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May 20th, 2002 07:03 PM |
Many banks charge a fee for using ATM's which are not their own. Some charge more for using an ATM in a foreign country as opposed to your home country (we'll assume your home country is the USA). Some banks (Wells Fargo, Bank of America) have even begun to surcharge the currency conversion of the ATM's by 2%. Now I'll tell you what you should do.<BR><BR>1. Find a bank which doesn't have the gall to charge you for accessing your money in an ATM even one not their own. A great bank I know is USAA in San Antonio Texas. They do not charge for 10 ATM transactions each month which are not their own nor do they charge an extra 2% conversion charge for foreign currency.<BR><BR>2. The two main shared teller networks are cirrus and plus. The former is owned and run by MasterCard, the later by Visa. They convert foreign currency charges into US currency. As with credit card transactions, they use the interbank rate and add the 1% currency exchange rate.<BR><BR>3. Now the good news. Under the rules of the shared teller networks, banks are not allowed to add the additional surcharge for use of their machines by holders of ATM cards from other countries. Thus British banks cannot add a surcharge to use their machine if your ATM card is issued by a US bank. Whatever fees you pay are those of your bank.....<BR><BR>4. Therefore if you are being charged fees, whether it be 75 cents, $1, $3, $5 your bank is ripping you off as these transactions should be free. How dare they charge me for accessing my money which they hold and don't pay market rates of interest. <BR><BR>I wouldn't do business for one second with a bank that rips me off like this.
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