Saving some money in the Baltics

[Giantfan13]

Maybe to some, not getting a good exchange rate isn't important. Maybe also having extra fees added to their Credit Cards for every purchase also isn't that big a deal. We are sailing on a sort of tight budget, and any money we can save can be put to better use, like spending more.

 

anyway, after some good research, and like many have said, try and charge as much as you can on credit cards. That is great, but most of the major Credit Card companies add a 3% fee onto every charge. Not so Capital One. We just got a card, special for our trip. If you don't have one, simple go to their internet site and fill out an online form to get one. If you plan on charging a lot, it will definitely save you money in the long run. Capital One has NO, ZERO, NIL, nothing fees for any charge overseas.

 

I spent the good part of yesterday calling my banks, trying to find out which of them charges the least to withdraw money from an ATM. Most of the major banks, charge a percentage od what you witdraw like 3% fee, or a minimum fee of anywhere from $5-10 for EACH transaction. Then the banks ATM owner can also add a fee to it. It does add up. If you simply wanted to withdraw $50 in Denmark, you would be charge about $8.00 in fees.

But if you want to do better, there are banks or institutions that will do better, much better. We just signed up with Fidelity. They have a sort of simple checking account where any ATM fees are waived, and the MOST you MIGHT be charged at any ATM in Europe is 1%.

 

On excharging money before you go. We inquired about just exchanging money before we travel and have it handy when we do go to countries that we need it for. There is a company called TravelEx where is you exchange $1000 in whatever currency you wish, there is NO fee at all, and they will convert what you bring home, back to US dollars, also for no fee. The problem I have with this compnay is their exchange rate seems way out of whack. On their web site, just for example, I asked for $100 in Euro's, and they had a figure that was about 5 Euro's below what the current exchange rate seemed to be.b American Express Travel also has a decent currency purchase deal. You have a flat fee of $4. per transaction, no matter how much you convert. They also have something extra, for $5.00 more, they guarantee the exact exchange rate you used before when you want to convert it back, PLUS no fee for the conversions back to dollars.

 

I'm sure there are many such 'deals' out there, you just have to do some homework. As I said before, I'm sure many will just say, no big deal, and pay what needs to be paid in order for peace of mind or ease of doing things, but if you plan on spending some of your hard earned money on your trip, why not TRY and save some of it instead of giving it to the banks and CC companies, when there are other ways to do things.

[kwk1955]

Maybe to some, not getting a good exchange rate isn't important. Maybe also having extra fees added to their Credit Cards for every purchase also isn't that big a deal. We are sailing on a sort of tight budget, and any money we can save can be put to better use, like spending more.

 

anyway, after some good research, and like many have said, try and charge as much as you can on credit cards. That is great, but most of the major Credit Card companies add a 3% fee onto every charge. Not so Capital One. We just got a card, special for our trip. If you don't have one, simple go to their internet site and fill out an online form to get one. If you plan on charging a lot, it will definitely save you money in the long run. Capital One has NO, ZERO, NIL, nothing fees for any charge overseas.

 

I spent the good part of yesterday calling my banks, trying to find out which of them charges the least to withdraw money from an ATM. Most of the major banks, charge a percentage od what you witdraw like 3% fee, or a minimum fee of anywhere from $5-10 for EACH transaction. Then the banks ATM owner can also add a fee to it. It does add up. If you simply wanted to withdraw $50 in Denmark, you would be charge about $8.00 in fees.

But if you want to do better, there are banks or institutions that will do better, much better. We just signed up with Fidelity. They have a sort of simple checking account where any ATM fees are waived, and the MOST you MIGHT be charged at any ATM in Europe is 1%.

 

On excharging money before you go. We inquired about just exchanging money before we travel and have it handy when we do go to countries that we need it for. There is a company called TravelEx where is you exchange $1000 in whatever currency you wish, there is NO fee at all, and they will convert what you bring home, back to US dollars, also for no fee. The problem I have with this compnay is their exchange rate seems way out of whack. On their web site, just for example, I asked for $100 in Euro's, and they had a figure that was about 5 Euro's below what the current exchange rate seemed to be.b American Express Travel also has a decent currency purchase deal. You have a flat fee of $4. per transaction, no matter how much you convert. They also have something extra, for $5.00 more, they guarantee the exact exchange rate you used before when you want to convert it back, PLUS no fee for the conversions back to dollars.

 

I'm sure there are many such 'deals' out there, you just have to do some homework. As I said before, I'm sure many will just say, no big deal, and pay what needs to be paid in order for peace of mind or ease of doing things, but if you plan on spending some of your hard earned money on your trip, why not TRY and save some of it instead of giving it to the banks and CC companies, when there are other ways to do things.

 

Giantfan13 -

 

I also was concerned about all the fees on our recent Med cruise, and did the same research as you.

 

We didn't bother to get Euros before we left, and pay the extra fees or low exchange rate. I don't know where you are flying into, but most large airports have ATM's right in them, readily available. We flew into Amsterdam on the way to Rome and hit the first ATM we saw. We only used ATM's that were at a bank, even the one in the airport. Our ATM card was the same as yours, refunds all ATM fees, and only charges up to 1% fee. We converted about $2000 to euros during our trip (about 5 times) , and were charged about $15 total on all the transactions . No other fees, and ATM fees refunded. So, that is what I would advise you to do also.

 

When using the ATM's be aware that they don't tell you the exchange rate you are going to get and they don't tell you how much you just spent to change to euros. They just give you a receipt that shows how many euros you received. The only thing you have to worry about is having enough money in the account at home, and keeping track of it. They don't tell you the balance on your account either. I saved all the receipts and brought them back to check with our bank statement. We received a very good exchange rate each time, and no extra fees as promised. Our bank refunded the ATM fees, and like I said only charged us about $15 on $2000 converted. Also, be careful and take your euros and card out as quickly as possible. There is a time limit to grab them. A lady on our cruise had her card sucked back into the machine, and couldn't get it back. Also, another piece of advice - try and figure out how much you are going to need for a few days, and try to minimize the number of times (and fees) you need to find an ATM. We took out 300 - 400 euros each time, so only had to do it 5 times in 3 weeks of travel.

 

We also used a no fee credit card, and that worked fine .

 

Hope some of this helps. Enjoy your cruise. :)

[Leejnd4]

Giantfan - I'm sorry I didn't post this here sooner, or I could have saved you a lot of homework.

 

Here is a link to a recent thread that I posted in the Money Saving Tips forum: Current information on using credit cards/ATMs in foreign countries

 

It gives detailed information, by bank, as to what they charge for foreign currency exchange fees and/or ATM charges. I personally validated all of these numbers, either by calling the banks themselves, or verifying on more than one online resource.

 

You are correct that Capitol One is the ONLY major credit card that charges ZERO currency exchange fees.

 

Wamu (now Chase) seems to have the best ATM situation - ZERO fees, 1% exchange fee.

 

All the others are higher to some varying degree.

[cs91]

FYI, Chas Schwab also has a no conversion fee VISA. And, it gives 2% rebate on purchases.

[NAJNLA]

Wamu (now Chase) seems to have the best ATM situation - ZERO fees, 1% exchange fee.

 

Check it out, but on our trip to Europe last year, Capital One did not charge us any fees for using their ATM card in foreign countries.

[Grannycb]

I called Capital One this morning. The fees involved with using their card at an ATM are 8.9% and a transaction fee of 3% or $10. Maybe there was a change since last year?

[alidor]

giantfan13 - about that Fidelity card... If the question is dumb, please forgive, but even with all the travel, we do not have an ATM card but are thinking of getting one. I called Fidelity this morning (we have accounts) and asked about this and they said you would be paying a transaction fee at various parts of the world and they can't say what that transaction fee would be. Is this what you are getting? The exchange fee is 1% but there is no way of knowing what the transaction fee may be. My eyes tend to glaze over when I start talking about this stuff, so I'm hoping someone can give me a simple answer to this. Thank you!

[Leejnd4]

I called Capital One this morning. The fees involved with using their card at an ATM are 8.9% and a transaction fee of 3% or $10. Maybe there was a change since last year?

 

You are correct - Capitol One charges for use of their ATM card. What they are good for is their credit card - NO foreign exchange charges! :)

 

giantfan13 - about that Fidelity card... If the question is dumb, please forgive, but even with all the travel, we do not have an ATM card but are thinking of getting one. I called Fidelity this morning (we have accounts) and asked about this and they said you would be paying a transaction fee at various parts of the world and they can't say what that transaction fee would be. Is this what you are getting? The exchange fee is 1% but there is no way of knowing what the transaction fee may be. My eyes tend to glaze over when I start talking about this stuff, so I'm hoping someone can give me a simple answer to this. Thank you!

 

I suspect what they might be talking about is the fees that the foreign ATM will charge. That's something that we can't predict - but it's a good point that you have to watch out for the fees charged by the ATM's bank, in addition to any fees charged by your own bank.

[Grannycb]

Here's a different question related to this topic:

I can see the need for ATMs for those who are doing their own shore excursions. For those of us who have chosen to use cruise line or private shore excursions, how great is the need for currency of each country?

 

The shore excursion will have been billed through the ship or paid in advance (in most cases), food is either included or the time away is short enough not to need food. Don't most shops take credit cards? We aren't ones for buying items in each port. We are more about living the experience and remembering it through our photos. In this event, could we manage well without exchanging currencY?

[alidor]

If you have accounts with Fidelity, do check it out. We called them back and talked to our account advisor people and they said if you use your Fidelity ATM card at a Pulse or Star ATM location (affiliated with Visa), there is no transaction fee and just the one percent currency fee. You CAN use other ATM locations in some instances and also NOT get charged a transaction fee.

 

All this is SOOOO confusing.

[Leejnd4]

Here's a different question related to this topic:

I can see the need for ATMs for those who are doing their own shore excursions. For those of us who have chosen to use cruise line or private shore excursions, how great is the need for currency of each country?

 

The shore excursion will have been billed through the ship or paid in advance (in most cases), food is either included or the time away is short enough not to need food. Don't most shops take credit cards? We aren't ones for buying items in each port. We are more about living the experience and remembering it through our photos. In this event, could we manage well without exchanging currencY?

 

In your case, it's probably not all that important to have local currency. If you don't plan on doing any shopping, you won't need any at all. But if you want to shop, you just can't count on every shop taking credit cards...especially if you do like an outdoor market or something like that.

 

But if you're only doing ship tours and don't plan on shopping, other than at stores that will most likely take credit cards, you should be fine without local currency. :)

[WeBeGone]

We finished a Baltic cruise and never changed money. We used US dollars and our credit card everywhere. Even the shops in the market took dollars and credit cards.

[jkw3tx]

Not that it isn't a big deal to us but at least our card gives us a rebate on our mortgage so in the end it all adds up. I quess I would rather pay the charges then carry several thousand dollars in cash and still have to convert it into whatever local currency I need.

JKW

[NAJNLA]

Originally Posted by Grannycb

I called Capital One this morning. The fees involved with using their card at an ATM are 8.9% and a transaction fee of 3% or $10. Maybe there was a change since last year?

 

 

You are correct - Capitol One charges for use of their ATM card.

 

 

 

 

 

There is some misinformation out there. I just called Capital One and they confirmed that they still DO NOT have any fees associated with the use of their ATM cards in a foreign country.....which is the same as what we experienced last year.:) Cap One said that the only charge might be what the owners of the particular ATM machine might charge for a transaction.

 

I'm guessing that Grannycb may be talking about using a Cap One CREDIT CARD (not an ATM card) to get a cash advance from an ATM machine?

[Grannycb]

I specifically asked about the ATM card when I called. As you say, there is some misinformation somewhere. Could be the person I spoke with didn't know the answer to my question. He said there was only cash advance, no ATM card. Go figure!

 

Is your ATM card associated with a specific bank?

[Grannycb]

Okay, I did find on the Capital One site where you could get an ATM card if you had a High Yield or Rewards Money Market account with them. No ATM card with standard savings. I'm still looking for rates.

[NAJNLA]

I specifically asked about the ATM card when I called. As you say, there is some misinformation somewhere. Could be the person I spoke with didn't know the answer to my question. He said there was only cash advance, no ATM card. Go figure!?

 

You must have been talking to the credit card department instead of the online banking department. Cash advance is terminology used when a credit card is used in an ATM machine.

 

 

Is your ATM card associated with a specific bank?

 

Yes, it has to be a Capital One ATM card to get the fee free transactions.

[NAJNLA]

Okay, I did find on the Capital One site where you could get an ATM card if you had a High Yield or Rewards Money Market account with them. No ATM card with standard savings.

 

Correct......simply deposit some money in one of Cap One's Money Market accounts, and ask for a no fee ATM card for access to your money.:)

[MercedMike]

I spent the good part of yesterday calling my banks, trying to find out which of them charges the least to withdraw money from an ATM.... I'm sure many will just say, no big deal, and pay what needs to be paid in order for peace of mind or ease of doing things, but if you plan on spending some of your hard earned money on your trip, why not TRY and save some of it instead of giving it to the banks and CC companies, when there are other ways to do things.

 

UMMM, yep, I am one of those people who would say I do not worry about 3% on currency exchange when I have spent many thousands on the trip. And I certainly would never spend a day of my time poking around over a few percentage points. And I positively would not raise my blood pressure pressing keys on those 800 numbers! I am going on a cruise to relax. It is much more relaxing to me to play like I am rich instead of spending time pinching pennies.

 

Diff'rent strokes for diff'rent folks.

[Giantfan13]

For anyone who has used ATM's while overseas, do most of the ATM's charge a fee for their use, as they all do right here in the USA?

[orchid72]

After some research, we decided to carry small amounts of local currency for incidentals and charged the rest on Visa.

 

Our reasoning was this: We hate having to pay for ATM fees, cash advance fees, and trying to figure out which credit cards charged the best exchange rate (even if you had to pay a bit more the difference works out be be minimal especially if you are not planning on charging a lot - as in thousands of dollars - on your credit card). We also did not want to even try to find an ATM at any of the ports because it will eat into our sightseeing time. Therefore, we decided to just buy some currencies from a local currency exchange here in Vancouver for the following amounts:

$50 worth for each of Denmark and Sweden

$30 worth each for Russia, Finland, Estonia, and Germany

 

The rates that we got were great (better than the banks - even with staff discount), and we did not have to pay any fees. For any Vancouverites out there, this is where we got the currencies: http://www.vbce.ca/

 

The amounts were so small, it did not even bother us leaving the cash in our London hotel room pre-cruise while we went out for the day (of course, they were well-hidden).

 

It worked really well for just paying for incidentals, and for buying small things from merchants that did not take credit cards. We hardly even had any left-over cash (I had some left over Roubles, but just gave them to our guide as extra tip). Note though, that we are not big spenders.

 

Also, just to be on the safe side, try to bring a credit card that uses the chip/PIN technology --- some merchants will not take credit cards that does not use the chip/PIN.

[cruisemom42]

After some research, we decided to carry small amounts of local currency for incidentals and charged the rest on Visa.

 

Our reasoning was this: We hate having to pay for ATM fees, cash advance fees, and trying to figure out which credit cards charged the best exchange rate (even if you had to pay a bit more the difference works out be be minimal especially if you are not planning on charging a lot - as in thousands of dollars - on your credit card). We also did not want to even try to find an ATM at any of the ports because it will eat into our sightseeing time. Therefore, we decided to just buy some currencies from a local currency exchange here in Vancouver for the following amounts:

$50 worth for each of Denmark and Sweden

$30 worth each for Russia, Finland, Estonia, and Germany

 

The rates that we got were great (better than the banks - even with staff discount), and we did not have to pay any fees. For any Vancouverites out there, this is where we got the currencies: http://www.vbce.ca/

 

The amounts were so small, it did not even bother us leaving the cash in our London hotel room pre-cruise while we went out for the day (of course, they were well-hidden).

 

It worked really well for just paying for incidentals, and for buying small things from merchants that did not take credit cards. We hardly even had any left-over cash (I had some left over Roubles, but just gave them to our guide as extra tip). Note though, that we are not big spenders.

 

Also, just to be on the safe side, try to bring a credit card that uses the chip/PIN technology --- some merchants will not take credit cards that does not use the chip/PIN.

 

The problem seems to be that in the US we do not have any of these currency exchanges that will give you a reasonable exchange rate. I wish we did. Until then, I still find that using ATMs for cash and my Cap One credit card has yielded me the best rate of exchange when traveling abroad.

[Giantfan13]

I called Cap One after we got our card, about the one spoken of here, with the 'chip' in it. They told me that, that card was only for preferred accounts or something like that. Has anyone gotten this type of card from Capital One??

[defaultet]

Hello,

I've read and reread everything everyone's said about ATMs, TravelEx, getting currenty on the ship, using CCs, etc. Here is what I am planning to do. FYI, this is for 12-day Baltic with a day or so extra in Copenhagen at the beginning, and 3-4 days afterward in Netherlands/Belgium.

 

So the plan is to go to Wells Fargo (my bank) and get the following U.S. dollar amounts in local currency:

 

300 in Euros (this will cover Helsinki and Warnemunde, maybe Talinn if we don't get local currency there). If it's not used on the cruise will definitely be spent in Netherlands/Belgium.

200 in Danish Kroner to cover pre cruise stay, inc. taxis, Tivoli, etc. Any leftovers use in Aarhus later in cruise.

50-75 in Swedish Kroner

50-75 in Norwegian Kroner

No Russian Ruble. We have the DenRus value tour booked. Well ask the guide to see if I can exchange some dollars to get some change to keep as a souvenir.

Also, $500 or so in U.S. dollars.

 

If I spend my allotment of any of the above, I will just use a CC for anything else (or Euros or American cash)

 

From what I've seen it seems to be difficult to get Estonian Kroner in advance. If I get any I will probably wait until I get to port, or maybe just try to use Euros for everything. So, that's my plan. I don't want to go to ATMs in every country, that seems like a real pain, also seems more likely to get robbed or something as well. Plus, isn't everyone else on the ship going to be trying to use the exact same ATM machines? Don't want to use American dollars or Euros everywhere, either. That's not as much fun, plus you probably get bad exchange rates anyway. Don't want to use CCs everywhere, as you lose track of spending that way, and your CC info is more likely to be compromised.

 

So, I know you lose some money when you get currency from your bank, but you also lose when you use your CC or when you use ATMs. I don't think it makes sense to get a new CC just to save a few bucks on a cruise that is already very expensive. The only real drawback I can see is that if I got robbed or something that would be a big loss of cash. However, most of the time the cash will be locked in our room safe, so I'm not too concerned.

[Giantfan13]

Did Wells Fargo charge for the money exchange and what type of exchange rate did they give you??