>>4) I'd pay the fees of a friend who helped me out. All of them. Period.<<
Agree. Or at least, split that too.
I avoid withdrawing a small amount from ATM if there were a $5 transaction fee tagged on.

Please tell us how you both got pick pocketed and where. I have pnc and they even reinburse me fees if an atm charges me.

B of A used to waive transaction fees if you used their "partner" banks. About 8 years ago, they started charging $5 when using partner banks. We then switched to Charles Schwab, where we can use ANY ATM and all fees are refunded back to us by Charles Schwab.

It's a given for seasoned travelers. Yet our friend, who is a seasoned traveler, somehow was not aware of it, and blamed the local bank for the fees. That is why, in case there were any questions by readers, I tried to define the issue in such a way that it eliminates any other possibility; for example, different banks in Spain charge different fees for using the ATM. I should have been less transparent. I mentioned the pickpocketing because that was the reason I saw our friend's withdrawal costs. Normally I do not inquire about someone else's finances, but in this instance she had to give us the bill, so to speak, and I happened to have used my ATM card enough to make a valid comparison.

No we do not split things, and my wife has been pickpocketed several times in Europe, but never with serious consequences. For this reason I carry passports and my wallet has two credit cards and two debit cards, under the assumption that the issue with one card or another is immediate use (card not accepted, debit card swallowed by machine), not loss.. My wife has one debit and one credit card. This is the first time that I was pickpocketed in the 25 years of using a pouch.

We were in Belem and I think that it was in the church of the monastery, as it was very crowded. But it also could have been at the big monument next to the water.

Oh wow, that's bad. So very sorry.

What sort of pouch? If it was a money belt under your clothes I don't understand how you were pickpocketed. Rather than you carrying your wife's passport, either it should be in a hotel safe, or in a money belt under her clothes, although you didn't list passports as items that were stolen this time.

Get a travel credit card which doesn't impose surcharges for foreign exchange and also gives you some rewards. For instance, I use the BofA Cash Rewards card with no annual fee, no FX. And I use it to pay for gas and also could use it for restaurants to get 3X.

I also use Chase Sapphire Reserve, which has a very high annual fee and uses a slightly higher FX rate than the BofA card. But I use it to get 3X points on restaurants and hotel charges or anything related to travel. I have several hundred thousand points that I can transfer to several airlines for miles.

And I use Apple Pay whenever I can, so that I never have to pull out the physical credit cards. Sure phones can be stolen or lost but they can also be tracked by GPS.

For cash, I have a Investors Checking account with Schwab which pays decent interest and doesn't impose any account fees. You may have to have a brokerage account though. My brokerage account balance is under $10 and I keep about $1000 in my Schwab Investors Checking account. II transfer more money from my main credit union checking account by ACH using my online accounts at both institutions.

I use the Schwab ATM card for my withdrawals. They will rebate me any ATM fees from any ATM in the world -- though I've never been to dodgy countries like Russia or China. Schwab never imposes ATM surcharges, uses the lowest FX rates and rebates me 4 or 5 Euros for fees imposed by certain ATMs. I never carry more than 50-100 Euros in cash. I use credit cards whenever, because of convenience, security and points.

How anyone is carrying hundreds of Euros around in this day and age is baffling.

Yes, if your pouch was under your clothing, that pickpocket was really good at his/her job... like how did s/he know it was there in the first place?

Just for others - it is a really bad idea for couples to stash everything together, whether it is using one communal suitcase or one person carrying ALL the cards/cash/IDs

My CapOne cards have no transaction fees for credit card or ATM card and -- I'm pretty sure -- refund ATM fees.
My American Airlines credit card (Barclay's Bank) has no transaction fees.
As stated, there are lots of non-BA options.

As for the $15, I'm no math genius either, but that's nothing compared to the total money spent on your trip. Do what makes everyone happy. Even $70 split in half is trivial in comparison.

ssander

It's an exterior pouch hanging on my belt.

As for the $15, I'm no math genius either, but that's nothing compared to the total money spent on your trip. Do what makes everyone happy. Even $70 split in half is trivial in comparison.

16 withdrawals with one of $10 in France, that adds up. As for splitting, we will be paying two thirds of the withdrawals that constitute money placed into the kitty. Part of the withdrawals were for her own personal use, such as small purchases, postcards and stamps.

At $5.00 per withdrawal (never mind the conversion fees) I'd be pulling out as much cash as I could at one time. Reading this thread makes me glad I use a different account for travel.

Talk about an invitation to theft. You are d*** lucky you haven't been robbed before. I use this: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Lewis-N-C...db&athena=true worn under my clothes and not accessed in public. One day's supply of cash and at most one credit card is somewhere accessible. If I need to visit an ATM I also have one ATM card accessible, I go on high alert, I use a bank ATM during business hours, inside a bank if at all possible, and I return the card and the cash to the money belt pronto, either by returning to my hotel or using a public toilet.

I think we are going off-topic. I'll take the odds.

>>It's an exterior pouch hanging on my belt.<<

Huh? You might as well pin a sign on your wallet -- "Free credit cards - Here >"

>>As for splitting, we will be paying two thirds of the withdrawals that constitute money placed into the kitty. Part of the withdrawals were for her own personal use, such as small purchases, postcards and stamps.<<

You are a sport. She bailed you out big time and you want to nickel and dime over ATM fees?

Nobody took me up on such an offer in 25 years.

I am not nickel and diming her. I am paying two thirds of the kitty, which includes two-thirds of all the fees. How is that complaining about the fees? My point is that not all banks are equal.

Nobody took me up on such an offer in 25 years.

I am not nickel and diming her. I am paying two thirds of the kitty, which includes two-thirds of all the fees. How is that complaining about the fees? My point is that not all banks are equal.

If I am travelling with my freinds I have everything with me as do they. I do try and split things up or if a safe leave some things there. Regardless, it happened and sorry. Rick Steves got pickpocketed this year. Very embarrassing for him to admit I would think. I hope it never happens to me.