Buying Euros Ahead

[karle]

Hi, we leave for our trip to Rome / cruise in July. With the way the euro is heading, we were thinking of buying euros now. Also, we were told that being members of AAA, thats a good place to change currency. Would love some feedback on this, Thanks!

[chipmaster]

Hi, we leave for our trip to Rome / cruise in July. With the way the euro is heading, we were thinking of buying euros now. Also, we were told that being members of AAA, thats a good place to change currency. Would love some feedback on this, Thanks!

 

A good plan that will shave you a few bucks if it continues to go down

 

Or, could cost you a few if the dollar has bottomed and makes a rebound.

 

Good luck in your first attempt at currency hedging. I told the wife almost two months ago to change 5K Euros but we procrastinated and now I question whether it'll fall any more.

 

Kind of like deciding how low will Google go before it runs back to 700 bucks

[agabbymama]

That's what I started doing for my Oct cruise. I already have 500 EURO

and plan on buying more in the next couple of months. AAA has what they call 100 packs. So I'm buying a couple hundred at a time, just in case the price does go down, but will also have bought now if it continues to go up.

 

Should have started this last year when I first booked the cruise, it was at $1.32 for 1 EURO, now $1.56. Kicking myself in the behind that I didn't start it earlier.

[Sea Island Lady]

It's already started to go down. Don't know if it will continue, or rise again.

Today's rate: 1.00 EUR

 

=

 

1.54134 USD

 

 

With AAA, what is the exchange rate and are the packets paper and coins?

 

We plan to take 250 euro per person for our June cruise. if the AAA packet is a deal, then I'll get 300 e. This will get us through the airport, to our destination from FCO to Civitavecchia with a little spending money while there for the night (will put room on credit card) and to tip baggage stewards at the port. We should still have a little left for our next port of call, where we will stop at an ATM for more euro.

[cberge]

Warning...Be VERY VERY careful when using AAA..I have found them to be VERY high and cost a lot for what you get in exchange,and other's have as well.Sure they make it easy,but you will pay.There has been a lot on this board re when to get Euro's,where etc.,and rule of theumb is buy when you want..it is not going to be THAT much more or less in a month or three and the fees do not change so buy when you feel the time is right for YOU.

[Quendryth]

Warning...Be VERY VERY careful when using AAA..I have found them to be VERY high and cost a lot for what you get in exchange,and other's have as well.Sure they make it easy,but you will pay.There has been a lot on this board re when to get Euro's,where etc.,and rule of theumb is buy when you want..it is not going to be THAT much more or less in a month or three and the fees do not change so buy when you feel the time is right for YOU.

 

We bank with B of A & we are not charged anything for euros if we buy at least $1000.00 worth. They will exchange any we bring back also. You have to b in the Advantage plan. We feel this is a good deal! We buy just before leaving on our trip. Up or down - you need them when you get to Europe!

 

We buy on line or order over the phone. Check with your bank & see if this available. :D

 

Faith

[FinelyRetired]

I bought half my Euros for June last Fall. Will do 2nd half next week. My pitiful attempt to average. As usual, I'll be left wondering/knowing that I should have bought them all at last Fall's rate?

 

I did manage to buy all BPS very early, before a rise, for last year's trip! My first and only exchange that ever went my way.

 

It's what it is.

[genni]

The entire world is wondering about the US dollar...oil is bought with it (ships run on it). To cut things rather short, some European countries are entirely without oil , and must buy with the US dollar - when the barrel goes up, so do prices in those countries (to be specific - Italy, where, however, wages have not significantly increased since the introduction of the Euro, but prices have - it's expensive for the locals, so they raise prices - thus with the unfavourable exchange rate, those paying in dollars pay more - round and round - !!!)...

...and to think, I went back to the USA to visit relatives and friends just a few weeks after the introduction of the Euro - it was about one Euro to 87 US cents!

[cusyl]

I purchased my Euros from my bank online and picked them up at a local bank. I also purchased some Euro travelers checks and applied the ones I had left to my sign and sail card. I liked having them with me and not having to stand in line at a ATM.

[Dorene1]

That's what I started doing for my Oct cruise. I already have 500 EURO

and plan on buying more in the next couple of months. AAA has what they call 100 packs. So I'm buying a couple hundred at a time, just in case the price does go down, but will also have bought now if it continues to go up.

 

Should have started this last year when I first booked the cruise, it was at $1.32 for 1 EURO, now $1.56. Kicking myself in the behind that I didn't start it earlier.

 

 

Where do you see $1.56?

I see $1.629

 

Dorene

[seapenarth]

Hi, we leave for our trip to Rome / cruise in July. With the way the euro is heading, we were thinking of buying euros now. Also, we were told that being members of AAA, thats a good place to change currency. Would love some feedback on this, Thanks!

 

keep buying you are in trouble:eek:

[tcocktail]

Here is a link that I watch

http://finance.yahoo.com/currency/convert?from=EUR&to=USD&amt=1&t=3m

 

That price is not the price the Euro is being sold in the United STates.

 

I tooshould of bought euro's for our May trip but I didn't. Nothing we can do about iot now. I can though get the best deal with no fees from our Broker.

 

Here is another site

http://www.xe.com/ucc/convert.cgi

[Dorene1]

Here is a link that I watch

http://finance.yahoo.com/currency/convert?from=EUR&to=USD&amt=1&t=3m

 

That price is not the price the Euro is being sold in the United STates.

 

I tooshould of bought euro's for our May trip but I didn't. Nothing we can do about iot now. I can though get the best deal with no fees from our Broker.

 

Here is another site

http://www.xe.com/ucc/convert.cgi

 

I see the price, yet when I go on BOA to purchase, it tells me it's $1.639 ? Can anyone explain this.

[whogo]

We bank with B of A & we are not charged anything for euros if we buy at least $1000.00 worth. They will exchange any we bring back also. You have to b in the Advantage plan. We feel this is a good deal! We buy just before leaving on our trip. Up or down - you need them when you get to Europe!

 

We buy on line or order over the phone. Check with your bank & see if this available. :D

 

Faith

 

I see the price, yet when I go on BOA to purchase, it tells me it's $1.639 ? Can anyone explain this.

 

Check the exchange rate against that shown at http://www.oanda.com/convert/fxhistory for your purchase date. Bank of America, with no fees or shipping, is currently quoting $1.6295 per euro, while the interbank rate is only $1.5424. You are paying more than $0.08 extra for each euro.

 

A $1000 withdrawal from an ATM at 0% mark up gets you €648.*

A $1000 withdrawal with a B of A Visa debit card gets you €638.

A $1000 withdrawal from an ATM at 3% mark up gets you €629.

A $1000 purchase of euros gets you only €613 at Bank of America in the USA.

 

The 5% mark up on foreign currency purchases in the US makes profitable currency speculation that much more difficult. I have found no cheap place to buy foreign currency in the US, although other countries have dealers that are able to convert currencies for under 2%. The last time I was able to check the cost of AAA tip packs, the mark up was 15%!

 

*Available with a Bank of America Visa ATM Card at their correspondent banks in Europe.

[cruisemom42]

Check the exchange rate against that shown at http://www.oanda.com/convert/fxhistory for your purchase date. Bank of America, with no fees or shipping, is currently quoting $1.6295 per euro, while the interbank rate is only $1.5424. You are paying more than $0.08 extra for each euro.

 

A $1000 withdrawal from an ATM at 0% mark up gets you €648.*

A $1000 withdrawal with a B of A Visa debit card gets you €638.

A $1000 withdrawal from an ATM at 3% mark up gets you €629.

A $1000 purchase of euros gets you only €613 at Bank of America in the USA.

 

The 5% mark up on foreign currency purchases in the US makes profitable currency speculation that much more difficult. I have found no cheap place to buy foreign currency in the US, although other countries have dealers that are able to convert currencies for under 2%. The last time I was able to check the cost of AAA tip packs, the mark up was 15%!

 

*Available with a Bank of America Visa ATM Card at their correspondent banks in Europe.

 

My own findings bear this out as well. An ATM generally nets you the best exchange rate for cash (unless your bank tacks on a lot of extra fees). Most banks have a "per transaction" fee which still nets you the better deal as long as you take out the max -- or at least a reasonable amount -- per transaction.

 

AAA has very poor exchange rates. Banks, exchange bureaus, etc -- none will give you the "official" rate. Banks may tell you that they aren't charging you a fee, but their "fee" may be hidden in the higher exchange rate.

 

The other thing I suggest is to use your credit card where you can. Again, assuming you do your research and have a card that charges no or only a small foreign transaction fee, you will get a fairly good exchange rate -- not to mention being able to carry less cash around and also having some recourse if you are making a large purchase.

[karle]

Thank you Cynthia, i will not be using AAA now, i will check my bank. I need to arrive with some euros, we need to pay for our transfers to the hotel, and i really dont want to be bothered to look for the ATM at the airport. We are planning on using our credit card when we can, but that dosent work for all of transfers and little things. And to tell you the truth we do not use ATMS. Thanks for the info.

[tahoe782]

We purchased our euros some time ago at our Wells Fargo Bank. They gave us the going rate with no service fee. We did have to go to the main office in our area, Reno.

Aleeta

[SEADAYLOVER]

Does this discussion about AAA and the Euro exchange apply to the Debit ATM cards you can preload at AAA as well. Do they charge a conversion fee of 15%?

 

I did not want to use my regular ATM and thought the preloaded AAA ATM was a good way to go ---- Wrong?

 

Any suggestions for preloaded debit cards with low limits for exchenge and high limits for daily withdrawl amounts?

 

thanks

[Bick]

We purchased our euros some time ago at our Wells Fargo Bank. They gave us the going rate with no service fee. We did have to go to the main office in our area, Reno.

Aleeta

 

I'm w/ Wells also, and the going rate they charge (1.6421 USD per Euro or $1,000 gets you 615 Euro) is higher than what's quoted in the papers (1.5418 USD per Euro $1,000 = 648 Euro).

 

Looks like the thing to do is buy a minimal amount over here (cab fare plus a little?), and use your credit card or an ATM over there for the rest.

[whogo]

Does this discussion about AAA and the Euro exchange apply to the Debit ATM cards you can preload at AAA as well. Do they charge a conversion fee of 15%?

 

I did not want to use my regular ATM and thought the preloaded AAA ATM was a good way to go ---- Wrong?

 

Any suggestions for preloaded debit cards with low limits for exchenge and high limits for daily withdrawl amounts?

 

thanks

I can no longer find the info online for the AAA Visa TravelMoney Card, but the Travelex card was identical when I could check. The TravelMoney card has an outrageous 7% mark up on foreign currency, plus a $2 withdrawal fee. Check out the numerous other fees: http://www.travelex.com/us/personal/CP_feeslimitscharges.asp?content=cp

 

Why not use your regular ATM card? My regular card with Wells Fargo is protected against unauthorized use.

[jesse]

We bought at Bank of America-i got 3000 in Euros (five of us) and used them to pay for our private tours and so forth-got more Euros when needed by going to the cruise ship desk on board and changing dollars to Euros. We ordered them from BA and no service fee---from experience, have not used the exchange people you see in the international airports-and AAA never has the best rate in my experience.

[karle]

Thank you Jesse, thats just what we are going to do. We dont want to be bothered looking for ATMS, and worrying our card will be eaten. We dont even use ATMS here, thanks again for the info!

[verga]

We are from Vancouver. Last year, my family group of 13 people went on a 14-day Galaxy Eastern Med cruise as well as stayed 2 nights pre-cruise in Rome and 5 nights post-cruise in Greece.

 

We bought all our Euros (total 11,000 Euros) from a foreign exchange broker in downtown Vancouver at the then market rate of 1.40 to 1.42 (what a deal - we should have bought more). We were all a bit concerned bringing so many Euros but we didn't want to be bothered looking for ATMs as our day-to-day itinerary was packed with private tours. All of us wore money belts. We paid for our Rome and Greece hotels and our private tours in those cities and Naples in Euros cash.

 

The downtown Vancouver FX brokers provide a better exchange rate than the airport ones including the banks. We call the FX broker ahead of time and do our exchange that same day. We tell them what denominations we want (mostly 200s and 500s Euro bills, some 100s and a few smaller smaller ones). We later exchanged the larger bills at the cruise ship for smaller bills.

 

Perhaps your cities have these FX brokers too?

[agabbymama]

I've posted many times on this site. Over the last 31 years of travelling, I have tried U.S. dollar AMEX travelers checks (AMEX offices often had long lines or were not open, or were non-existent), Australian travelers checks (good in Australia everywhere except U.S. owned companies like Sizzler, Pizza Hut, etc) free to purchase but you pay when you exchanged back to U.S. dollars, currency of country travelled to in purchased in advance in the U.S., local currency in the country traveled to at banks and/or exchange booths, and credit cards.

 

You are going to pay fees to travel to foreign countries, PERIOD. I tried everything I could think of to avoid it for years, and nothing works for me, so I finally just gave up and do what is the most convenient for me, which is AAA or AMEX. They may indeed have the highest fees, but at this point, I don't even care if it's 1% vs 3% or even 5%. It's worth it to me to just be able to order them and pick them up at my local AAA office. With AMEX they will even priority mail them to your home.

 

I have a credit union checking account, that I was told my ATM card would not work outside of the U.S., and I have a savings account at Banco Popular who also told me my debit card might not work outside the U.S. And neither deals in foreign currency either. I did get a Capital One credit card that I plan to use for purchases in Europe this October, but other than that, I'm not even going to worry about the fees associated with exchanging money. We are losing so much on the exchange anyway, what the heck difference does it make. It could be worse, the pound is 2 for 1.

[jms2362]

I am a member of AAA. Are you saying you go to a AAA store and purchase? What is the charge?