we were surprised that the airport exchange rate for euros was only a few cents worse than in town at banks.

240 huf/ 1 euro at airport
243 huf/ 1 euro in town ( except at a few busy corner places where it was only 195!!)

But do you have any idea what it would have been at an ATM?

ever since our son was charged 20 euros for taking out 300 euros from his account from a german atm,( taken outof his spanish bank account).. i am leary of atm's FOR ME.

my bank was unable to explain or know how much i would be charged in budapest from atm, nor were they able to give me name of "sister" bank. maybe someone can help me on gettng this info from them..

what do i need to ask exactly if not what i did? can you actually KNOW before you go, what rate the ATM is going to give you? once you are there, you don't know until you get home.. so..??

this way, i felt, i didn't have to wait to get back from trip to know what i was being charged. i will see on my visa purchases what rate was applied. will be interesting.

Your bank should not be charging you anything for taking out your own money - ever. (Any charge should come from the owner of the ATM machine - whose service you are using.)

If your bank is charging for this you should get a new one. And doesn;t the bank's web site have this info?

well, then, it was the german atm machine. who knows. but it really shocked us.

i guess i meant on our monthly print out, the amount was 20 euros more than was extracted.

how can you know ahead of time how much these foreign atms are going to charge you. will it say so on the screen before you proceed? i know in spain there is a notification ...

i just don't know how to foresee what i will really be charged at an atm in non-euro country.. especially after the germany episode.

our travel partner was changing the money anyway.. had cash he was dealing with, so that is why in this case ( now i remember) there was no atm invloved, although i would have gone to one eventually if i had been on my own, as i had no other choice).

but.. both of my cards acted up in shops.. amex and mastercard. but amex was fine at hotel and two restaurants. so.. hard to know if it even would have worked in atm.

what do you do if BOTH cards fink out last day when you are paying your bill on hotel's machine?????

Your bank can charge you. My bank charges me $1.00 each time I take out money. I never get charged by the ATM owner, ever!!!! I'm in the USA. Most banks charge more..I always get good rates at the ATM machine.
There are banks out there that don't charge fees for taking money out, but you have to have lots on money in your account, and can't fall below like a $1,000 or some times more then that. I go to Europe every year, all I use is ATM and cash I bring with me. Not much cash as ATM's are great in Hungary and Slovakia. $1.00 = 192 forints as of today, I spoke with my family in Hungary this evening. Oanda is always off about 3-5 forints...Alizka