Rick Steves Warns Travelers To Avoid These ATMs When Traveling In Europe

A European tour may be at the top of your travel wish list, but being played by a confusing (or outright dastardly) ATM surely isn't. Getting charged exorbitant fees, making costly miscalculations about time zones and currency exchange rates, or using a machine that could eat your card and your travel budget are just a few major money mistakes you can make while traveling and using an ill-chosen automated teller machine. So it's a good thing European ATM shenanigans aren't on the itinerary for Rick Steves, either.

Steves has been traveling Europe for over 50 years, and has made quite the career out of it. The Rick Steves' Europe tour guide, book author, public television super-celebrity, and travel-educator extraordinaire has built a multimedia tour empire out of his European travel advice ever since his first $3-a-day trip across the continent back in the 1970s.

His cheery personality, encyclopedic travel knowledge, and ubiquitous travel advice is loved, hated, and revered. The man has even inspired his travel-loving fanbase to name themselves "Ricknicks." All to say, Rick Steves knows a thing or two about European ATMS, and he wants fellow travelers to know, too, that they should avoid independent ATMs.

Rick Steves highly recommends European travelers stick to bank-run ATMs they can trust whenever possible, and to avoid independent ATMs. On his website, Steves urges avoiding ATMs not affiliated with banks, including Travelex, Cardpoint, Cashzone, Your Cash, and Eurozone. According to Steves, "These have high fees, can be less secure, and may trick users with 'dynamic currency conversion.'"

Dynamic currency conversion, or DCC, is an optional method of seeing what a foreign transaction costs in home (or U.S.) currency, in real time. While this seems like a great idea, it can be a pricey one, in favor of the ATM provider. Many angry travelers have decried "independent" ATMs like those run by Eurozone as scammy; however, Steves doesn't make that claim outright. He doesn't necessarily fear the legitimacy of these listed ATMs, but he does warn travelers to avoid the ripoff factory their "free cash withdrawal" signs may contain.

Higher markups, fees, and unfavorable exchange rates often come with using a free-standing, nonbank ATM. Note that home banks for U.S. cardholders will also often charge a fee for each transaction at a foreign ATM, which can make one transaction cost far more than travelers even brace themselves for at the time of withdrawal. Sometimes travelers don't have much choice but to pay for the privilege of using an independent ATM, so it's helpful to avoid them when options are available.

Rick Steves doesn't want travelers to pay unfavorable exchange rates at their home airport before they depart. In fact, home isn't always the best place to exchange currency. Instead, Steves wants U.S. cardholders to avoid ATM-induced panic by keeping with the "times;" that is, remembering their home bank's time zone when traveling.

Many banks have daily withdrawal limits, and American banks start their clocks on U.S. time. This can be tricky to navigate while living it up in Europe, and Steves notes that this time difference can cause panic in three ways. One, ATM users won't consider currency exchange rates, and, consequently, will get the dreaded "insufficient funds" message because, accounting for that rate, they're trying to withdraw more than they're allowed to in a single-day period. Two, U.S. travelers in Europe won't always consider what the time is at home when they're trying to withdraw.

The third way time can trip up travelers is simple: European ATMs often have their own daily maximum withdrawal amount, and it isn't always what U.S. travelers are looking for. Steves has a tip to avoid this, sharing on his website, "If the ATM won't let you withdraw your daily maximum, try several smaller withdrawals to get the total amount you want." Enjoy this pro advice from one pro traveler to another, and remember what Steves has to say about Europe: Even if credit cards are accepted everywhere, "cash is still king."