ATM issues in Greece

With Greece's past financial crisis, I know there were runs on the bank and ATM's, limiting withdrawals.

Any recent first-hand experience with getting Euro from ATM's in Greece? We'll be visiting Athens, Santorini, Mykonos, and Corfu. I know some machines have 100 or 200 limit on withdrawals, but you could do a second transaction.

With Greece's past financial crisis, I know there were runs on the bank and ATM's, limiting withdrawals.

 

 

 

Any recent first-hand experience with getting Euro from ATM's in Greece? We'll be visiting Athens, Santorini, Mykonos, and Corfu. I know some machines have 100 or 200 limit on withdrawals, but you could do a second transaction.

No problem at all, the islands have enough Euro left!

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On Reflection now and at some banks in both Italy and Greece was limited to 250 euro. At one bank in Greece I was able to get 500. Never tried it twice.

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On Reflection now and at some banks in both Italy and Greece was limited to 250 euro. At one bank in Greece I was able to get 500. Never tried it twice.

 

 

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That's been standard for years.

On the Reflection earlier this year the ATM by Guest Services disbursed Euros, but there is a fee.

At FCO there are a couple of ATM's as you exit the immigration / customs area on the right. At other ports did not have a problem in finding ATM's.

Sorry, ignore my comment on FCO, I now see you were only looking for ATM's in Greece.

Last month asked my hotel front desk where the nearest ATM was. They pointed across the street and I withdrew 300 € without an issue. Later on in trip took out another withdrawal again without problems

My best piece of advice is to please make sure you debit card is chip enabled. For some reason our bank never sent us Chip enabled debit cards. We were unable to withdraw any money at any atm because of this issue. :(

Question for RoadTripFanatic: Were you unable to withdraw money at ATMs in Greece only, or did you have this problem all through Europe?

Question for RoadTripFanatic: Were you unable to withdraw money at ATMs in Greece only, or did you have this problem all through Europe?

In all honesty, I didn't need any extra Euros until we hit Greece. I have had issues in the past trying to purchase train tickets at a kiosk without having a chip enabled credit card before they were a thing in the US. Our friend from Turkey was here in the states and couldn't draw money out because her card was chip only and the debit machines in our area didn't take chip! I wouldn't go over without a chip in my debit card or at least have a VISA with chip and a pin number so you can get cash. DH didn't know what his PIN number was for the Visa so we were in trouble. Thank goodness our friends had a chip enabled debit card.

In all honesty, I didn't need any extra Euros until we hit Greece. I have had issues in the past trying to purchase train tickets at a kiosk without having a chip enabled credit card before they were a thing in the US. Our friend from Turkey was here in the states and couldn't draw money out because her card was chip only and the debit machines in our area didn't take chip! I wouldn't go over without a chip in my debit card or at least have a VISA with chip and a pin number so you can get cash. DH didn't know what his PIN number was for the Visa so we were in trouble. Thank goodness our friends had a chip enabled debit card.

This is a very confusing post.

You don't need an ATM card with a chip in Europe. While many ATM cards now come with a chip, that really doesn't matter in Europe, or even here in the US. A "debit card" is the same as an ATM card.

If you get cash from a "Visa card" with PIN and chip, you are likely going to get serious extra fees, as that is a cash advance on a credit card. You don't need a PIN and chip credit card in Europe, unless you are using an unstaffed location, like a train station ticket machine.

Just spent two weeks in Europe, using an ATM card, a chip and signature card and a backup PIN and chip card, which got used once- at a train station ticket machine. All other credit card charges- hotels, meals, food, gas, rental car, admission fees, etc., were on the chip and signature card. Had trouble using the 90 pounds and 95 euros we can with. As we will be back in Europe soon, we got a few more euros at an ATM to set us up for our next trip.

This is a very confusing post.

 

You don't need an ATM card with a chip in Europe. While many ATM cards now come with a chip, that really doesn't matter in Europe, or even here in the US. A "debit card" is the same as an ATM card.

 

If you get cash from a "Visa card" with PIN and chip, you are likely going to get serious extra fees, as that is a cash advance on a credit card. You don't need a PIN and chip credit card in Europe, unless you are using an unstaffed location, like a train station ticket machine.

 

Just spent two weeks in Europe, using an ATM card, a chip and signature card and a backup PIN and chip card, which got used once- at a train station ticket machine. All other credit card charges- hotels, meals, food, gas, rental car, admission fees, etc., were on the chip and signature card. Had trouble using the 90 pounds and 95 euros we can with. As we will be back in Europe soon, we got a few more euros at an ATM to set us up for our next trip.

We couldn't use our ATM card in Greece because it didn't have a chip. It would not take our card which was a VISA atm/debit card. We tried multiple machines. Our friends we were traveling with from the USA who had a CHIP debit/ATM card were able to withdraw money while in Greece. Greece is the only country we attempted to use our card. I'm very glad you didn't have any problems. I would just hate for anyone to get over there and have an issue. Who knows? Maybe it was just our luck by finding ATMS that only took chip.

We couldn't use our ATM card in Greece because it didn't have a chip. It would not take our card which was a VISA atm/debit card. We tried multiple machines.

 

You don't need an ATM card with a chip in Europe. While many ATM cards now come with a chip, that really doesn't matter in Europe, or even here in the US. A "debit card" is the same as an ATM card.

This part of the post is incorrect. There are still ATM's in Europe that accept non-chip cards, but they are disappearing. Many, if not most now require a chip.

RoadTripFanatic's experiences matched ours, the ATM's which reject non-chip ATM cards are becoming more prevalent.

Europe (and parts of the US) are in the process of switching over to Chip enabled ATM/Debit cards. Many US banks are now replacing the old magnetic strip cards with new ATM/Debit cards that have a chip..and also will work with magnetic strip machines. On our two most recent trips to Europe (more then a dozen countries since late March) we did not use a single ATM that required a Chip enabled card. But times are changing (fast) so its good to be prepared. DW and I carry 3 different ATM/Debit cards (each drawn on a different bank) and 2 of those cards have recently been upgraded to Chip enabled cards. The third (the only one from a large commercial bank) has yet to be upgraded.

Hank

We have used our chip enabled cards in Europe for some time. So long that we cannot remember when it started. The odd establishment makes you sign as well.

We spent six weeks in Greece last fall. Our typical ATM withdrawal is 400 euro.

I think there was only one ATM that had a lower limit...we simply used another bank ATM and got our desired amount. On the mainland and on the islands. We did not experience any challenges whatsoever.