ATM Conversion Rates
 

This may be a dumb question. I was just wondering if ATMs all have the same conversion rates.
Obviously each ATM is connected to it's own banking group. Is there a set conversion rate, say for Paris, on a certain day which changes hourly, daily which applies only to each individual banking group, and therefore their own ATMs?

I'm NOT asking about additional included fees charged by either my bank or the ATM bank - just straight out withdrawls.

Nina

I'm sure there may be some slight variance, and it would depend on what time of day, since some banks may even adjust rates several times a day. But all in all, I can't imagine that you're talking about more than some fraction of one percent -- and I can't imagine how you'd figure out which ATM might be the best at any given time. Don't worry about it.

As far as I know, no. I think you are envisioning that ATMs are all connected together like the internet and there is just one conversion guru in the sky who does all the calculations for every ATM in the world.

I think it is the network that your particular bank card has an agreement with -- with Cirrus, PLUS, etc., and that network sets the conversion rate. It isn't that one conversion rate is set for Paris by all networks to be identical.

Hi N,

>...wondering if ATMs all have the same conversion rates.<

No, but as noted the differences are very, very small.

The variation from hour to hour in one machine is less than the variation between two machines.

((I))

That is an excellent question so I conducted a test when I was in the UK. My bank, Bank of America, has a partnership with Barclays. I also have a credit union account that does not have a partnership with Barclays. I made a w/d from my B of A account, then immediately made another w/d from my credit union account. I did this because I wanted to compare the exchange Barclay's gave to a partner bank (BofA) as compared to a non-partner credit union. The exchange rate I got was exactly the same. This is not to say that all ATMs follow this pattern all the time, but I would be interested to know if anyone else has tried this and what were the results.

Thanks for the quick responses. You told me exactly what I wanted to know. I was just curious - too much time on my hands today. I hadn't planned on running all over Paris making withdrawls as fast as I could just to check for the best rate ;-)

We're on our way next week, and 85% of the planning is done. I'm just taking advantage of the lull before we start packing.

Nina

ira is correct: the differences are imperceptible from ATM to ATM and change very frequently.
As an example, the banks were quoting 10.64; Lloyd 10.67; cambios 10.68, my ATM w/d was at 10.726 and SO's later ATM w/d was at 10.73 per USD (the ATM's include the 1% V/MC currency conversion and the first ten ATM w/d's a month are "free").
M