Comments on: Using Debit Cards in Italy

By: Jessica

Jessica — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 00:56:10 +0000

I have spent time in Florence, yes – here’s my main Florence guide. Start here and see what tickles your fancy. There are more Florence articles linked on the right-hand side and within the article itself:

http://www.italylogue.com/florence

By: Suzy

Suzy — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 00:21:33 +0000

Hi Jessica,
I was wondering if you spent any time in Florence? If so we r going in January and wanted to know some good spots that u went to that are off the beaten path. THANKS!!
Suzy

By: khuber

khuber — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 17:22:27 +0000

Great help. I am going to Italy in August/September for 2 weeks. This certainly helps in the money department and relieves me of many worries. THANKS.

By: Jessica

Jessica — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 22:25:52 +0000

Check with your home bank to see if you can buy euro from them before you leave home – where I live we have a few banks that have this service, and if you don’t have an account with them they just charge a small fee to do the transaction. You’ll have better luck with larger banks.

By: Andrea

Andrea — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 18:25:01 +0000

Hi Jessica,

I need to pay 900 Euro cash for my rental apartment when we check in on day 1 of our trip. I’ll be flying staright from US to Italy. Any suggestions how I should get that much cash after we land? Is there a way I can use a local Italian bank for a larger withdrawl? Based on your artical it looks like the ATM limits will be too low even if my husband and I both did a withdrawl.

By: Jessica

Jessica — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 17:48:41 +0000

Do you mean which is better, Visa or MasterCard or AmEx or something? If that’s the question, I think Visa/MC tends to be more widely accepted in Europe than AmEx. If you’re asking about specific debit cards, that’s not my area of expertise.

I’m also not sure what you mean about cell service in Italy – do you mean which Italian company has the best mobile service, or a company from outside Italy? I don’t know enough about Italian mobile providers to compare them for you, and if you’re coming from the US pretty much any cell phone plan will cost quite a bit to use an American phone in Italy.

By: Jane Smith

Jane Smith — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 15:12:16 +0000

My grandson is going to Italy with school in January… I need to know what is the best pre-paid debit card to buy him…. Also… which cell sercice is best in Italy…thanks so much… jane smith

By: Jessica

Jessica — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 17:24:06 +0000

You can choose to do the transaction in English, but you’re still withdrawing the amount in euros.

By: Vanessa

Vanessa — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 19:26:50 +0000

Thanks. This is so helpful. I’m going to Italy this December-January with a tour group. I’m very excited, but a little nervous. My question is:

Do the enter the amount you want to withdrawal in US $ or Euros?

Thanks for your feedback!

By: Jessica

Jessica — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 22:46:27 +0000

Hi, Raul:

It’s been so long since I’ve used traveler’s checks, I’m not even sure what the protocol is nowadays in terms of where you can exchange them. For sure you’ll be able to exchange them at banks in Italy – but there will be a fee for doing this, and you may not get as good an exchange rate as you would from using your debit card in the bank machine. The fees and exchange rates would vary depending on the bank, though, so it’s not something you could really look up beforehand.

As for day trips from Rome, I wrote an article about Rome day trips recently with a long list of options you could choose from:

http://www.italylogue.com/featured-articles/day-trips-from-rome.html

Hope that helps!
Jessica