Our teenage son is going to France and Switzerland as part of a band trip (1 week in each country). We were wondering how much european cash he should bring.
He’ll have money in has bank account to use his bank/credit card. I figure he can use that for most purchases where credit card purchases are available.
Also, I was going to get him 50 Euros and 50 Swiss Francs for 1 week each to cover stuff where you can’t use a credit card.
Do you think that’s enough European cash? I heard American dollars aren’t much help there.
That sounds incredibly low to me. The Euro is worth about 25% more than the American dollar. That isn’t the real problem though, both France and Switzerland are very expensive and general and can eat cash just by walking around. He will need much more raw cash than that. I would want at least $200 a week if it was me as a teenager and more now.
However, you hint that he has an ATM card. You can use those in Europe just fine to get cash although he may want to make a note of his PIN if it is memorized in letters. Their machines only have PIN pads in numbers.
It depends on what you mean by “stuff”. If it’s just day to day cans of coke and a candy bar, it should be enough. If he’s expected to come up with cash for a trip to a cuckoo clock factory or chocolate mine (or whatever teens do in Switzerland for a good time) , then he might need more.
Of course, getting more cash is easy as Switzerland has plenty of ATMs attached to their many secret banks.
There are too many times when he will need the cash and they will come quickly – on the plane and in the airport. Start him off with 200 Euros and allow for 100 Euros a day if he will be in Paris. You can always demand a strict accounting if you have a tight budget. But there is nothing worse than being in Paris and having empty pockets.
VISA seemed to be the mostly widely accepted credit card.
BTW, tell him not to expect change back from a tip.
MAC card & a budget. I still remember the ‘Happy Meal’ at a mall near Lake Geneva which I priced to be $16 US, not super-sized, 2 summers back. Make sure he has a way to call/email you and make sure you always have a physical address that you can Fed-Ex to*.
(Yes, I KNOW you can buy everything in Europe that you can buy in the US, but I also remember trying to ‘pad the budget’ as a teen by asking for money for things from my parents that I didn’t necessarily need. Saying “Oh, I ripped my backpack; I need $100US to replace it…” will happen considerably less if he knows all it will get him is his normal weekly allowance & a Fed-Ex from LLBean.)
This might seem old-fashioned, but another way to give him money is by traveller’s checks - he can exchange for foreign currency as needed.
Seconded to say that with $50 per day in Switzerland he will not go far, if he is paying for meals in cash. Is he planning on buying gifts for friends? If he were paying for one meal a day for seven days (and the meal is dinner), I would count at least US$140. Add to that drinks during the day, gifts for friends, chocolate etc. In small village stores there is a good chance they might not take credit cards. In Switzerland many people pay cash.
That actually sounds about right…assuming the credit card has more.
Plus, as others have mentioned, he can go to almost every bank and take out money if he has the four digit pin code. A nice feature of that is that most banks wait until the end of the month and give you the best rate of exchange for that month.
For example, say the dollar sucked at the first of the month, but went up a few cents at end of the month…they would charge you only the cheaper rate. - good for you.
The bad news is that 50 Euros (better) or 50 Swiss Francs (not so great) has the buying power of about $30, tops, in NYC - for a week!!!..in other words, worth diddle, depending on which city he is in. Great in a small village, but sucks in Zurich or any other major city.
Why give him the money? It’s best if he uses the ATM to get the money, he’ll get better rates. The best rate is obtained by paying with the card when possible, though (many banks will charge a fee for using an out-of-network ATM, but not for paying; this also means that it’s better to attack the ATM for 300 once than for 30 in 10 installments). Make sure that the card will be usable in Europe; a Visa works best. The PIN should be 4 figures. There’s ATM’s in the airport but bringing 100€ or 150$ on hand is also a Good Idea.
People Back Home go :eek: when Mom tells them I’m living in France because it’s the cheapest option here in the three-countries area. France is very expensive - Switzerland is worse.
According to the Big Mac Index of purchasing power, the Swiss Franc is 57% overvalued relative to the US dollar :eek: (don’t even think about going to Norway or Iceland). The Euro and British pound are about 20% overvalued.