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Cash or credit?
Sun, 06/21/2009 - 17:25
New Member
I know that it’s generally cheaper to get money out of an atm adjacent to a bank. My question is for those places that accept credit, is it best to pay using cash or will I still get a good rate if I use my credit card with them? For example, I am going to buy my sleeper train rides when I get into paris the first day. Should I wait till I find a bank/atm and pay that with cash or should I go ahead and just use my credit card?
I am leaving from knoxville, tn and traveling for 25 days
Paris, Nice, Rome, Venice, Salzburg, Interlaken, Grindelwald, Lauterbrunnen, Mürren, Griesalp, Kandersteg, Munich, Paris
Paris, Nice, Rome, Venice, Salzburg, Interlaken, Grindelwald, Lauterbrunnen, Mürren, Griesalp, Kandersteg, Munich, Paris
You’ll still get a good exchange rate using your credit card, but does one card (ATM vs. credit) have higher foreign transaction fees than the other? If you put it on the credit card will you end up accruing a lot of interest before paying it off? One thing you might want to find out is if your bank has an affiliation with any foreign banks. I just found out today that Bank of America has one with a Spanish bank and if I make my withdrawals at their ATMs I will only pay a 1% currency conversion fee, no other added foreign transaction fees. Wish I had known this several years ago.
I prefer to pay by card whenever I can, because I know there is no transaction fee, apart from the conversion. When I withdraw money I also have the bank’s conversion rate (which most of the times is not the best possible, of course), but also an withdrawal fee, that is 1%, but no less than 3 EUR (therefore i withdraw at least 300 Eur, most of the times).
But I think is not only about being cheaper, but also better in terms of overall flow of the trip. For example, if you have too much cash and you’ll be leaving EURO zone in a couple of hours, I think is better to spend them all, even if is not the cheapest way to go at that moment.
Radu
Carpathian Mountains and Danube Delta
Good points. So basically the only difference between the two is the transaction fee. I have a Capital One card so there is no international fee. So it sounds like the only cut I will be losing is with the dollar to euro conversion.
Paris, Nice, Rome, Venice, Salzburg, Interlaken, Grindelwald, Lauterbrunnen, Mürren, Griesalp, Kandersteg, Munich, Paris
The wizard clear advantage credit card in Aus has no international fees, no echange fees and free overseas cash withdrawels. You can also pre load it with cash and use it as a debit card. Not sure if there’s something similar in the US but it’s worth doing some research. Also the Bank travel cards are good value because you pre load it with your desired currency, locking in the exchange rate (sometimes negative) and they have a stnd cash withdrawel fee of like 1 euro (pretty cheap in comparison to normal cc’s). You also get two cards with seperate pins in-case one gets lost or stolen. Most post offices have info on them
Madrid, Valencia, Ibiza Town, Barcelona, Marseilles, Monaco, Milan, Rome, Athens, Mýkonos, Bar, Dubrovnik, Hvar, Split, Zagreb, Munich, Berlin, Vienna, Budapest, Zürich, Interlaken, Geneva, Bordeaux, Nantes, Rennes, Paris, Brussels, Bruges, Amsterdam, Hamburg, Copenhagen, Gothenburg, Stockholm, Oslo, Bergen, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Belfast, Dublin, Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham, London
I usually use a CC. It is safer and the rates are quite good. To be honest I have never been negatively surprised. So if possible I use a CC only.
When preparing to travel, lay out all your clothes and all your money. Then take half the clothes and twice the money.