Ok I just called my credit union and they told me that MasterCard ( logo on the debit card ) will charge 1% origination fee + $2.00 for the use of card per transaction , limit is at $1000 per day. They said " That's it , no other charges ". Hopefully he's telling the truth...��....Sounds good though?

It's good enough, what else can you do. Just don't use the card for every 20 euro, make larger withdrawals, of course, if you have to pay $2 each time. If you take out about 100-150 euro, that ends up being about a 2 pct surcharge (the 1 pct plus $2).

I would also ask to see documentation of that. Credit unions are better than banks, but if I had a dollar for every bit of misinformation I was given by a teller just about anywhere, I'd be a wealthy woman.

I would look for another credit union for future trips overseas. I belong to two. One charges 1% (Visa's fee) plus five free withdrawals (overseas or at any other ATM) per month, then $2 per withdrawal after that. My other credit union's ATM card (not a debit card, no Visa logo, so they aren't involved) charges 0% currency conversion fee and $0 per use, unlimited. Obviously I use the second one - and have on the last two trips.

Yes, it's not a huge big deal if you withdraw 5-6 times and pay maybe $12-$15 total extra to use your card, but when I travel, it's nice to withdraw only small amounts per day, instead of guessing how much I'm going to need for the next week. I often withdrew 20 euros at a time on my last trip. (If you take out 50 euros or 100 euros, you get a hard-to-break 50 euro note.) It would have been painful to pay $2 each time.

Some of us here belong to Andrews Federal Credit Union (no relation). It's free to join, no conversion fees or ATM use fees, and it seems like pretty much anyone can join. They are in Maryland; I am several time zones away but have never needed to go to a branch. If you sign up for free membership in the Consumer Advocacy Association (CAA), which takes about 30 seconds, then you are eligible to join Andrews.

Thanks for the tip Andrew. I'll check on Andrew federal credit union ��. I haven't heard of it. How long have they been in business?

Looks like they have been around since 1948:

https://www.andrewsfcu.org/about_us.html

And I apologize that I got the name wrong of the group you can join, American Consumer Council (ACC) not the Consumer Advocacy Association, to be eligible to join the credit union:

http://americanconsumercouncil.org/

Looks like they have great benefits! I'll look into those links..thanks!������

I have Andrew Federal Credit Union accounts. The most value of this credit union is their chip and pin credit card as well the debit card. However, you have to be willing to live with low tech operations. The paperless statement means they send you pdf files to your email address. Setting up an automatic payment requires filling out a form and sending to them with a signature. Credit card account requires a separate login from the checking account. It is as if I were time machined back to the dawn of online banking.

While the Andrews credit card can be a good value, ATM withdrawals are subject to the 1% currency conversion fee. There are a lot of banks that match that. The only place, of which I am aware, that offers no fee credit cards and no fee ATM withdrawals for all customers is Schwab.

Very similar to Andrews is PenFed which also has a no annual fee, no transaction fee pin and chip credit card. The PenFed card usually defaults to pin and signature for most transactions but the pin is often required for kiosk purchases. I have also used it to purchase gas at Carrefour pay-at-the-pump locations.

Are you sure about that 1% conversion fee for Andrews? I don't think that is correct.

It isn't correct - I have explicitly asked Andrews this before to verify. There are no fees listed on my statements after each withdrawal (my other credit union shows me what the conversion fee was for each transaction - was 1% in their case).

And a 1% fee doesn't seem buried in the exchange rate I was charged for each withdrawal. I spot checked a few. Example: On April 5 I withdrew 20 euros and I was debited $27.40 USD, which is an exchange rate of 1.37. Historical lookup shows 1.370173 for that date. I checked a few others and they are also that close. Visa or MC isn't involved with the transaction, either, as it's just an ATM card, not a debit card.

There's no conversion fee on the Andrews Visa card, either. (Also no annual fee.) They explicitly break out the exchange rate on my statement. It looks like the statement is a template where an exchange rate could be charged (maybe for other cards or other Visa customers), but on mine next to each rate is a 0.00 fee so nothing was charged.

I don't use my Andrews account for anything but travel. I pay my Andrews Visa bill using my other credit union's bill pay system.

Because of a lawsuit settlement, banks on credit purchases are required to break down exchange rates and explicitely show fees. Note I said credit card transactions. The same thing is not true for debit or ATM card transaction. So you have to examine closely all such transactions try to match up the rate with the date the transaction hit the international network. And to say mc and visa are not involved in atm transactions is simply not true. MC runs cirrus. Visa runs plus. The vast majority of ATM transactions go through one of those networks and the regular visa/mc rules apply for foreign currency transactions. Basicaly, there is a 1% foreign currency fee built into these transactions. Some banks pass them along. Some banks add another 2% on top. Some banks eat the 1%. It's all up to your bank.

For example, I have used my Fidelity brokerage account visa debit cards for those very few transactions to pull out cash from an ATM just in case (rarely do I even have to use the cash and I credit card everything wherever possible no matter how large or small). They apparently pass along the 1% visa fee although no mention is made of it anywhere as disclosure is not required.

So not saying yes Andrews eats the 1% or you pay the 1%. I just don't know and their statement is no help on this. None whatsoever.

Most brokerages offer no-fee ATM fee cards and most charge only what MC/Visa charges them for foreign exchange: 1%. My brokerage also rebates any ATM fees charged by the local ATM. And my brokerage shows the 1% conversion fee separately for each ATM transaction.

I only use this ATM card when I am traveling. If you travel a lot, it pays to have an account from which you can access funds without bug charges and it pays to have one or more credit cards that don't charge more than a 1% premium on foreign exchange.

The question is not referencing credit cards, both Andrews and PenFed absorb the Visa/MC 1% currency conversion fee. This fee is not passed onto card holders.

According to the Andrews FCU Terms & Condinations found at the URL listed below, Item 13 states:

<i><b>The exchange rate between the Transaction currency and the billing currency used for processing international transactions is a rate selected by Visa</b> from the range of rates available in wholesale currency markets for the applicable central processing date, which rate may vary from the rate Visa receives, <b>or the government mandated rate</b> in effect for the applicable central processing date, <b>increased by one percent</b>.</i>
https://www.andrewsfcu.org/media/doc...tions_2014.pdf

Specifically, ATM transactions are handled by Pulse which is wholly owned by Visa which is the entity referenced in the T&C above.

While credit card currency conversion and/or foreign transaction fees must be broken down by line item on a customer statement, ATM fees are rolled into the exchange rates and are not easily identifiable. Further, the actual exchange rates applied are not those which correspond to the rates applicable on the day a transaction takes place, making a confirmation by the bank customer very difficult. From the above sited Andrews AFU Terms & Conditions:

<i>The date the exchange rate is applied is the day before the date the Transaction is processed. This means that <b>the exchange rate applied to your foreign Transaction may differ from the rate in effect on the date of your Transaction</b></i>.

Andrews is part of the CO-OP Shared Network with ATMs available in the UK, Belgium, Netherlands, and Germany. Asking a question to a Andrews representative about fees will probably, intentionally or unintentional, result in an answer based upon the policy of the CO-OP Shared Network. However, there are no CO-OP Shared Network ATMs in France and it is outside of this network where currency conversion fees most likely apply.

Would someone please explain then how I was charged any fee for my ATM withdrawals?

For example, when I withdrew 20 euros and was debited $27.40 USD, where is the fee? That's an exchange rate of 1.37. As I cited above, the average rate rate on April 5 (according to www.x-rates.com) was 1.370173. (For April 4 it was 1.370246; for April 6 it was 1.370343.)

If I were charged say 1%, then what you're saying is, that 20 euros would have really converted to about $27.13 ($27.40 - 27 cents, about 1%) and then the 1% fee was tacked on by increasing the rate. That would mean the bank got an exchange rate of 1.3565 - which is way lower than the day I did the transaction (or the day before or after). That seems far too low to be considered a fluctuation. And my Visa statement has a transaction (separate from my savings account statement) on April 5 citing a rate of 1.37322.

I can do the same calculation for other transactions on other days - but I get the same kind of results.

Sorry, I don't see how I'm being charged any fee.

I'm with Andrew. We just used the Andrews ATM card in Italy and saw no fee, just a straight forward exchange rate for the # of euros withdrawn.

To be honest, it's simply not worth getting upset over. I know my credit card does not charge a foreign transaction fee and is required to list the rate used. I see that and for the most part can see it is more or less in agreement with the interbank rate (the rate you can get at any moment from xe.com or oanda.com).

Since I almost never use cash (I find it to be a pain in the you know what) unless absolutely forced to do so and that is becoming rarer and rarer both when travelling and when at home, making an ATM withdrawal of say £10 in the UK or €10 in euroland, will cost me, if indeed there is a 1% fee for ATM withdrawals 10p or €0,10. I will certainly not lose any sleep over that.

Easy solution to all this. Use your credit cards wherever they are taken for whatever purchases you make no matter how small or large and much of the time (sadly I will agree not all of the time as there are still some places in Western Europe where cash is king, ridiculous but sadly true) there will be little need for cash.

Works for me.

It will be very difficult to see a 1% fee on a $20 withdrawal. The rates you are using Andrew are the closing rates which may or may not be very representative of what actually happened on the exchanges during the trading periods. Andrews states that the actual rates applied to a trade may not be the rates in effect on the day the transaction was made. Go to www.xe.com and watch the euro/dollar fluctuations over a period of only 15 minutes and you´ll understand the difficulties in pinpointing a 1% fee, that´s a value of $00.014, over the course of a day´s trading.

Get a copy of the Andrews Terms & Conditions, which are part of your user agreements, and read it. I already have but maybe you´ll find something that I missed.

Sarastro: <i>It will be very difficult to see a 1% fee on a $20 withdrawal.</i>

No, it should be easy. It should be 20 Euro cents on a 20 Euro withdrawal. When I withdrew 50 euros, it should be 50 Euro cents. My other credit union, which charges the 1%, breaks out the currency conversion fee out after each ATM withdrawal. I have done the same cross-checking with daily exchange rates and matched them up with what that credit union charges, and they matched up (but then 1% was shown as an additional fee). I'm confident the same approach works checking my Andrews transactions.

Unless you can point to something else I'm missing, I still maintain there is no fee for using the Andrews ATM card to make withdrawals, at least with my account. I asked Andrews customer service reps explicitly (on at least two occasions), and this is what they told me. And this is what I see on all of my transactions. I'm not sure what agreement you are reading, but I assume they have different cards and different types of accounts.