I am a cash sort of guy, and the developed world is turning against it.
I fly to Copenhagen for a few days in May. USAA Savings bank has very high security on their credit cards and I fear it may be shut down. I always bring a lot of US currency on trips. Do many places in Denmark take cash? Where is a good place to change US dollars? I know the airport is never a good place for money exchange. In some countries the banks do not even change currencies anymore.
You can get a debit card that reimburses ATM fees worldwide and has no foreign transaction fee and just use it normally to withdraw money in the local currency wherever you go.
Schwab checking has worked like this for a long time (I got it for studying abroad in 2007) and nowadays so does Fidelity cash management (which my wife and I use as our primary checking-like account to get decent money market yield).
Thanks I never use an ATM here so I threw away my ATM card a long time ago. But I ordered a new one today just so I can get cash abroad. I guess a way to minimize fees is to get a lot of cash each tune to minimize the number of ATM withdrawals?
One thing to remember is that your maximum withdrawal amount resets at midnight where the bank/CU is based, not where you are. Drove us crazy when we were in Japan trying to figure out why sometimes we could make two max withdrawals in a day and sometimes one.
Someone correct me if I’m wrong but I think you want to be using a credit card that doesn’t charge fees for ATM withdrawals and not an ATM card. You don’t want to be charged fees.