Inability to use my Debit Card with Pin at ATM in Spain
 

Just called my bank in preparation for my up-coming trip to France and Spain. My bank tells me that due to high fraud risk, I will not be able to use my Debit card at an ATM in Spain. Instead I can use my Credit Card (also issued thru the same bank) and get a cash advance of course at a high interest rate. Are others encountering this as well with travel to Spain? Seems incredibly restrictive. Any tips on options regarding how to handle this--do I get all my Euros while still in France? Thanks for any input.

Sounds like you need a new bank. I have had my Credit Union, although never my bank, disallow usage in a few countries, but not in a major western European country like Spain!

Or maybe you can stock up on euros in France....

Your bank is either crooked or stupid. Maybe both. Easy to fix.... how much money are you likely to need? (Don't tell us.. just come up with a number.) Withdraw that money ad move it to a bank who treat their customers properly. Use the new ATM card in Spain. Come home and move the rest of your business to your new bank or credit union.

ParisAmsterdam, I think it is the former. One can say in free market, one can change the bank. But the same free market does not protect from the formation of monopoly positions. So if the crooked bank is the only practical game in town, you are stuck for immediate banking needs.

Fortunately, I live in a large metropolitan city, so banking options are many. It is a hassle none the less--especially since I have banked with this institution for many years--depositing my checks from my first job as a teenager--many moons ago. Thanks for the reality check--I appreciate that my bank is looking out for me and the safety of my money--but this just seems overboard. But then again this is the same bank that freaks out each time I travel to Atlanta GA (even after I have notified them that I will be away from home) and denies literally every charge that they deem to be "suspicious" because apparently they deem Atlanta to be a high risk area for fraudulent activity. Will open up that new account pronto!

As noted, your bank, or the person (buffoon) you spoke to, is wrong on all counts, unless it's some small private bank without any worldly connections. Your debit/cash ATM card is either a VISA or MC, which handles all transactions. You never use a credit card to take funds out of an ATM unless it's an emergency and you have no other options.

I would dump the bank immediately and take my business elsewhere.

Just another plug for Andrews Federal Credit Union. You can get away with just a savings account (so you get an ATM card not a Debit card). You can also get a Visa card that is chip and PIN, no annual fee. No fee to use the ATM card, no currency conversion fee on either the Visa or the ATM card. They are located in Maryland but that's never been an issue for me (I live nowhere near). All you have to do is sign up to join the American Consumer Council (free, takes a minute) then you are eligible to join the credit union.

1. Go higher t your bank
2. Open an account in another bank to be used only for travel. Get an ATM card for that account, not a debit card, deposit as much cash as you expect to spend, and you are good to go.

Before ATM's, Back in the Day, we would prepay our credit card bill by as much as we expected to spend plus a bit. Say $2500. When we got cash with the card, it merely reduced the credit. As long as one was careful not to charge or withdraw more than one had prepaid, there were no interest charges. But I bet they won't let you do that any more.

We had to contact our bank (online) from Spain and chat (online) with a representative at the main office, who asked us personal questions to confirm that we were really who we were saying we were. Then they allowed us to use our ATM card to get cash.

Ackislander, that ploy would keep you from being charged interest on the money you withdrew, but it won't keep you from being charged the 3% (usually) fee for a cash withdrawal. Speaking from experience. If you want fee-free access to a credit on your credit account, you have to have them send you a check.

I'll put in a plug here for Charles Schwab. They have interest-bearing, fee-free checking, and you can withdraw your money from any ATM anywhere in the world for free - if the other bank charges a fee, Schwab refunds it to you. The one drawback is that they are not a brick and mortar bank, so you can't deposit cash, but other than that, they are tops. They have absolutely awesome customer service. (You have to open a brokerage account with them to get a checking account, but you don't have to fund it - mine has never had a penny in it.)

I don't think that bank was wrong, some banks do limit ATM transactions in Spain, that is real. Some people have posted about it before on Fodors. So that doesn't make the bank crooked nor stupid. I think there was, especially for a time, higher ATM fraud from Spain than some other countries and that's when some banks started doing that.

I don't know why luli won't name the bank, it would be interesting to know.

I'm glad I don't have a bank like that, but it is believable. I would certainly not use a CC instead. I don't think it is common for banks to do that, but I have heard of at least one brand that did. Just open another account somewhere if you want to keep that bank. YOu can open a Capital One Money Market account, for example, which gives you a debit card for use and it has no foreign transaction fee.

Some banks restrict ATM/debit for certain countries, particularly Italy and Spain.

kybourbon,

My Credit Union does...in Spain!! At first I thought it was because I had the ordinary ATM card without the VISA logo. So when I came home, I ordered a Debit card. On a succeeding trip to Spain, it did it again. The machine(s) would not accept it. Surprisingly, I was able to use the same ATM and DEBIT cards in such countries as Croatia and Montenegro! Go figure!

<i>Some banks restrict ATM/debit for certain countries,</i>

My credit union does for 7 or 8 different locations in the States. But they will allow withdrawals if forewarned, and one of our tasks each time we prepare for a trip is to give our credit union our travel dates and locations.

"some banks do limit ATM transactions in Spain" The account holder sets the daily limit, not the bank! It's what ever you're comfortable with.

Note that Banks and Credit Unions follow different rules.

I called Andrews FCU before my last trip to notify them about my travel. They passed me on to Visa for the Visa card so I could add info about my travel destinations for the Visa card, but for the ATM card (not a debit card) they could not even record any info about my travels and didn't need to because, they said, my ATM card is PIN-protected. It can't be used to buy anything because it's not a debit card. I take it the Andrews ATM card would work in Spain just because many of their members tend to be military and government officials, and imposing restrictions on where their cards could be used would probably be too inconvenient. But I guess if I ever go to Spain, I'll find out for myself.

"The account holder sets the daily limit, not the bank! It's what ever you're comfortable with."

No, the bank sets the limit. The bank may increase it if you ask, but it's not a given.

The bank has a default setting when you open your account (usually $300/day, depending on how much money you have in your account), but, as I said, the account holder sets the daily limit to whatever they are comfortable with, not the bank.

Not any bank I know about. You have to call the bank to get it changed. I bet if you tried setting higher than the bank liked they would not agree.

Get a new bank.

And tell them why.

I don't know what bank, or banks you deal with, but I could not travel or conduct business with the default amount normally set by the typical bank. Both my business and personal accounts allow me to withdrawal whatever I need on a daily basis, up to the amount I placed as a daily limit on those accounts.

And yes, you have to maintain sufficient funds in your account in order to establish a higher daily limit, or an excellent credit rating, if you need to withdrawal more than what's in your account.

My credit union sets the daily ATM limit. It used to be $5,000 per day which I was uncomfortable with and asked to have it changed but I was told that I could not change it. They now have substantially reduced the daily limit to a normal amount.

Michael, when I said some banks limit ATM transactions in Spain I wasn't even talking about the daily limit, which is another story. I meant you can't do it, as some have noted, like the OP. My bank wouldn't increase my limit when I asked and I have at least $100K in the bank and excellent credit, etc. They said they had limits for a reason, and it wasn't related to the person who had the bank account. I think that means to deflect fraud or something. I didn't drill them, as usually the clerk doesn't know the reasons they set rules, anyway. I didn't really care that much, I had other options as I have 2 ATM cards on 2 accounts.

My bank's limits are about $700 per day (Capital One brick and mortar), I think $1000 on my Cap One money market ATM card which is a completely different account, which is why I suggested the OP get one. I have never needed more than a couple hundred euro at a time except once when I was renting an apt (which I don't do on every trip, for sure) and they wanted cash. Then I just used both cards to get what I needed.

I don't even own a debit card, mine are only ATM cards, but they still have limits, even though you need a PIN. I"m not quite sure why buying something is the issue, as withdrawing cash can certainly add up to more than buying something.

<i>Michael, when I said some banks limit ATM transactions in Spain I wasn't even talking about the daily limit, </i>

I was not either. I am talking about blocking transactions that occur in fraud hot spots. NYC is one of them for the security firm used by my credit union.