ATMs recognize foreign cards and typically offer higher increments, often starting as high as €200, perhaps for your convenience, but also because fees they earn tend to be percentage-based. While you’re asking about your bank’s international partnerships, tell it about your dates of travel, too, “so a transaction isn’t flagged as potentially fraudulent,” says the ABA’s Edrington.ĭon’t settle for the high default cash amounts suggested by the machine, either.

Those include Charles Schwab Bank, Fidelity’s Cash Management account, and LendingClub, but there are others.

branches-simply waive or refund transaction fees, no matter which ATM you choose, even if there’s a fee charged by the ATM’s owner and instead of by a bank. Large banks that operate globally are more likely to extend no-fee courtesies to account holders worldwide than small regional banks are. to BNL D’Italia in Italy to Scotiabank throughout Canada and the Caribbean. Bank of America partners internationally in the Global ATM Alliance, which includes roughly 50,000 fee-free machines at various local banks, from Barclays in the U.K. For example, Citibank allows customers fee-free use of its ATMs in 20 countries. Your best chance to get money at a great exchange rate, with no extra fees, is to draw cash from your account through an ATM operated by your own bank or its partners. “Once you’re abroad, you’ll get a much more favorable rate using your bank’s ATM rather than at an airport exchange kiosk,” says Jim Edrington, chief member engagement officer of the American Bankers Association. There are lots of options for converting your money to a foreign currency, but the easiest and most economical one is probably already in your wallet. Here are the best ways to get advantageous exchange rates, listed from best to worst, according to established personal finance experts from the banking, government, and consumer worlds.

Over the course of a week of spending, especially if you purchase clothes or an elegant restaurant meal, those differences can add up to hundreds of dollars. On a day when currency markets suggest $100 should buy you €93, a currency exchange desk might hand you just €81, while a more modern method would net you a rate closer to €92, assuming you can avoid other fees. How much is at stake? Take dollars to euros. Whether it’s using an ATM affiliated with your home bank, or simply swiping your credit card, new methods offer better convenience and lower fees. Finding the best way to change money is an age-old problem for travelers, but the smartest methods for doing it have evolved dramatically in recent years.Ĭurrency exchange used to be as simple as dropping by a money-changing kiosk in a train station or a tourism hub upon your arrival in a new country, but new digital tools have made those old methods inefficient and pitfall-prone by comparison.

Foreign currency comparison