What's the Best Way to Get Euros For Travel in 2023?

The Euro (€) is the official currency of some of the world's most popular holiday destinations, and is used in France, Spain, Italy, Germany, and 15 other countries across the length and breadth of the Eurozone. If you're planning a trip to any of these places, having Euro cash in your wallet can be a convenient way to spend money on your holiday and fill those gaps where your card isn't supported.

However, many traditional methods to buy Euros tend to be very pricey, often costing as much as 10% of the transaction value in hidden exchange rate fees.

In this guide, we break down the two best currency exchange rates to get Euros: buying foreign banknotes or withdrawing them from an ATM with a travel debit card like the Wise Multi-Currency Account or Revolut.

Use a Multi-Currency Travel Card

Fintechs and challenger banks typically offer the most competitive offerings in this category. These travel card have many benefits for those looking to withdraw Euros cheaply, including:

• Lower or no account maintenance fees;
• Lower or no foreign ATM withdrawal fees;
• Lower or no fees on foreign payments and online transactions;
• Some even include fully-fledged multicurrency account features.

Where Can I Exchange Currency For Euros?

The Wise Multi-Currency Account and Revolut are two of the best multi-currency platforms in the world for exchanging foreign currency and buying euros cheaply. The exchange is done entirely online, and when the euros are loaded onto your account, you can spend like a local in the Eurozone with your physical or virtual debit card:

Revolut

Revolut is our top choice for travel money because it charges zero fees for first £1,000 per month that you exchange. The platform works entirely by desktop or smartphone, and they send you a debit card to access your travel money. After the fair usage limit, Revolut charges 1% of the total for Standard plan customers. If you upgrade to their Premium, Metal, or Ultra plans, then you the fair usage limit will be completely lifted.

You can use Revolut's debit card to use at ATMs for local cash. As a Standard customer, you'd get £200 month of fee-free withdrawals.

Learn more: Read our in-depth Revolut review or visit their website.

Wise Account

The power of the Wise multi-currency account comes from never charging hidden exchange rate margin fees. No matter which foreign currency you want, Wise will always apply the real mid-market exchange rate to your conversions. Instead, it charges a transparent service fee that ranges from 0.3% to around 2% depending on the currency.

For holiday cash, you can use the Wise debit card for 2 free ATM withdrawals for a total of £200 per month.

Learn more: Read our in-depth Wise review or visit their website.

Withdrawing Euros at European ATMs

The other major way to get Euros is to withdraw them directly from a foreign ATM once you've arrived in Europe.

To withdraw Euros at a European ATM, you'll either need to use your everyday bank debit card (which can come with some hidden costs), or a multi-currency travel card (which can save you a lot over the long run).

Using Your Credit or Debit Card

When you use a card issued by Visa, for example, Visa will covert the money in your home bank account into the local currency of your holiday destination.

The Visa and Mastercard currency conversion rates are very low (around 0.2%-0.5%), making debit and credit cards a viable option. You can track the Visa exchange rate here and the MasterCard exchange rate here. Just make sure to find cards that charge no international transaction fees. These fees, also called "foreign transaction fees", are a much higher percentage and add up very quickly.

Buying Euro Banknotes

When travelling to a country in the Eurozone, it can be handy to have a stack of Euro banknotes at the ready for convenient cash spending from the get-go. As a result, buying Euros before or during a trip to Europe is a popular way to spend abroad ⁠— albeit a very expensive one.

As we'll explore shortly, visitors to Europe can buy Euros from different places — namely from the bank or from a bureau de change. However, this option tends to come at a steep cost that's sometimes higher than 10.00% of the value of the amount you're converting.

Let's explore a bit more how this works:

Buying Euros From Your Bank

One of the main ways to get Euros before a trip to Europe is to buy the banknotes directly from your bank in your home country. These services come at different costs depending on 1) whether or not you're an accountholder with the bank in question and 2) whether you choose to have the cash delivered to your home or collect it in person at a branch. Either way, the costs are quite steep, typically exceeding 5.00% and sometimes even going upwards of 10.00% of the total transaction value.

To get a better picture of how this works, take a look at the cost of buying Euros (with hidden exchange rate margins included) at several major US, UK, and Australian banks:

Buying Euros From European Banks

Alternatively, you can buy Euros from European banks after having already arrived. Most European banks with branches in and around city centers have foreign exchange services geared toward tourists and support currency conversion into the Euro from most major foreign currencies, including the US dollar, British pound, and Canadian dollar.

However, just as with your local bank, buying Euros from European banks will also cost you ⁠— albeit possibly slightly less than with a US counterpart, for example. If you choose to buy Euros in Europe from a local bank, you can expect to pay fees in the region of 3.00% to 9.00% of the transaction value.

Banks That Exchange Foreign Currency For Free

There are no banks that exchange foreign currency for free. Be careful when confronted with banks or bureaux advertising "no fee" exchanges, as this often means that they are incorporating hidden exchange rate margins into their services. While these options may serve as a last resort during emergencies at airports, they are ill-advised to exchange foreign currency for euros.

We always recommend that you get cash at an ATM in Europe with a multi-currency account card like the Wise Multi-Currency Account or Revolut. The fees are a fraction of the size and their online interface is user-friendly.

Buying Euros From Bureaux de Change

Another place to buy Euros is at bureaux de change, specialised currency exchange offices geared toward tourists. They are commonly found in airports, central locations in many European cities, and practically anywhere that's frequented by tourists.

While bureaux de change may appear to be a quick, convenient, and accessible way to buy Euros (they exchange dozens of currencies ⁠— usually even more than banks), they also happen to be the most expensive way of all to get the job done. This is because of the following two types of fees that are usually associated with buying foreign currency:

• Transaction fee: A fixed fee or variable commission that's sometimes charged on every Euro conversion you make.
• Exchange rate margin: A margin that forms the difference between the bid price of the foreign currency as obtained by the bureau de change and the ask price you'll be paying. This tends to form the highest cost of exchanging currency.

According to Monito's research, the total cost of ordering foreign banknotes combined tends to range from 2.15% to a whopping 16.60% of the total amount converted, depending on where you exchange cash and how much you exchange in the first place.