Paris CDG airport ATM service,

Old May 10th, 2011, 09:31 PM
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Paris CDG airport ATM service,

Any one know which bank provide the ATM service in the airport?
Can I check the rate of the service provider before my trip?
Because I plan to withdraw cash from ATM using bank card, is the rate better?
Which Bank is more common to provide ATM service throughout Paris?
Banque de France?
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Old May 10th, 2011, 10:35 PM
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French ATMs do not charge a service fee. Your own bank does that. Check with them to see what their charges are for foreign withdrawals. If your bank charges too much, change banks.
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Old May 10th, 2011, 10:38 PM
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My local bank now have promotion, no fee charge for foreign currency wirhdrawl overseas
So I want to know the ATM provider to check rates
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Old May 10th, 2011, 10:41 PM
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"So I want to know the ATM provider to check rates"

The ATM provider won't set the rates. You insert your card, ask for €, receive €, - no "exchange rate' is involved. It is your own bank's system that decideds the rate.
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Old May 11th, 2011, 12:07 AM
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I think the poster is concerned about the rate between his/her currency and the euro.

There is no way to tell what that will be when you arrive because the euro is highly volatile these days, and it won't matter anyway because every bancomat/ATM will give essentially the same rate for that.
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Old May 11th, 2011, 12:21 AM
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I just found that hsbc monopoly the ATM in Cdg , but I can't find the currency rate in hsbc France web page
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Old May 11th, 2011, 08:17 AM
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genie100: " but I can't find the currency rate in hsbc France web page"

You are asking something that doesn't matter: As I tried to explain, your own bank's exchange rate is what matters. You will be asking HSBC for € and receiving €. HSBC isn't involved in changing the € into your own home currency, just it just gives you the €. YOUR bank's system will do the converting.
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Old May 11th, 2011, 08:28 AM
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Not sure why the focus on the ATM at the airport. You will not be withdrawing the totality of your euros for the trip from this 1 machine.

Take out 100 euros from CDG, then train/taxi/shuttle/bus to where you want to go. Then you can use any other ATM you wish.

As stated, the machine goes to your bank and says "he took out 100 euro from his primary account". Your bank then does what it wants.
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Old May 11th, 2011, 09:10 AM
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I ask the rate because my bank said the rate is according to the ATM machine provider in Paris not their bank rate!
It is confusing I know.
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Old May 11th, 2011, 09:16 AM
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"I ask the rate because my bank said the rate is according to the ATM machine provider in Paris not their bank rate!"

Your bank is wrong . . .
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Old May 11th, 2011, 09:19 AM
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. . . Whoever you talked to is either totally misinformed -- or too lazy to check their own policies.
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Old May 11th, 2011, 09:37 AM
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The main difference is ATM fees which your bank will assess, if any, and any extra fees they assess you for withdrawing from an ATM in a foreign currency. Now internally, the French bank will ask your bank for so many euro and it will be translated from USD at the interbank rate, more or less. They will all be about the same in that regard because they all use the few big international transaction companies (CIRRUS, PLUS, etc) which I think are owned by Mastercard and Visa.

How that shows up in your bank account statement in terms of withdrawals will be a matter of what your bank may decide to add on (or not, hopefully) to that amount. My last bank charged me 3 pct more than the foreign ATM got, just like many US credit cards and a lot of US banks do that. Some of their clerks told me it was the foreign bank, too, but they were lying, and I finally got a hold of my bank's foreign rate person or something and she admitted it was my bank who was doing it. Which I knew. I was complaining because I hadn't seen any notification in my terms that they would do that.

But don't try to pick and choose among bank ATMs in France, it really doesn't matter in terms of the exchange rate, there are only two major international networks that do this, as far as I know (CIRRUS or PLUS) and any bank will be using one of those and they won't differ much. You need to ask your bank if they add on any charge to the transaction as a percentage of what it is, that's all (ask if there is a foreign exchange margin on top of the international network fees). It is legally supposed to be in your bank's written terms if you can find them.

Just stop thinking about bank brands and ask your own bank what fees they will be assessing or adding on to the transcation. That's all you need to know.
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Old May 11th, 2011, 09:38 AM
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The rate changes daily ... even hourly ... and is based on the Interbank rate, not set by the ATM provider. It will be the rate at the time your transaction is processed. The question you want to ask is which ATM network in France your bank allows you to use without incurring an additional fee. That's very relevant.

There is a percentage fee charged by your credit card provider (even a debit card transaction is usually processed by one of the big providers like Mastercard or Visa). That's usually 1%, but it's based on the company that processes your transactions. That is added to the Interbank rate to get the exchange rate at the time of processing.
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Old May 11th, 2011, 10:05 AM
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It will still be cheaper to use an ATM in Europe than buying euros at home.
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Old May 11th, 2011, 01:23 PM
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Absolutely. You pay an absolutely huge penalty on the exchange rate (usually 10% to 12%) to change your dollars into euros before the trip. It's scandalous, really. Though most banks don't charge "fees", they make up for it by giving you a really lousy exchange that's so far from the regular rate you get with any ATM that it's just not a contest.
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Old May 11th, 2011, 02:31 PM
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Do those ATMs at CDG take "regular American Credit and Debit cards, or will we have trouble because we don't have a CHIP?
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Old May 11th, 2011, 02:46 PM
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You won't have any trouble using a non-chip card in a European ATM. One thing I do recall -- I believe you can't have a PIN that's more than four digits (and digits are better than letters, because the keypad may not have letters on it)

Can a more knowledgeable Fodorite confirm or refute my suspicion?

Julie
www.juliesparis.wordpress.com
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Old May 12th, 2011, 03:43 AM
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HSBC is indeed the only bank at CDG. I think that all ATM's now allow up to six digits for the pin, but it is true that there are no letters on the keyboard.
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Old May 12th, 2011, 04:51 AM
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French bank ATMs will accept 4 to 6 digit PINs. There may be networks in other countries which accept only 4 digit PINs which is perhaps why the 4 PIN only rumor has proliferated.

While they are few in number, there are ATMs in France which are made available by non-bank third parties. These may have fees not outlined above. As long as one uses bank ATMs, and remember the Post Office is also a bank, there should be no surprises.

There are a good number of small to mid sized banks and credit unions in the USA which will not impose fees for ATM withdrawals. A few will even absorb the 1% currency conversion fee charged by the international network (Cirrus or Plus). Some even absorb the out-of-network fees imposed by US ATMs.

It really pays to chose a bank carefully as the miscellaneous fees and costs one pays to access his money can really add up.
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Old Nov 18th, 2015, 02:08 AM
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Hello, there are several banks which provide ATM services.
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