If you have any euro you need to sell back, I'm leaving for France in a little less than 24 hours and will buy your euro at the current exchange rate (1.18 USD = 1 euro).

[Edited on December 11, 2005 at 3:47 PM. Reason : i'm stupid... and it's been a long day]

12/11/2005 3:24:33 PM

i'll buy em 1usd per 1 euro

12/11/2005 3:25:44 PM

ldywhoknows, you have the exchange rate wrong...

It is 1 euro for every 1 dollar and eighteen cents. The dollar is weaker against the euro.

12/11/2005 3:45:44 PM

no he has it right, he is giving you an exchange rate that we should assume is better than you would get at a bank, you dont get the current spot when you go in to trade.... you always lose a bit.

12/11/2005 4:10:15 PM

i got about 40 euros in change

12/11/2005 4:12:23 PM

don't fret about euros.

when you get there, hit up an ATM outside the airport. it is definitely your best bet. or if you need euros as soon as you arrive in the airport, and you connect somewhere in europe before, you can exchange them there (at a bad rate).

it's really not that big of a deal, just a comfort level.

12/11/2005 4:15:13 PM

seriuosly atm is your best bet.... they are everywhere assuming yoru not goin to serbia or something. most of eastern europe that i went to have them, and All of morocco has them, just make sure your card is activated on their systems... almost never do you want to change the currency directly its almost never a good idea

12/11/2005 4:19:06 PM

Quote :

"no he has it right, he is giving you an exchange rate that we should assume is better than you would get at a bank, you dont get the current spot when you go in to trade.... you always lose a bit."

Ahm, NO. SHE is wrong. The market exchange rate is $1.18 for 1 euro. The BANK rate would be much worse. It would be $1.30 for 1 euro. She said the going rate is $1 buys you 1.18 euro. She has is backwards.

The best thing is to have as little euros as possible, and use credit cards which you have 'verified' dont charge any conversion fees (or have low conversion fees). You can use an ATM, but you'll pay an ATM withdrawl fee AND a currency conversion fee from your bank.


[Edited on December 11, 2005 at 5:12 PM. Reason : .]

12/11/2005 5:07:06 PM

Carzin is right.

12/11/2005 5:15:56 PM

using Wachovia, i wasnt charged any conversion fee when making purchases with the check card, but usually was charged 4-5 dollars per cash withdrawel from european ATMs - so i tried to limit the times i actually withdrew cash from an ATM, usually just once a month when i took out my rent money

12/11/2005 5:16:28 PM

BB&T and SECU charged me. I know it will differ per bank.

12/11/2005 5:22:05 PM

travelers checks

12/11/2005 5:23:15 PM

i'd sell you all mine but i'm gonna need them for Christmas and New Years

12/11/2005 5:25:00 PM

I've still got that 40€, just get in touch with me before you go

12/11/2005 7:05:44 PM

off topic, but say i still have about 400 french francs

is it too late to change that out or what

12/11/2005 7:09:22 PM

uh, I know how to get money once I'm there. I was trying to offer a good rate to people who accidentally got stuck with euros over here. Thanks for the advice though.

12/11/2005 7:19:49 PM

^^Haha, me too.

12/11/2005 7:25:55 PM

Quote :

"The best thing is to have as little euros as possible, and use credit cards which you have 'verified' dont charge any conversion fees (or have low conversion fees). You can use an ATM, but you'll pay an ATM withdrawl fee AND a currency conversion fee from your bank. "

Credit cards suck. I couldn't find a single place in Berlin that would accept them. Plus, its much handier to have cash. My next trip, I'm taking my atm card.

12/11/2005 9:06:45 PM

Quote :

"Credit cards suck. I couldn't find a single place in Berlin that would accept them"

are you serious or joking

12/11/2005 9:21:08 PM

I was in Berlin for a weekend in the summer of '04 and I did not eat in a single restaurant that accepted cards. Our hostel and every museum we visited was cash only. Yeah, I know it sounds crazy but its true. The rest of the summer I was in Prague and I rarely needed cash there.

12/11/2005 9:27:15 PM

That's true. There is a huge issue with fraud and credit card companys in Germany. You know how stores are charged a set rate per charge on a credit card? Well it's like $1 minimum charge per credit charge for a store which makes it very uneconomical.

I remember my dad telling me about this last year.

12/11/2005 9:47:57 PM

ive only been to munich.. and that was during octoberfest... and i was drunk the whole time. so i dont really remember what form of payment i used - i just know i left broke

12/11/2005 10:10:59 PM

The only place I had problem with credit cards in France was the damned gas stations. They use those cards with the smart chips. Most of the gas stations pay at the pump machines would work. So I'd always have to go pay the attendant. Do NOT miss paying 55-60 euros to fill up a gas tank in a tiny car.

12/11/2005 10:38:55 PM

yeah all the payphones used the smartchip cards, too

and some of the vending machines

12/11/2005 10:40:43 PM

I remember American Express offered that option. Never under why you would need it until I went over there. Then it all made sense.

12/11/2005 10:47:15 PM

yeah i had an american express blue card with the chip in it, i wonder why US cards dont all have them

12/11/2005 10:53:46 PM

^ b/c the companies don't want to pay for them and we don't use them that much.

which cards don't charge a conversion fee? or have guaranteed low rates? chase, citibank, wachovia all charge a lot.

everytime i have an extended stay in another country, i just setup a bank account there and wire money to it. that way i have a card that is pretty much guaranteed to work there and don't have to worry about crap. then i either suspend or close it when i leave. no fuss.

[Edited on December 12, 2005 at 2:23 AM. Reason : eh]

12/12/2005 2:22:00 AM

i used my wachovia check card on a daily basis for about... 300 consecutive days while living in france, i wasnt ever charged any kind of fee unless i was taking money out of an ATM - and that was the standard "not our ATM withdrawel" fee

12/12/2005 2:43:54 AM

yea, I used my ATM card in 7 different countries. Never had a problem and got WAY better exchange rates than the tourist trap exchanges offered.

And I went in to BB&T before I went to see if they could waive the foreign atm fee, and they did

12/12/2005 2:49:06 AM

Quote :

"using Wachovia, i wasnt charged any conversion fee when making purchases with the check card"

DoubleDown, when were you there? If it was before summer then you probably did get charged a fee on all your card purchases - but it was rolled into the total $ amount for the transaction.

Banking laws changed sometime over the course of this year b/c I got card notices from both banks I use that listed their foreign currency fee. Wachovia's letter said there'd be a 3% charge; Navy Federal Credit Union has a 1% charge. So what would've been listed prior to this year as a $101 foreign purchase is now a $100 purchase and a $1 fee.

12/12/2005 4:21:33 PM

i was there from august 2003 to may 2004

prior to moving, i asked wachovia what kind of charges would apply (firstly asking if it would even work), and they told me based on my account type, the only charges i would incur would be the foreign atm fee, which was added on at the end of each month

12/12/2005 4:45:59 PM

ah the % is for purchases (not sure about ATM withdrawals). They just started listing it as a separate line item in 2005

12/12/2005 9:10:28 PM