Hey all

I have a work trip in 40 days to Berlin to my companies head offices for a summer event week/work week. Obviously, I need some Euros! Any recommendations for best places to get Euros or the best way to spend money in Berlin? I'm happy to use a card of some kind, but I've read and heard that in Berlin, cash is king?

Any insights would be welcome!

Costco Visa card is a good option for international travel if you’re a Costco member.

Transfer Wise also have a debit card.

If you’re wanting physical cash ahead of traveling there then you should be able to request some via your bank / credit union.

There is also Revolut that works very well in Europe. They are similar to Transferwise (Wise)

Some of theses foreign currency cards don't work well in fuel stations, or other situations where they preauthorize funds before filling. IMO a blend of cash/card works best.

Given the absurd FX spread and fees on "tourist" amounts of cash, and that any euros you bring back would likely be hardly worth a trip to a bank to exchange back to USD, I wouldn't take any cash with me and would only get cash from an ATM if/ when needed - IMO the ATM fees are a good trade off for the poor tourist FX rate, exchange fees, and any "worthless" cash you have left when you arrive home.

You might want to get say €50 up front, but I wouldn't be surprised that you would have most of that left at the end of your visit unless you go out of your way to spend it. .... And to those who say "cash is king" I would just avoid businesses that don't accept VISA/MC/ Amex.

Remember if you are carrying more than a few hundred GBP you will likely get grilled by the Customs folks outbound from the UK if their canine dogs smell it and also could get grilled inbound at your destination. Best to not carry more than that and just use a bank card to get cash as you require it. Governments love to seize cash and claim its drug money or undeclared income and this seems to be getting worse as of late.

unsubstantiated nonsense.

Most of his posts are conspiracy theory BS.

Ah one of those gullible fools

Really? I guess you never been through Heathrow and had the dogs scan the cue looking for contraban and cash? No conspiracy too it. It happens every day. If you choose to live in denial be my guest.

Not a conspiracy.. watch the video

But that's "a massive" amount of cash. Your view appears to be distorted by what you think a "large amount of cash" is. It isn't a few USD/GBP/ EUR hundreds, as being discussed above in this thread, nor even a few thousands.
Ditto over USD$10,000 carried into the US, and EUR10,000 into the EU.

So long as you declare the cash, I doubt much attention would be paid until the sum reached several tens-of-thousands, unless there were other red flags in your luggage, or your travel was to/from a high risk country.

So the video concerns large amounts of cash. Anything over £10,000 has to be declared. https://www.gov.uk/bringing-cash-int...ide%20the%20UK.
Large amounts of cash are often associated with drug dealing or other illegal activity so, of course, they search for that.

Contraband is "goods that have been imported or exported illegally" so, again, they are looking for that.

The usual limit for carrying undeclared cash is around £6000, or US & Canada 10,000, it's that sot of order, however if you declare it, then those limits do not apply, just be ready to divulge where the cash comes from.

As per MidAtlantic above (give or take an "above v or more" ), the threshold for reporting cash you're carrying into the UK is "£10,000 or more", per gov.uk website.

Thanks for those who were helpful in figuring out my trip to Germany from the USA when I don't even touch the UK at any point...

I did find out my Apple credit card has 0 fees for international transactions? Is it worth just using this credit card in Berlin and carrying maybe 100 euros...

I do know we are going to a lot of small places the local workers recommend and said only take cash so I feel I might need more than 50!