Originally Posted by
mkilmo
Well, the answer is so complex that there is no way to start.
A. what credit cards do you have?
B. what is the exchange rate they give? institutional? official? commissions?
The only people who can answer you these questions are your bank card issuers.
You also should check with them what are the charges associated with just swiping your card.
On the other hand, exchanging bank notes into Israel Shekels at the airport is among the worst things you can do. It's better to buy train tickets in the automatic machines (in case you need to go to Tel Aviv/Haifa) which speak sufficient English.
You can exchange USD into NIS (and for that matter EUR notes into NIS) in many places in the big cities, with relatively good rates. As usual - check before hand the rates and charges.
Thanks - I definitely understand the need to contact my own card companies. I'm gathering from friends and family that the cards I carry have already essentially 'crossed over' to having unappealing transaction fees and such.
Rather, I was hoping that perhaps there's a card or cards out there that somebody has identified, that DO have good terms, and to which perhaps we might want to switch before our next trip.