codyjet

The guide books say checking. My credit union says it depends and we should put money in both our checking and savings just in case. Has anyone else heard this?

StCirq

The guide books know nothing about your banking relationships.

It's up to YOU to arrange with your bank which account your ATM card is pegged to. You can peg it to both. I would recommend you peg it to your checking account, with the savings account as a backup, because I don't think most European ATMs offer you the choice of checking or savings.

halfpint

When I have used the ATM the past few years in Europe, it has not given the choise and automatically came out of my checking account; so from now on I make sure I have enough in there to cover. Otherwise I had depended on my savings account. Halfpint

Christina

I thought it was solely your savings, also, in Europe. It sounds like your CU is just referring to the US ATMs where you can choose.

I remember a post on here once about someone with a money market ATM card that would not work because it was linked to an account that is not checking. I had planned to do that myself (take my MM ATM card as a backup to my regular one), so was sorry to read that probably won't work.

Has anyone successfully used a money market ATM card in European ATMs? Be interested in hearing, if so. That one was in Spain that didn't work. MY MM is a Capital One money market account. It is solely a MM account, not one of those integrated banking things.

Christina

jeez, what a slip -- I meant in my first sentence I thought it was soley your checking, of course.

jamikins

I have never been given the choice and it always comes out of my checking

azzure

Hi Christina - the documentation that came with my Capital One MM ATM card SAYS it can be used internationally; but I have one of those MM accounts that allow limited check writing as well (like 3 checks per month) so I'm not sure it's the same as yours.

jscarbary

When I asked at the bank before we went to Germany, they didn't know but it only came out of checking. It was the same years ago when we went to Paris.

kayd

I've never seen an ATM in Europe that offered a choice of accounts to draw from, and the money has always been pulled from checking (card linked to both accounts at my home bank).

tomassocroccante

When I saw the title of this thread I thought it was from Mars.

Of course, my ATM card will let me take from Savings, but I've never had any money in the savings account, and never had trouble withdrawing in Europe!

Tell your bank what you want. StCirq had it right.

Jim_Tardio

Absolutely the checking account. I just made this mistake and could not access my money at all throughout Europe because I had opened a savings account instead of a checking account.

You will not be given a choice of which account you want the money drawn from in 99% of the machines. I found one machine in Slovenia that gave me a choice.

I made the mistake of only opening a Credit Union savings account. If I had had both accounts, a simple phone call would have enabled me to shift funds.

So, to repeat, you MUST have your money in a Credit Union checking account to access it in Europe.

fmpden

Our experience for the past ten years or so has always been checking. However, we did find a couple of ATMs in Italy that offered a choice. Don't know if that is a trend or not BUT I would not depend on finding an ATM that gives choices.

Leburta

In Paris in June the ATM's did not give me a choice as to where the money was coming from (I would have asked that it be taken from my checking), so I assumed that despite my best planning the money I took out would be a cash advance for which I would be charged interest from the day I used the ATM. One of the first things I did when I got back home was to go to the bank to pay off the cash advances so that I could "stop the clock" on the interest, but the bank had no record of any cash advances. A few weeks after that, I got a bank statement that showed the money had been taken from my checking account.

So like others, I can confirm that the money will be taken out of whatever account it normally comes out of when you use an ATM at home.

transrepublic

ATM cards linked to Savings accounts do not work in Germany. The Foreign ATM sends a transaction back say withdrawl from checking even if you have no checking. I tried sending an ATM (no Visa) only card linked to a savings for making support payments to my daughters mother. I had to open a checking and relink the card. Incidentally I know Bank of America cards work fee free at DeutscheBank, I have heard rumor they also work fee free at the other Cashgroup.DE machines (Commerzbank, Deutschen Bank, Dresdner Bank, HypoVereinsbank oder der Postbank ) Has anybody tried their BOFA cards there and had any luck?

greg

Ditto about an ATM card linked to a savings account - it did not work in France or in Spain. It was linked ONLY to a savings account. The B of A rep assured me that it SHOULD work before we left.

After the return, I had him go over the transactions for the reasons for the failures. He noted that the foreign ATMs performed Demand Deposit Account transactions, and it failed because a savings account is not and can not be a Demand Deposit Account.

Unless your credit union or bank handles clients who uses foreign ATMs a lot, the customer service employees incorrectly assume that foreign ATMs work just like (U.S.) ATMs.

kmowatt

Outside of Canada, I've always found that it withdraws from chequeing. In Europe, including the UK, you are not given a choice of savings or chequeing at the ATM.

I prefer that I withdraw from savings so what I do now before leaving the country is this: I go to my bank and have the teller remove all accounts from my ATM card except for savings - now when I use the card abroad it has only one account to withdraw from. When I return I go back to the back and reinstate the other accounts onto my card - it's a simple procedure and has always worked for me.

Jim_Tardio

Not to dispute you, Kmowatt, but that doesn't make sense.

Its pretty much been verified that you can't use an ATM card to withdraw funds from a savings account in most (if not all) of Europe.

All I had was a savings account. I could not withdraw funds from England, Italy, Austria & Croatia.

You need funds tied to a checking account if you want to use an American issued ATM card in Europe

hetismij

Some Dutch banks allow Dutch account holders a choice of account to withdraw money from, but whether they also offer that service to foreigners I wouldn't know. Better not to risk it and to just use the checking account.

kmowatt

I guess that's why I clarified in my response that it works with a Canadian ATM card. I did this as recently as September of this year and had no issue withdrawing funds from any ATM in London.

Michel_Paris

My Canadian ATM card used in Europe automatically withdrew funds from my checking account.

I'd not go to my bank and transfer anything from one to the other, nor "reinstate" accounts. Why go to the bother, and I'm never quite sure if I trust the bank to do things right.

Seems like a lot of hassle for no reason. Checking, savings...no diff.