I hate ATM surprises
 

I've always gotten cash in a foreign country via ATM withdrawals because I believed I would receive better rates and there would be no surprises.
However, last time Chase (via checking acct) charged us a flat fee AND a percentage of the total withdrawal. And that's on top off the local bank's fees.
Are there any banks that don't charge fees like that? Like the good old days?

Thanks.

Hello shternm, USAA has a saving account that I believe remimurses the customer for up to 10 ATM withdrawals a month..not sure if that includes withdrawals out of the US however. But I "think" it does.

You do not have to be military or retired military to have a checking account etc. throught USAA. That only applies to their insurance section
They do not have any physical buildings if that is important to you.

Others here on Fodor's have said they have checking accounts through their local credit union and they don't get socked with all the fees that regular banks now seem to be charging.

BTW, USAA also offers Visa and MC. Again that is available to anyone, as long as they meet USAA credit rating requeirements. They only add 1% for credit card charges in Europe..or at least that was true not to long ago.

I actually had a pleasant surprise on our recent trip. My credit union usually charges $1.00 for all overseas withdrawals, but this time I was never charged anything. I guess it had something to do with the particular bank we were withdrawing at.

Two words: credit union! Dump your bank, all they exist for these days is collecting fees from you. Credit unions provide better service for lower or no fees.

Andrew

Most credit unions do not charge a fee.
Most also do not charge the extra 2% exchange fee. Chase and most other major cards now charge a total of 3% for international transactions.

I never use a major (I like the miles...but the fees are over the top)
credit card. I always use credit union and another small bank Visa card that does not charge the extra 2%.

<i>And that's on top off the local bank's fees</i>.
I never encountered that in Europe.

Yes - that &quot;local bank's fees&quot; bit confused me too. The only fees you should have are from your own bank.

UNLESS you used stand-alone ATMs not affiliated to a bank. Those commercial ATMs do charge fees - but bank machines don't.

We're going to France and we'll be withdrawing money from non-US bank thus the extra fees in addition to my bank's fees.
BTW, I called my credit union today and they will charge 1% of total withdrawal. Supposedly that's Visa fee that's getting passed on.
My other bank charges a flat $5 fee for each foreign currecy withdrawal.
Crazy!

&quot;We're going to France and we'll be withdrawing money from non-US bank thus the extra fees in addition to my bank's fees.&quot;

French banks don't charge a fee for use of their ATMs.

clair, use <b>&lt;I&gt;</b> and <b>&lt;/I&gt;</b> tags to italicize.

Shterman: &quot;<i>We're going to France and we'll be withdrawing money from <b>non-US bank</b> thus the extra fees in addition to my bank's fees.</i>

As clairobscur explained -- &quot;Non-US bank&quot; has nothing to do w/ anything. The Bank in France will not charge you to use their ATMs

I have to add another vote for Credit Unions for ATM use in Europe.

I recently was in Spain, and there was only 1 time that I was charged any additional charge (1.20 on $120 withdrawal) and I think that was an ATM machine (Caja Baja) that was not in the Pulse network. All the other WD I made ( using BBVA machines) NO FEES AT ALL!!!

Before I left I called my bank ( USBANK ) - which charges $1.50 per trans PLUS 2% of the amount. So for a $300 usd withdrawal, I would be charged $7.50 !!

I am so glad I went with the CU card - I saved at least $15 - 18 in fees alone.

The old days are gone and the ffinance people will stick it to you when they get the chance. ATM was always the cheapest as there was no charge from the foreign bank with possibly a small charge from the home bank, and most importantly used the inter-bank exchange rate. This year my Chase bank added a 3 1/2% ATM exchange charge to a very low rate. It made the ATM slightly more expensive than the CC. (normally it was the reverse). I would still say that the ATM and Credit Card are still the best way to go.

More important , remember that the money involved is not high finance amounts.The costs had to come out of your pocket even when not in an obvious manner le one was paying part of the new charges in the past without realizing it.

i think that US banks will slowly introduce more fees for foreign withdrawals. i don't think very many customers would choose their bank based on the cost of foreign withdrawals.

here in the UK i pay, on average, &pound;7 fee (fixed charge + &quot;loss&quot; from published rate) per withdrawal from a european (non-UK) cash machine.

On our recent trip to the UK, we paid a flat $2 fee to our bank as an &quot;out of network transaction fee,&quot; and a 1% fee of the total withdrawl. These charges were each billed separately to the account. The only fee we'd had in the past was the $2 charge. Upon our return, I called to inquire what each charge was for. I was told the 1% was charged by Visa and always had been, but they were now itemizing the charge. I think I liked not knowing about it better!!

Just like in our home area, some ATMs stated their was no charge for use by the affilitated bank, some stated there was a charge. We used both types. However, no charge nor additional amount was ever debited from our account.

Bank of America is part of the &quot;Global ATM Alliance.&quot; Members of this alliance do not charge fees to ATM customers of member banks. Several European banks belong to this group, including Deutsche Bank.

When we were in Italy in May, we used ATM's from Deutsche Bank and there were no fees.

If we couldn't find a convenient ATM from Deutsche Bank, we used an ATM from an Italian bank. We felt that the ATM fee for getting cash was better than paying the fees now charged by credit
card companies.

You can google Global ATM Alliance and see what banks are included.

I'm a little confused about Chase charging you a flat fee and a percentage, plus fees from the local bank? Isn't Chase your local bank?

European ATM's don't charge a fee. Visa &amp; M/C charge a 1% conversion fee. If you used your credit card to take an ATM withdrawal, you will incur interest, pay the conversion fee, and pay whatever other bank fees your bank charges.

My bank does not charge me a conversion fee or a bank fee to withdraw money via an ATM in Europe from my checking account. So, there must be other banks out there that don't. ((b))

Economics 101. Look at that ATM. How much did it cost? How much is security for it? How much does it cost to service it? What does it stock cost? Now, who is going to pay for this? I have yet to see a complaint about cigarette machines, candy machines or beverage dispensers. Coca Cola and Pepsi have machines in many places. How much more is charged there than for a bulk purchase at the supermarket. Money is simply a commodity. Businesses make a profit by selling it. I still am sure that the least expensive sytem of buying/acquiring local currency involves trading USA dollars for local units!

I have never been charged a fee from the &quot;local bank&quot; in europe. Are you sure about that part?

I have a bank that doesn't charge anything extra when I use it at other ATMs or to get foreign currency. They used to have an out-of-network ATM fee of $2 for any bank that wasn't theirs, whether here or abroad. They just changed their policy to get rid of all out-of-network ATM charges. I had gotten 2-3 a month free before that change, anyway, because I had a premium account. So there certainly are US banks that don't charge these excessive amounts.

However, I have a local bank (local to Maryland/Virginia). It's a fairly big &quot;chain&quot; in this area, but isn't across the entire US. From reading posts on here, it seems some of those really big national banks are the ones assessing these very high charges (Chase, BA, etc.), and I think I have read on here that some assess a percentage charge even for ATM withdrawals, just like credit cards do for purchases (the 2-3 pct of withdrawal thing). I don't know about that, sometimes I think people confuse using a debit/check card for purchases with getting money from ATMs, but it appears some banks are really doing this. I know my own bank told me they would assess the extra 2-3% if a debit card were used for purchases, but not ATM withdrawals. I don't have a debit card, just an ATM card, and wouldn't ever use a debit card for purchases even if I had one -- I'd use a credit card.

I think some Canadian residents on here have also talked about how Canadian banks also generally asses very high charges for ATM use abroad.

I've never been charged a fee from a foreign bank for using their ATM, in any country, but have only used mine in Europe, Mexico, the Caribbean and Canada.

(budman, I think the term &quot;local bank&quot; was someone meaning the bank in Europe where they were using it, not their home local bank).

I'm not the original poster, but as I noted in my earlier contribution to this thread, our experiences were the same as shternm's.

By &quot;local bank&quot; or &quot;affiliated bank,&quot; we're referring to the bank who owns the cash machine we are using.

From other posts here, I'm assuming that &quot;European ATMs&quot; are different from those in the UK.

In the UK, several banks' machines gave the message that they may impose a charge for use in addition to any changes imposed by the cardholder's bank. It didn't strike me as odd, since that happens all the time in the US. Our British hosts even commented that they tried to take us to ATMs that did not charge a fee for use.

However, even though I agreed to pay the fee, it was never deducted from our account nor was the amount of the withdrawl ever less than what was specified.

When I'm at home, I make an effort to use machines that will cost me nothing. I don't like having to pay fees while on vacation, but I simply chalk it up to part of the cost of vacation.

Sure, there are costs associated with buying and operating ATMs - but they're a drop in the bucket compared to what it costs for the care and feeding of the human tellers they replace. The banks should PAY US for using them. To charge us is (to use xyz's phrase) near criminal.

I guess what they're doing is maximizing their profitability in selling an intangible product which economists refer to as &quot;utility of time and place.&quot; This is the same justification for charging $8 for a $2 beer at the ball park, or any outrageous price for food or drink at an airport or hotel.

USAA has no in house ATM charges and rebates 10 out of service ATM w/d's/month.
They pass the 1% V/MC CC charge to you, but that's better than 3+% charged by Citibank, Chase, etc.
M

Hi there, I also have a Credit Union ATM. I was not charged a fee for withdrawing Euro's. As an example I withdraw 100euros and my bank withddrawal in dollar was $118.00. I just got back from Rome last night. Merlina

I called around 10+banks to find out about charges and everyone charges a different amount. A few of them said that they didn't charge for it but I had no confidence in clerk's knowledge. I ended up opening an acct at a local bank that charges the least and now I am crossing my fingers that the card will get here today or tomorrow- before my trip.
BTW, check out this link
http://europeforvisitors.com/europe/...rsion_fees.htm

and this one
http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/cc/20050624b1.asp

Fidth Third Bank of (is it Cincinnati or Columbus...some C town in Ohio)...

No domestic fee, no international fee, as long as I use a European ATM with either the Cirrus or some other familiar logo. And the translation rate used on my trip to France last fall, and Cent/East Europe this spring, was equal to the end-of-day interbank rate.

Funny how, when ATMs first came out, the transactions were free because ,as the bank marketing people said, the bank saved money as measured against the cost of human to human transactions) and wanted to pass the savings on to the customers. Now that we're all accustomed to not dealing with humans, they start to tell us about the cost of maintenance, carrying cost of an inventory cash, etc. As far as convenience is concerned, who's getting the more convenience--the customer or the bank, which doesn't have to have a teller, or a manager to manage him/her, or a personnel department, or an office party, or....the list goes on. One could make a great case that the incremental direct costs previously allocated to retail tellers etc should now be charged to commercial loan activities. But then that assumes that pricing is based on cost, not on the ability of each market to absorb charges. Ooops, gotta take my green eyeshade off.

I actually had a nice ATM surprise. I used an ATM near Shannon Airport in Ireland to withdraw 100 euros. That was more than a month ago, and the withdrawal still hasn't shown up in my checking account.

Tomboy, I agree with you to some extent, but I don't know of any bank that charges an ATM fee for its own customers. That is a savings for them versus personnel. The only fees I've ever heard of for ATMs were for customers to use the ATM of a different bank. Now I don't know all the thinking behind those fees, but I can certainly see there is probably some additional &quot;work&quot; for the bank, or cost, for transactions that have to be processed through another bank. I think there may be some other reason they have those fees, although it can just be a simple moneymaker for them as customers may have to use ATMs in other cities.

I don't mind paying an ATM fee to get my money abroad in a convenient manner. I think this is amazing technology that in Europe within a couple minutes I can get cash that is charged to my home bank account. I don't agree with the folks who think that should be free because &quot;it's my money&quot;. yeah, but it's not your machinery, software, personnel, etc. The foreign bank's ATM gets nothing out of this transaction, they are just providing you a free service. I think that's pretty amazing.

I don't even understand these banks that charge a percentage fee for foreign ATM withdrawals and why some folks above (Mikemo in talking about USAA) have referred to this as a &quot;Visa CC fee&quot;, when it isn't a credit card being used as far as I understand it. If he was talking about cash advances on credit cards, that's a whole other story.

I'm just glad my bank doesn't charge anything for foreign ATM withdrawals and I don't know what Visa has to do with it. My ATM card does not have a Visa or MC logo on it because it's not a debit card.

Plus is owned by visa, cirrus by mastercard. The transactions, if you are using those networks, clear through the visa or mastercard systems; hence the 1% currency conversion fee which is the same as if it was a credit card.

Again some banks pull the near criminal action of adding their own currency conversion fees when they don't convert any currency.

As far as the fees are concerned, banks do it because it makes money for them which is what they're in the business to do, make money. The more the merrier. The owner of an ATM gets a small piece of the action to reimburse for a transaction you do at another bank....your bank can afford it, of course, because they pay less to keep your money than they get from people to whom they loan the money.

The reason you usually don't pay a fee to a foreign bank is plus and cirrus regulations prohibit the surcharge by banks on accounts outside their country..if you look closely at a citibank machine in NY it clearly indicates its near criminal $1.50 fee to use its machine does not apply to debit or ATM cards from out of the US banks.

Now if a bank charged me the going rate for what it costs them for a transaction at their machine, say what it costs them approximately 3¢, I wouldn't object. But $1.50 is simply a near criminal rip off.

vcl...

I am sure as an honest person you have contacted your bank and asked them to temporarily debit your account for the equivalent of &euro;100 while they investigate what happened....