Question about Money when travelling Overseas

[Spruce Goose]

Anybody who has travelled through Europe etc...

I don't know exaclty what to do in terms of money. I don't really want to get a credit card, but will if I absolutley have to. I will have plenty of money in my bank account... Would I be able to use ATM machines in Europe and access my Australian commonwealth account?

My ATM card has that Cirrus logo on the back and a Maestro logo on the front. Do they mean that I can use them overseas? I am going to London, Ireland, Scotland, Italy, Munich, France, Amsterdam, Switzerland, Netherlands, Singapore... plus maybe a few other places in Europe that I can't remember right now.

What do you reckon would be the best thing to do Mark? I have no idea about what travellers cheques are... My first option would be to use my ATM card, but I would want to be sure that all the places I go accept and can access my commonwealth account. Maybe I should go and see my travel agent

 

[Lord Tim]

We ran into all kinds of trouble with ATMs there... Your best bet is to take a decent amount of cash and get it changed to Euro when you first get in and use that for day-to-day stuff and use a credit card for everything else.

Mastercard (or Amex) is the go in Europe, for sure!

 

[KoichCPA]

This has been pissing me off ever since you have announced your trip

AMSTERDAM IS PART OF THE NETHERLANDS, IT IS NOT A SEPERATE FUCKING COUNTRY.

It's like saying, I'm going to sydney, and I'm also going to Australia.

dolt.

 

[Spruce Goose]

Yeah well get fucked then.

Thanks for clearing that up.

So Tim, you reckon I will need to get a credit card eh? Did you go to Amsterdam when you went over? What about the Netherlands?

 

[KoichCPA]

I was born in Goulburn, not Australia.

 

[Mark]

Your ATM card will work, but you WILL be hit with a transaction fee each time (like $5 or something outrageous).

You should either:

- get travellers cheques;
- or, see if Thomas Cook still do their travelmoney card, works like an ATM card but the transaction fees are lower, and they have english-speaking support in all countries.

Why not see if your bank can give you a Visa debit card for your trip? Then you use it like a CC but it just comes out of your account.

 

[Spruce Goose]

Why not see if your bank can give you a Visa debit card for your trip? Then you use it like a CC but it just comes out of your account]


That sounds ok. I might look into that. Cheers

 

[Blitzkrieg]

Debit Cards are good. I have one of those for buying shit off the net.

 

[Shannow]

The only card that I have is a St George Visa Debit card.

Use it for EFTPOS, get hit with charges. Use it at a foreign ATM, get hit with charges.

Use it was visa......no charges, no matter how many transactions.

 

[phlogiston]

I'd just just knock over convienence stores when I ran out of cash, if I was you.

 

[Southy]

that's a good plan Phloggy, your a true Idea's man ain't ya

 

[weetbix]

We ran into all kinds of trouble with ATMs there... Your best bet is to take a decent amount of cash and get it changed to Euro when you first get in and use that for day-to-day stuff and use a credit card for everything else.

Mastercard (or Amex) is the go in Europe, for sure!

That's pretty much exactly what I did .... although my credit card was a Visa. I didn't have any problems with that being accepted anywhere.

 

[weetbix]

Errr .... I meant I didn't have any problems with it *not* being accepted.

Blame it on the heat and boredom at work...

 

[Lord Tim]

Oh really? We found that heaps of places had issues with Visa when we were there... *shrugs*

 

[weetbix]

You ventured a bit further in Eastern Europe than I did though

Maybe I was just using cash in all the right places

 

[Arcane]

In most of Western Europe you won't have too much trouble using ATM's, but it's a good idea to spread your resources out through a few different types.

Generally i like to take enough cash to last me the first 2-3 days in the currency of the first country, with a supplement of aussie dollars to last another 3 days when converted to local currency. I also take enough in travellers cheques to last another week.

I then like to use Visa/Mastercard for any decent size expenses where possible, this helps to keep your buffer of cash/travellers cheques at a decent level for any emergencies. I also use an ATM card where possible to keep that buffer of cash around the 3 days of expenses level.

Those are my tips for piece of mind

 

[Mark]

When I first went to Germany, I used nothing but travellers cheques and (rarely) credit card (although I did cash up a few hundred dollars when I first arrived; this was when the placcy notes first came out, and I had all the senior people in the bank over looking at them, sure they were counterfeit!).

ATMs are too expensive to use too often, and there are plenty of banks around - and in Europe, I never had a problem finding someone in a bank who spoke English, although you pick up the lingo soon enough when you have to

 

[Shannow]

I never had a problem finding someone in a bank who spoke English, although you pick up the lingo soon enough when you have to

Mark,
can you give us a quick conversion guide to "This is a stick-up" in all of the major European languages ?

 

[Southy]

Please do, I am planning my trip over there now.....

 

[Mark]

Dutch: dit is omhoog een stok
French: c'est un bâton vers le haut
German: dieses ist ein Stock oben
greek: αυτό είναι ένα ραβδί επάνω
Italia: ciò è un bastone in su

That'll do - everyone else are dirty wogs with no money anyway.