I’d be curious to hear about these ATMs, as well. I don’t ever recall seeing one in the states, but I haven’t tried pulling currency from an airport ATM in the States. It’s, of course, perfectly sensible to get the target currency of the countries your visiting and carry it around. The comment about pickpockets is odd: that would presume never carrying any kind of cash while abroad which is absurd in most countries (maybe not so much near-cashless countries like in parts of Scandinavia, from what I hear, but it’s still prudent to carry some cash just in case. I’ve lived six and some years abroad and travelled to about 30 countries and never had an issue with pickpockets, either. They are an issue in places, for sure, but not as much as some people seem to think.) I personally have just been getting cash at my destination airport for the past few years and/or carrying a couple hundred bucks in American currency just in case (I’ve never had an emergency that I could think of, but in case my ATM card didn’t work or something, I could change some money at the airport currency exchanges, which generally give a suboptimal rate, but enough to get me by.) I personally have never bought foreign currency in advance, but it’s a perfectly sane idea.
Well, I guess “few years” has now turned into about twenty years somehow. Before that, I actually do remember buying American Express Travelers cheques and – I was wrong about saying I never bought currency in advance; I do remember exactly one time now – back in 1996 before I moved to England for a work exchange program, I bound some pounds at some place downtown whose name escapes me now, but it had a very English sounding name to it. Thomas Cook, was that it? Sounds about right. I remember the commission being a bit on the high side but I just wanted a few quid on hand in case of emergency. This was before I knew about airport ATMs (or perhaps international ATM currency transactions weren’t quite popular then; I don’t remember)
Pick pockets are, as you noted a problem. But experienced travelers like us are prepared for it.
The comment from t-bonham@scc.net reminds me of all the alarmists who claimed I was going to get murdered traveling to Rio. Been there a couple times and never had a problem. Love the place. Last time was in 2015, Exchange rate was almost 5 Reals to 1 US$. Felt like a billionaire. 4 of us would go into a 5 star restaurant and each have appetizers, steaks, dessert, 3-4 cocktails each and the total bill would be $35 U.S…:eek: It was like Monopoly money.
Off the top of my head my country count is at 26 I believe. Been to Spain before but not Barcelona. So that’ll be a new experience even if the country isn’t.
Yeah, it’s really interesting when you come across one of those countries where your relative global wealth as an American is so obvious. My first experiences with that was visiting Poland as a kid in the 80s, pre-fall of Communism, where the black market was thriving and exchange rates were around 5x or more of official bank exchange rates. (I seem to remember a thousand zloty to the dollar, with banks at around 200). It was pretty much along the lines of what you said, maybe even more extreme. With the official rate, you were still doing pretty good relative to prices in America, but with the black market rate it was nuts.
I saw a multi-currency ATM a few weeks ago at the airport in Amsterdam. Otherwise they are very rare. I’ve certainly never seen one in the US.
Airport ATMs that offer multiple currencies (very common in the UK) are usually operated by the currency exchange companies you find in the airports and as such offer a very poor rate of exchange. Only for use in emergencies.
I vacation yearly overseas and always have a wad (at least the equivalent of $700) with me. I get the money before I leave the states. No, I’m not stupid enough to carry all with me. I portion out what I think I need for the day and hide the rest in my accomodations.