Euros at cashpoints abroad

richpoortyke

Ive never used ATM machines to take money out abroad. WIll i get charged for doing so? Im with Halifax bank.
Id rather not change all my money and carry it around in my wallet for a week so am looking at taking money out of the machines instead.

Thanks for any advice

aerostar

You will pay a fee/commission for it, but when you get to the machine,, make sure you get charged in EUROS or whatever is the local currency, there is usually an option on the screen, do not let it convert it to pounds, otherwise you will not get the best rate that your own bank would give you, you would get whatever the the owner of the foreign ATM would give you and that is usually a worse rate.

Make sure you use a debit card for cash not a credit card.

sb2_2

aerostar is correct. ALWAYS get then in euros, not pounds.

There have been alot of articles of the last couple of days about this in the papers as its seen as a rip off by the bank to get more money out of you.

Here is an article about it. Sorry its daily mail but having trouble finding the others.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2039834/Greedy-banks-cash-time-use-cards-overseas-1bn-rip-off.html

zagfles

richpoortyke wrote: »

Ive never used ATM machines to take money out abroad. WIll i get charged for doing so? Im with Halifax bank.
Id rather not change all my money and carry it around in my wallet for a week so am looking at taking money out of the machines instead.

Thanks for any advice

Have you got a Clarity? If not get one should be easy as you bank with Halifax. Then there's no fee or exchange rate markup like their normal bank card. Just pay it off when you get back, there'll be a minimal amount of interest which will be far less than your normal card would charge.

In some countries the ATM machine itself has a charge - but not in most of Europe. Even so it'd be better than changing cash.

As others have said always ask to be changed in the local currency if the ATM asks you.

Doshwaster

Another thing to watch out for when using a debit card is the minimum free. This will be usually be between £1.50 and £2.00 (plus any fee the ATM operator charges). That's quite a chunk if you only get €10 out at a time but not so bad for €100. So if you are going to use an ATM make sure you take out a decent amount each time - but not so much that you would be devastated if you lost it.

As others have said, even with the fee it is still usually cheaper to get money from an ATM than use a money changer (especially one at an airport!)

An even cheaper option are some of the pre-paid travel cards which don't charge for cash machine withdrawals.

GreatEscape

Hello all. Can one assume that the exchange rate given at the cash machines in the Euro-zone is the same as you'd get changing £-euro in cash at a bank at home? If not, is there any way of checking?

zagfles

GreatEscape wrote: »

Hello all. Can one assume that the exchange rate given at the cash machines in the Euro-zone is the same as you'd get changing £-euro in cash at a bank at home? If not, is there any way of checking?

Usually better - and if you use of the fee free cards then much better. You'll get charged the VISA/MasterCard rate depending which your card is and most banks mark the rate up typically 3%, but some don't (eg Clarity, MetroBank) so you get exactly the rates given below:

https://www.mastercard.com/global/currencyconversion/index.html

http://corporate.visa.com/pd/consumer_services/consumer_ex_rates.jsp

To compare with changing cash see the PO rates (for online orders - probably more expensive in branch):

http://www2.postoffice.co.uk/travel/travel-money/foreign-currency/currency-converter

GreatEscape

Hi. I'd be using a Nationwide Flex and using the 'charge in Euros' option (as I've read on here that you should do).

I've been informed on the other thread that N/W charge a flat rate fee of £1 every time you take money out.

Still probably better than changing in the UK though, as long as I'm taking out at least £100, right? Unless the foreign bank also has a cash machine charge.

mcc100

GreatEscape wrote: »

Hi. I'd be using a Nationwide Flex and using the 'charge in Euros' option (as I've read on here that you should do).

I've been informed on the other thread that N/W charge a flat rate fee of £1 every time you take money out.

Still probably better than changing in the UK though, as long as I'm taking out at least £100, right? Unless the foreign bank also has a cash machine charge.

£1 and also a 2% fee ....... I always use mine for the convenience, and even with the fees it works out as cheap as buying foreign currency in the UK.

dursley92

We always get our Euros from ATM machines on holiday. All the ones we have used in Portugal and Spain are free.
My account is with Santander and using my Debit card for a 200 Euro withdrawal it cost approx £179 last week with a £2.79 charge which I reckon is not too bad.
We have been doing the same for the past few years with pretty similar charges and its so much easier than carrying lots of money around.