American Express Membership Rewards - Best way to get cash...

A recent question crossed my mind recently... I was wondering which is the best and cheapest way to get cash:
- Withdraw money at an ATM with an Amex/VISA card
- Use an amex foreign exchange office

I've called amex a few times in order to know what was the fee, commission, and best exchange rate for the various options but they were unable to give me a clear answer...

A recent question crossed my mind recently... I was wondering which is the best and cheapest way to get cash:
- Withdraw money at an ATM with an Amex/VISA card
- Use an amex foreign exchange office

I've called amex a few times in order to know what was the fee, commission, and best exchange rate for the various options but they were unable to give me a clear answer...

I'm not sure what it is in France, however in the UK it's £3 or 3% (whichever is higher) of the money you withdraw from an ATM with Amex. I assume that it would be roughly the same...

Chris

It depends where you travel. You are based in France so :

- within the European Union, you should use your french Visa card since withdrawals are free of charge for you.

- outside of the EU, you could use your french Amex (the withdrawal fee is only 2% for french Amex cards, compared to 4% for german Amex for instance). But usually Visa/MC withdrawals are cheaper.

I forgot to mention my question was related to cash withdrawal abroad (outside of France or E.U. in my case)

I withdrew money two weeks ago in GRU at an american express bureau. They didn't charge any fee at all and applied a 1% better exchange rate to the transaction (Euro to reals was 2.63 and they used 2.66). This was supposedly because I used my Centurion card. Had I used my VISA card in one of the few ATMs that accept foreign VISA cards in Brazil, I wonder if I had gotten a better deal.
Next time, I'll try to withdraw exactly the same amount from an ATM and from an Amex Exchange bureau to check which one is best.

Thanks again for the info.