Do I need Euros for Paris?

[earlydoors42]

Going Tue to Fri next week to Paris. Do I need to take Euros or can I just pay by card or take cash out of cash machines there? One day will be at Disney, is everything payable by card there too?

Thank you! Just saw a queue at the foreign exchange place and wondered!

If you need cash in Paris don’t use a Credit Agricole atm. They charge €5 a transaction now.

It’s years since I’ve taken any actual cash away with me - i bought rupees from Thomas Cook in 2007 for a trip to India. Now if I need it I’ll get it out of a cash machine. The rate is generally much better than at an FX bureau, as I get the interbank rate, though there’s a fee as well. But, on the rare occasion I want cash it’s so little it’s not really worth worrying about. I’ve been away half a dozen times this year, only to Europe, and used Apple pay pretty much everywhere. I’m not brave enough to leave the physical cards behind, which is what I do in the U.K., but it’s almost certainly only a matter of time!

I used to travel a lot pre-pandemic and I agree with this. Things can go wrong, and you can find yourself stuck without cash.

I arrived in Toronto once with no CAD, planning to use my debit card in the airport ATM. Unfortunately, all my cards were Visa, but due to some stupid sponsorship deal, the machines only accepted Mastercard. Fortunately I had £100 in my purse, some of which I was able to change at the bureau. If I didn’t have that cash, I would have been stuck. now, I never leave the country without an empty credit card and at least £100 equivalent in the local currency.

In theory no but we were at the Gare du nord last week and they weren’t accepting cards for metro tickets (system was down) and every ATM in the station was down too so would have been handy to have cash as it turns out.

Similar question: my DS1 is off on his first lads' holiday to a Greek Island next week. They're all only 18 (DS not quite yet). Should he get 50 Euros or so and just take his card and Apple pay?

I wondered about charges for every transaction, so thought I'd just advise him to take 100 Euro or so out of the ATM at time. Trying for a balance of not having too much money on him at any one time (thieves/ losing it) but not swiping for every round of drinks/ individual lunch.

What are the general thoughts?

So can you pay with a visa debit card in Europe or does it have to be a credit card? Will there be charges?

I think it depends on the bank. I have a metro bank debit card which is fee free for cash withdrawal and general card use.
Off to check up on Crédit Agricole charges as for some reason I thought it was Crédit Lyonnais

I just spent 6 weeks in Spain. I got a Post Office Travel card - it comes with an app. You load it with euros and everyone accepts it. You can put money on it online direct from bank so you're not being charged for transactions - just the exchange rate.
Pretty sure it worked out cheaper than using the phone.

Get a starling / Monzo / Revolut account a transfer your spending money into it.

you can use the physical card or Apple / google pay on phone just as you would in the UK with no extra fees. When you get home just transfer anything you didn’t spend back to your main bank.

We're going away next week, it's AI so we don't need much cash but I'll take maybe €60 because I know we'll want to take a taxi a couple of times and you can't guarantee they'll take cards. Otherwise I take a Halifax Clarity card and put everything on there and just pay it off when we're back.

TBH grandparents will give dd euros for holiday money and we'll use that, if she sees something to buy I'll use my card.

I'll take the physical card and leave it in the Hotel safe and use Apple Pay.

We are just back from disney and I took a revolut card and 300 in euros. The ice cream/juice stalls were only taking cash and the transfer from airport wanted cash aswell.

It’s since last October for Credit Agricole in my area anyway(Dordogne).
I used to use Revolut to withdraw cash but I now draw on my CA card and transfer more money in via Revolut.

I was wrong, it is Crédit Agricole charging €5 per withdrawal

Get a monzo card.

Chase and Starling cards are arguably better for foreign use than Monzo. There are no limits on how much cash you can withdraw before they start charging.

I use Revolut when I'm abroad. It's by far the cheapest way to have other currencies

Thank you for all the advice! I have 2 debit cards and 2 credit cards and DD has 2 debit cards. I will check the rates and charges on them all then work out a plan!

I use a prepaid currency card when abroad. It's contactless.

Take some cash to Disney, every now and then there are glitches with their payment method and they move everything to cash. I've seen queues to the cash machines that are longer than some of the rides! Not seen it happen this year yet but last year was a regular recurrence.

Def take some cash. For future look at currency cards they save a fortune in feed and give you better rates. Look at MSE for info.

Ds has just been to Europe travelling & didn't take any Euros with him, he just drew out what he needed from the ATM on his debit card, most places took card payments.

Card but a bit of small change for tips

Get a wise account. It's instant. Pay on your phone and really low exchange rates

Travellers cheques are definitely still around. 🙂