I can agree that US banks charge very high rates for converting dollars to Euros. Last year, with the dollar falling against the Euro I decided to lock in some Euros at the current exchange rate, months before leaving on my trip. The bank's charges were so high (shame on me for not checking beforehand) that I would have been better off using the ATM in Italy.

And the ATM's can only be used for withdrawing money from checking accounts. I found that out the hard way. Fortunately, one call to our credit union was enough to transfer cash from our savings account to our checking account.

Paul Seattle