John Brock

I am taking a group of friends to Rome in November. Our hotel bill will be about US$ 5,000. How can I get the best rate for $ to Euro payment for the hotel bill? My choices are: wire the money from my bank before we leave;
withdraw $800 in Euros daily for a week using my ATM card there, or simply charging the whole bill on my debit card when we check out. I also have a Chase Visa card, but I don't think I'll get that good a rate! Any advice on how to get the best exchange deal?

MileageAddict

I am moving your post to TravelBuzz as that forum is going to offer more responses for you than here.

MileageAddict
Moderator

tom911

Not sure getting out over $800 daily by ATM is going to work. I've had cards in the past with daily caps, and they were nowhere near $800. What happens if your card gets demagnetized, or isn't honored? I don't think I'd go with this plan.

AMEX has some cards that charge a 2% forex fee and then rebate 2% in cash back, and there are some other cards with a similar structure.

Have you checked this running thread in Miles Buzz? There's a lot of good info there.
Best card for foreign exchange?

mbreuer

One other option - at times it is possible to pre-pay in USD a hotel bill ... hotels.com, travelocity, etc., *sometimes* have this option available. You'd have to compare the USD offering price with the foreign rate and take into account conversion and fees were you to pay at the hotel, and then consider the likely loss of hotel points incurred when paying via a third-party site.

dgwright99

Hang on a minute, this is FT ! Surely you should be looking to maximize the # of miles/points you can get out of the $5k spend

Joking aside, I find that Amex gives me as good or better forex rates than I get at an ATM. I would expect your debit card to give you the same rate for purchase as at an ATM (or is your debit card not the same as your ATM card). IME wiring the money is likely to be the most expensive option of those you mention.

I have occasionally been offered the option to have a bill charged in $US rather than EUR/GBP when in europe; the forex rate offered on each occasion has been outrageous.

graraps

The rate you will get charged for using your credit card will be the VISA rate, which is pretty damn close to interbank.
What you do need to know is whether the card issuer will slap a fee on top of it. This can range from no fee to 3.5%.
Call them and ask.
Do check the pre-paid rates, too. I've gotten some very decent deals through Flight Network (which AFAIK gets inventory from a TUI system). Their default currency is CDN, but they also accept USD.

Tennisbum

Check out the Visa Signature card. The one from my bank adds only a 1% fee. My other Visa/MC cards add about 3%.

Do you know what fees would be associated with a foreign currency withdrawal or charge on your debit card? Or for a wire transfer?

I can w/d up to $1000/day on my debit card, but it generally costs between 2.5 and 3% more than the average official rate for any given day (when all fees are included). The same for a wire transfer from my US bank account to my European one.

You may get better rates from your bank.

lin821

First of all,

1. Wire is the most expensive option (exchange rate, at the mercy of your bank, + double dipped fees: outgoing fee, at least $30 and up, on you and incoming wire fee, at least $10 and up, deducted from the recipient, I doubt the hotel would eat it).

Plus no chance to earn any point or mile, a bad idea for any FTer.

2. Charges on debit cards are different from charges on credit cards, meaning debit card charges are being held like triple the actual amount (or something) for a period of time (not sure how long though). Not only the money is deducted from your checking account once it's clear, but also you have to make sure your available checking account balance will cover the held amount & the charge, which will be "frozen" in your account and you can't withdraw that fund (triple $5K=$15K frozen fund in the checking account that earns pity interest. Not a good idea in my book ).

If your debit card in not a airline/hotel affiliated card, you earn zero mile/point. Also not a preferrable option from any FTer.

3. Daily limit on debit/ATM withdrawals: Most I see are capped daily at $200 (up to $500 maybe?). Not enough to cover your daily $800 hotel bills.

As for ATM/Credit Card/Debit Card comparisons, check out the FT Wiki first, since it may be more current. There are quite a few threads on this topic in different fora as well.

Some sample threads are:

Best ATM Card to Travel? (TravelBuzz! Forum)

E-Trade Bank and International Transactions (Travel Technology Foru,)

AMEX and Transactions Abroad (Amex Forum)

If I were you, I would try my best to earn at least some points/miles from this $5K charge. @:-)

cordelli

I would charge it. I wouldn't put it on a debit card, mainly because my debit card doesn't have that kind of limit on it, no matter what is in my account. I wouldn't do a wire transfer, it's just too expensive, and I wouldn't do the daily widthdrawals, it's too much of a hassle, and the fees for each one will add up.

Of course, you can also just bring the cash in euros over with you, getting it here first.

How it works out best for you depends on the exact charges each card you have adds on.

RooseveltL

Call prior to transaction on credit card as they will flag your acct to investigate. The same would happen if you withdraw from ATM the maxmimum amount consecutive days.

zloneill

The other nice thing about putting it on a credit card is that you have a little bit more leverage if the hotel happens to do something dodgy. Not saying that's a substantial issue, but you can't dispute something paid in cash...

Cha-cha-cha

I think it is a very substantial issue, and I also second the warnings in another posting above about how awkward and expensive it is to prepay a hotel bill or deposit by bank wire.

For these reasons I never have and never will prepay a hotel bill or deposit by bank wire. If I try to make a reservation and they say it's their policy to require a bank wire, I politely tell them that it's my policy to make such payments only by credit card, so forget about it, and I look for another hotel that takes credit cards.