461 Amex Travellers Cheque card,any good???

Usually when you insert a non Italian bank card into one of the 'money machines' a choice of languages is offered, including English, so you should have no problems following the instructions. I cannot comment on the actual card as I have never used one but the banks you list are not the usual 'high street' banks so may be hard to track down. However, perhaps in a city such as Bologna they are more readily available. Most of the machines accept the normal UK bank cards ie Visa, Mastercard, Cirrus etc so you may find it easy enough to get money without getting a new card. Your bank would no doubt charge a commission for each withdrawal. Bologna is a lovely city, enjoy your visit.
Anne2

why don't you just use the normal visa/master / barclay card and pay for everything with that at least hotels,restaurants,petrol and any larger shopping expenses for the small stuff bring a bit of cash with you.

Hello! I have just seen your question. I would not recommend the Amex cheque card to anyone. First the card is not free, it cost 20 pounds when you apply (valid for 3 years) and then 5 pounds every another 3 years. Nowadays, it is hard to find any credit/debit/store card that still charges you for just carrying it! Most importantly, Have a look at the terms and conditions on their website you will find that they have stated that their exchange rate is 4% higher than the standard one. That is ridiculous as even the dearest credit card charges no more than 2.5% handling fee. In fact, the exchange rate for a credit card is much better than that provided by American Express as Visa and MasterCard organisations give people the whole-sale rate. If you can, apply for a new credit card from providers such as Nationwide or Liverpool Victoria who do not charge you for taking out overseas transaction. Furthermore, although it is a prepaid card, Amex still charges an ATM fee when you withdraw YOU OWN cash in the card. So in this case a normal debit card (Delta or Maestro) will be better (again, the Nationwide debit card is free to use abroad). According to the travel book from DK, American Express card is not very popular on the continent as Amex charges a high handling fee for merchants that accept it. It will be hard to find a small to medium size shop that accepts the card. Finally have a look at the benefits highlighted by Amex “Free Passport and Credit/Debit Card Replacement Assistance”. It says in the terms and conditions, they will only provide the phone number you need to contact in case you lost your cards. This is not a card insurance. You can simply do this yourself and avoid paying the 20 quid! Most other cards give you much more than that. So what I suggest is taking a few credit cards, and debit cards with you and get some cash in Euro from the Post Office (they are much cheaper than any travel agencies, most banks (unless you have an Advantage Gold current account with NatWest, then they are slightly better) and do not charge commission.). By the way, if you need to change a large amount of Euro, go to a NatWest branch and tell them that you want to open or switch to an Advantage Gold current account. When this has done, get your Euro and switch the account to a normal current account. As there is a 3-month free-trial period. When you need to change currency next time, just switch it back to an Advantage Gold account and do this again. (NatWest does not set the maximal time you can try out. :rolleyes: ) I hope this is helpful for you and enjoy your trip. :)

I've just got a Nationwide FlexAccount Visa Debit Card.
I can use it all over europe to pay for goods and withdraw cash free of charge.

hope this is useful
libby

Just as a bolt on to one of the above postings, I have recently purchased my Euros from Marks & Spencer - No commission and 1.1 cents above the Post Office rate.