ATM card withdrawal in France
 

I will be traveling to France in August and was wondering which bank branch is the best to open an account with to make withdrawals while i'm there. I want to open an account with Washington Mutual but I would like the best rates since i'm on a budget. Any input would be appreciated.

BankofAmerica has a partnership with BNP banks which are everwhere in Paris. If you do a withdrawal from one of their ATMs there will be no fee and a good rate. Like most banks, it may now be using Visa services for their foreign ATM transactions so there MAY be a 1% built into the exhange rate. Despite what people will tell you, more and more banks are beginning to do this. But still 1% on a good exhange rate is hardly a major issue.

I meant BNP is everywhere in France, not just in Paris.

I have a local bank and just recently opened a 2nd acct at my credit union. I'd always been happy w/ my bank - it charges $1.50 per foreign withdrawal. But just got my statement from a late March trip to Paris and was amazed to see that the credit union didn't charged anything - no withdrawal fee and no added 1% conversion fee.

So I would chek at local credit unions where you might qualify . . . .

That's good to know about BNP.

BNP Paribas is one of the world's largest banks.

One word of caution - many ATMs in europe don't give you the choice of where the withdrawal comes from - savings or checking. We found the default to be checking. So, just to be on the safe side, make sure you have enough $$ in both accounts to cover your trip.

We have BofA and used the BNP banks. BofA did not charge us the $5 fee or the conversion fee that they charge when using other banks.

I don't recall having an option for withdrawing from a savings or checking either. The money we withdrew came from our checking.

I don't remember seeing a choice of where to withdraw the money. It came from the checking account (B of A).

I have not heard of in recent years of any importance in what bank is used to make withdrawals. The relationship between banks with regard to withdrawals is based on the Cirrus and/or Plus systems among others and if you look at the plaques that line up by the ATM machines you'll find that most all banks belong to every system that exists.I haven't run across an exception.

As far as rates are concerned the exchange is based on interbank rates ie the lowest available. The only difference is your home bank which decides what to charge you if anything and it is most always nominal. If there is concern about this then one should consolidate withdrawals.

Bigal, with all due respect no one is disagreeing with you, but some of us were giving tips on the easiest way to avoid those charges from your home bank all together! Why pay any fee to your home bank if you can select a home bank (since driver is looking for a new one anyway) that has partner banks you can use and you won't be charged at all?

If you are only going to be overseas for a few weeks, with the likelihood of making no more than five foreign ATM transactions in a year, the fee for those transactions might not be the most important consideration in selecting a bank -- how about free checking, convenient banking hours, web access?? Those are more important to me than the $15 I might spend in ATM fees every year or two (but all other things being equal, I'd choose the bank with low/no foreign ATM fee)

I will be going for about 10 months so it would make a difference over time. and thank you for everyones input it really helped. I was thinking of Washington Mutual because they have, or so i've heard the best free checking.

Driver 24, following are the web addresses of 6 internet banks. This is a rapidly evolving industry and there are others.

With most you can have a checking account (with an ATM card) paired with a savings account, currently paying about 4%. Most also offer a CC. With others the savings account is tied to an external checking account. ING is currently like this but will roll-out a checking account this summer.

If you averaged $4000 in your account for a year at 4%, you would earn $160 in interest. Even if the CC had the 2% fee, you could spend $3200 and break even against a no fee card.

Take a look and I think you will find one or more would work for you.

http://www.bankofinternet.com/

http://www.gmacbank.com/

http://www.emigrant-direct.com/

http://home.ingdirect.com/

http://www.citibank.com/us/b2.htm

http://www.metlifebank.com/index.do

Just in case you didn't find a suitable bank, here's another well known name:

http://www.hsbcdirect.com/1/learn_mo...ode=PPGE400000

The free checking account at Washington Mutual says that it doesn't charge a foreign withdrawl fee. I have a Platinum account with them and do get charged a $3.00 fee for every foreign withdrawl. I intend to open a free checking account with them just to use while in Europe. However, I haven't had time to completely investigate yet.

Diane

Just get from WaMu, based on the type of account you have with them, their fees, if any, for foreign/European ATM withdrawals. If there is no fee and since European ATMs don't charge a fee, stick with WaMu.

The ATM rates are set by the Interbank and are the best you'll get over credit cards, travelers checks even USD. Unless you have hundreds of thousands or millions in your account, you'll be getting the same rate as anyone else on any given day.

I bank with Commerce and there are no foreign ATM fees anywhere.

sandi, funny you should mention Commerce Bank. I bank with Commerce also and asked them this past weekend about their ATM fees/foreign transaction fees. They confirmed what I have known in the past. If you make an ATM transaction/withdrawal in Europe, the bank does not charge any ATM fees, nor do they charge any conversion fees such as the 1% that VISA & M/C charge. Basicially, you get free ATM withdrawal fees and the interbank conversion fee. ((b))

That's pretty amazing. So you're saying that if you go to a Duetschebank in Germany or Italy for example and do a Commerce Bank ATM card withdrawal, even though Deutschebank uses VISA services for doing that transaction and getting their money from the US bank and charges the bank 1%, Commerce bank pays them that without charging you? And they don't just change the currency rate from say 1.21 to 1.22? That really is amazing. Must cost the bank a small fortune if they have a lot of foreign ATM users.

Neopolitan, I think you are missing something here.

No European bank ATM's charge you a transaction fee.

VISA/Mastercard charge a 1% conversion fee for credit card transactions.

I'm not using a VISA/Mastercard ATM Card. I'm using a Commerce Bank ATM card. They convert MY money from MY checking account at the interbank rate.

Why is that so hard to believe? Life is wonderful.

Additionally, my USAA Mastercard give me 1.25% cash back on all transactions. If I use my credit card overseas, I pay a penalty of 1% conversion fee to Mastercard. I'm still ahead by .25%. Life is wonderful. ((b))