Because I’m flying out tonight on a short, 4-day trip to Europe , I decided to buy one of those new chip-and-PIN Visa credit cards recently created by the Travelex organization . And because I didn’t have the time to order one online , I went on Friday afternoon to one of those Travelex outlets staffed by live human beings on Time Square in New York.
I was treated with full courtesy and competence by the people who manned the Travelex office, who quickly provided me with a card pre-loaded with $500 worth of Euros. I have no complaint against them. But I have a few cautionary words about the Travelex card itself.
To begin with, the pin number which I will need in using the card in Europe is, I learned, created not by the purchaser but by Travelex, and is revealed to you in the cardboard packet carrying each chip-and-pin card. Instead of simply relying on the same pin number which I have established for all my ATM accounts , I have to worry about remembering the arbitrary new number that Travelex has created — because it would be quite a problem if I used the card at a restaurant, say, and then forgot the pin number.
Which means that I will have to write down the pin number successive times on various bits of paper and stash them in my wallet, in my back pocket, in my suitcase, and other receptacles. Why can’t Travelex design a system in which the purchaser creates the pin number for his or her own card?
Second, for the $500 that I pre-loaded into the chip-and-pin card in the form of Euros , I received only 310 Euros — which was highway robbery. I was paying, in effect, $1.61 for a Euro, whose commercial exchange rate is currently $1.42. In other words, I was being charged nearly a 15% fee for the card.
Now I realize that Travelex has expenses and is entitled to a fee. And I assume that fee is no higher than other money-changers receive for exchanging currency. Travelex has guaranteed that if you find a better rate, they will match it. So all the money-changers engage in highway robbery.
What it all goes to show is that use of bank ATM machines found in every European city is a far better way to obtain your foreign exchange when you travel. Those ATM machines rarely ever cost you more than 3% or 4% when all is said and done. They provide you with an excellent exchange rate and a low fee for handling the transaction. And though, after using an ATM machine, you’ll have to carry around actual foreign currency rather than a safe-as-could-be chip-and-pin credit card, I’d rather avoid paying a 15% fee for my financial needs.
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