of Euros upon arrival
2) ATM from standard accounts
3) Second ATM from savings account at a different bank
4) Credit card from yet a third bank
5) Credit card from a fourth bank
This way the chances of all FOUR cards not working are pretty slim.
I hope that helps! It's timely too - since I was just looking at all of this stuff yesterday.
Sue
I don't know how I became an "expert"
I also didn't come up with the idea- someone PM'd me the idea and asked me to give the pitch. As this information is not required for tests this quarter- I no longer remember who asked me to do this....I can tell you all about chronic inflammation
