Obtaining currency on board

[Keith1010]

Dougburns, we use Wells Fargo (via Internet, credit card) and do not have a WF account.

 

If you are getting cash using your credit card I believe you pay an additional fee for that.

 

Keith

[dougburns]

It's very complicated and a lot depends on the cards you have. With ours we use the credit card for everything except cash for which we use the debit card. Different charges. Don't know about the banks elsewhere, but here in AZ they all require you to have an account before you can exchange currency.

[farbster]

We did not use much cash on our trip this summer. Iceland was very friendly to credit cards, as was Edinburgh, Dublin, Belfast etc. We didn't take any cabs and did mostly the ship's tours. I even bought my hotdog and soda in Reykjavik using credit card.

 

Look to see where you are going. If it is somewhere that you're likely to haggle with someone and buy six tchotchkes, you can't expect to pay by credit card. Bring some case. However, if you're going into a regular store, just use credit card.

 

I think you must really judge your spending habits and what there is to do with cash before getting all worried about local currency. In any event, I'm sure most banks can help you at home if you have an account.

[gusent]

To piggy back onto this discussion - we are leaving for a black sea cruise on the Spirit in two weeks. We had planned on using our credit card for most purchases but thought we would need some local currency for some purchases. I was surprised to hear that Silversea does not exchange money on the ship. We have used ATMs to retrieve money in other countries but were not sure if the ports in Romania (Constanta) and Bulgaria (Nessebur) would have ATM's easily accessible. Also we were hoping to change back any left over currency on the ship as we will not likely be needing them after our cruise. Has anyone been on this cruise and if so how did you handle your currency in those ports.

thanks in advance.