What is the smartest way to take money into France?

Question

travelers checks?

credit cards? (do american credit cards work abroad? how do i find out?)

how much CASH should i plan to take in euros? (knowing that a taxi from the airport will be about 50euros)

what is the "safest way"? THANKS LOTS!

Answer 1

I always take a debit card with the visa logo. It will give you cash in their currency. If it is lost you can call the bank and fix it with out much worry.

Answer 2

There's a lot of argument about this because there are several factors involved, convenience, safety, exchange rates, and the various fees, commissions and charges that everyone in the process might levy.

Your credit cards will usually  get you the best exchange rates from dollar to the Euro. But, beware, they also often (but not always) have fees for all foreign exchange transactions which can be either flat fees or percentages of each transactions. You have to find out what your credit card issuer's policies are.

Traveler's cheques are simply not accepted by many businesses and the exchange rate given by a business at which you use them can be very bad. If you buy them in Euros the exchange rate given by the Traveler's checque company can also be very bad.

However, when you change dollar denominated TC's for cash Euros in France you'll usually get a better rate than you would if you changed cash dollars.

And, of course, the TC issuing company may charge you a fee to get the TC's.

Anyway, what I do is this.

I have both an Amex gold card and a Capital One Visa card. The Capital One visa has the lowest fees for foreign exchange transactions and is accepted by lots places in Paris. I use it to pay my hotel bill and most other expenses that are more than $100 dollars or so.

I take American Express TC's that I get thru  Bank America for "walking around money." and exchange them at the Amex office in Paris. I'm a Bank America preferred customer so I pay no fees to buy TC's and since I have an Amex card I pay no fees to cash them in for Euros at the Amex office in Paris.

I take a couple of hundred Euros in cash with me to get to my hotel and take care of my first day's expenses without having to bother with changing money.