On 13/04/2011 10:41 AM, Krypsis wrote:
Thank goodness for ATMs. My first trip to Europe was in 1993, before
bank cards. We had a rail pass and were counting on travelling through
number of countries sand had to arrange for local currency and
travellers cheques ahead of time.
It wasn't too bad in Germany and France. I could go to a bank and cash
in some cheques without hassle. However, we had paid premium exchange
rates for the TCs. In Italy we had to pay a fee for each TC cashed. He
had naively got them in small denominations. Ten thousand Lire sounded
like a lot, buts at a thousand lire to the dollar it was only $10. So I
was being gouged on exchange plus the transaction fees. When we had TCs
left over we had to cash them and then exchange them for local currency
int he next country, and pay premium exchange rates again.
Exchange rates are much better when paying by credit card or bank card.