Santander Debit Card - FREE cash withdrawals in Spain from Santander cash machines.

MykieMike

All main adult Santander current accounts (those which are credited with at least £1,000 per month) can benefit from free cash machine withdrawals in Spain. Simply use your Santander Debit Card in a Santander branded cash machine in Spain to receive the withdrawal fee free. This means: No Cash Handling Fee AND No Foreign Exchange Fee will be charged.

I have emailed Satander quite a few times regarding this. They have finally listened.:j

ermepb

The question is, of course, how good their exchange rate is. They may use such a bad exchange rate that it may be better to pay a small exchange rate fee and get a better rate.

I remember having both a Citibank Sterling account and Euro account. Citibank advertises no foreign exchange fee. Then I made a test and transferred £1 to the Euro account and immediately the Euro amount back to the Sterling account (so no time for an exchange rate movement). From the original £1, only 92p survived the "transaction fee free" operations. So Citibank applied such an exchange rate (the spread between buying and selling foreign exchange) that I lost 8% of value.

So let's wait and see what exchange rates Santander charges

MykieMike

I emailed Santander and asked the question regarding what exchange rate they would apply.

The reply was:

The exchange rate that we apply to your card when making withdrawals in Spain will be the average daily exchange rate on that day.

dzug1

MykieMike wrote: »

I emailed Santander and asked the question regarding what exchange rate they would apply.

The reply was:

The exchange rate that we apply to your card when making withdrawals in Spain will be the average daily exchange rate on that day.

A pretty meaningless statement.

Martin's guide suggests a 2.75% load.

MykieMike

I received a leaflet (ARCM 0820 JUN 10 T) with my latest Santander current account statement that backs up the statement which I originally posted which is from Santander website.

The leaflet says No foreign transaction fees when using one of 4300 Santander cash machines in Spain. Ensure that you select to have the withdrawal processed in Euros for the trasaction to be entirely fee free. No cash handling fee (normally 1.5% of the transaction) and No foreign exchange fee (normally 2.75%).

MykieMike

I am currently in Spain and I used my Santander debit card to withdraw 40 euros a few days ago from a Santander cash machine in Benalmadena Spain. On checking my account it shows no fees charged whatsoever for making this withdrawal and they have applied an exchange rate of 0.82p (1.21 euros to the £) which I think is a pretty good exchange rate. The amount that came out of my account was £32.99.

Very happy !!!:j