Hi everyone. Hope this is the right forum to pose this question.
A friend is leaving for Italy (Milan) next monght and asked me about the use of travelers checks. I told him to avoid them like the plague since my sister had such trouble with them last year on our trip to Rome. When I advised him to use his ATM card as his primary source of aquiring Euro, he said that he had heard from someone else that recent events had made ATM cards very difficult to use. Something to do with the banks in Italy being liable for fraudulent charges, and because so, many banks were now not providing the ATM withdrawal service from foreign bank accounts.
Any truth to this rumor that anyone is aware of? As of this exact time last year, I was all over Italy north to south for a few weeks, and used my ATM everywhere without a hitch.
Thanks for any responses.
Gina Marie

Should the title of the post be "ATMs vs travellers' cheques?"

ATMs (Bancomats) are widely dispersed throughout Italy. I've never heard of the specific problem that your friend has described, although I have noted that Italians in general are quite paranoid about credit card fraud.

The only time I've ever had problems with Bancomats in Italy has been when sometimes they've run out of money on the weekends and I've had to wait until the machine has been restocked on Monday morning (but seeing as I maintain a safety net of about 50E I this was never the end of the world.)

I hope this helps. Tell your friend to post his question on any travel forum and I think he'll get the same response you gave him about travellers' cheques!

quote:

Originally posted by Gina Marie:
...recent events had made ATM cards very difficult to use. Something to do with the banks in Italy being liable for fraudulent charges, and because so, many banks were now not providing the ATM withdrawal service from foreign bank accounts.

I don't know how "recent" he means, but I was there in March and used ATM cards from two different U.S. banks and had no problems. And you are correct about the travelers checks, they can be difficult to cash, especially if they're not in euros. I would advise against them.

Last summer we used 2 different ATM cards and neither worked. We tried several machines; we had enough cash that we brought over with us, but started using credit cards for anything we could so we wouldn't run low on cash if we needed it.

Thanks for the responses. I've been digging around on the Italy board, and found a post by girasoli in March of 2006, concerning this exact topic. I wish I understood how to link to it from here, but I'll just paraphrase. Basically that she/he was told by her credit union that they will no longer allow withdrawals from debit cards in Europe.
As it turns out, the friend I mentioned is also banking with a credit union. So, I'm wondering if this is specific to credit unions only. Everywhere else I have read, it appears that ATM cards are still the favored choice for aquiring cash.
Anyway, maybe someone who has been to Italy since April of this year, and banks with a credit union will shed some light on this topic.
Thanks to all.
Gina Marie

Part of the problem is the card has to be linked to a checking account NOT SAVINGS.RR

I just called my credit union. When I asked about using ATM card in Europe, she said there were no restrictions "at this time." She said if they see high fraud levels they disable cards for certain regions. Is this normal, or is my credit union paranoid?

Gina, I took a AAA debit card, travelers checks and cash when I went home to Switzerland in March. I used the visa debit card for everything and never used the travelers checks.
Debit/ credit cards in Switzerland work fine. BUT some times they put a min amount that you must spent before they will let you use it. The AAA visa debit card is my 1st choise for safe money in Europe.

Tschuss,

Sue

Hi

My wife and I use ATMs as a source for cash on our travels and this has worked fine in places like Italy, Japan, China, South Africa etc. It was not difficult for us to use the ATM to get cash, we used the debit card when shopping and paying at restaurants and we used credit cards for paying the hotel bills. But there is always a lot of talk about this in the press when people run into trouble when using cards...and it makes many people nervous about the use of cards. But I still think it is a lot better than running around with lots of cash or travellers checks.

Regards
Gard
http://gardkarlsen.com - trip reports and pictures

Hi,
I checked again recently with my credit union and was told that there shouldn't be a problem using atm cards. But this person also told me that it is very easy to use travelers checks so not sure how reliable her answers were. In the recent credit union newsletter it says:

quote:

In order to protect your ___ Visa account from fradulent transactions committed in foreign countries, ATM access outside of the United States has been suppressed. If you are traveling abroad, you have access to cash advances from your VISA account by going into any financial institution that has a VISA logo posted.

I am guessing that means using your visa card but not sure if it also involves the visa debit card? I think that the ATM cards are different. I decided to open up a second account at another bank so that I would have 2 ATM cards just in case.

ONE MORE TIME...

... NO TRAVELER'S CHEQUES!!!

ATM's should work fine along with your credit cards (if you have the pin numbers) to withdraw cash. Notify your lender of either the credit card or the ATM that you are going to be abroad and what dates so nothing DOES get shut down on when charges start popping up around Europe.

I did not use my ATM last year but used my credit card for cash advances where I got a good exchange rate, a $3 charge for each transaction and, being that I paid the bill off in total, no interest.

Buon viaggi!
Doug

I'll have to agree w/ Doug! We traveled in several European countries on our Med cruise and used our credit card and/or debit card for everything. No problem!

They do not advise travelers checks! One of the hotels we booked gave us a cash discount option but we could also use our credit card if we chose to. We took advantage of the cash discount!

We told our bank b4 leaving home what countries we would be traveling in and also made sure that our daily withdrawal limit on our debit card was increased so we wouldn't have any problems. There are ATM's everywhere so that is not a problem either. It is so easy to travel today without a hassle.

Hope this helps. Happy traveling.

quote:

am guessing that means using your visa card but not sure if it also involves the visa debit card? I think that the ATM cards are different. I decided to open up a second account at another bank so that I would have 2 ATM cards just in case.

Yes, the Visa debit card, or ATM with a Visa logo, should work as a cash advance (actually a direct debit) from a bank teller. I did this in banks in Italy before networked ATMs took hold there. Don't hold me to it, but I think they can do this for a card with a Cirrus or Plus but not Visa/MC logo as well.

For my upcoming trip, I have leftover euros for Italy, but first I'll be stopping over in London, arriving at 10.40 p.m. on a Saturday, and not giving any thought to getting pounds in advance. I'm counting on the ATMs to work, and if they don't, that the airport exchange counter can debit my ATM card. I'll also have some dollar cash as mad money to change.

I have a couple of suggestions:

First, just make sure that your ATM is also a check card-- IE, it functions like a credit card if you want to use it at a store (although this money also comes out of your checking).

Second, call your bank BEFORE your trip and tell them where you are going to be going. Something that many banks do for security is that if they see some random, really strange charge (or a really expensive charge), they will stop service for the card. This is basically to protect you in case your card gets stolen and someone is out there using it. So if someone back at Visa company (or whatever) sees that suddenly you're ringing up $500 in Rome, they might stop the cash flow on the card. So, it's a good idea just to let them know that you'll be over there in advance.

Personally, I usually get some cash in the local currency from the bank before I go, and then I do the rest by withdrawing larger sums from ATMs as I go (but not so much I'd be afraid to lose it). This way I can pay everywhere in cash and I don't always need to have an ATM-- whenever I find one I'll just stock up a bit on my funds.