Charged for taking out Euros from a N.I. Machine

brodie100

Hi All,

I have just notice that Halifax have charged me £1.50 for using an ATM in Belfast because it dispenced Euro's (First Trust).

So not only was I hit by a poor exchange rate from one bank I've now been hit by my own bank for using the ATM even though it isn't in a different country.

Is this right? Seems a bit unfair to me, anyone else know why this has happened (Apart from Halifax being an awful bank)?

absoluteutopia

You could have rang Halifax in the time it took to post here and got a proper answer rather than a guess. Is mse the new google?

saverbuyer

You’ve been charged for take foreign currency out of an ATM. Seems reasonable enough to me. It happens (with most cards) when taking money out abroad so why not here.

dsab

Seems fair enough. You can usually only avoid this by using the same bank.

I have an account with AIB and can take out money from a First Trust Euro ATM free of charge.

If you have a BOI Account in the south BOI will also not charge you when using a BOI Euro ATM in the north.

But if it is between different banks, then this is a different story.

Mistral001

£1.50 seems very reasonable. Where is the machine? I might try it myself.

RTNI

Halifax charges you £1.50 for every foreign transaction that you do - that's withdrawing euro's (or other currencies abroad) or using the debit card abroad. A possible solution would have been to withdraw sterling, and walk inside the bank to change that the Euro. Although the rate may have been different.

Link: http://www.halifax.co.uk/bankaccounts/rates-rewards-fees/

Buying goods and services in a foreign currency
If you use your debit card to withdraw cash or pay for goods and services in a currency other than sterling, the exchange rate we use will be the Visa Reference Exchange Rate. We will charge a foreign exchange fee of 2.75% of the amount of the transaction and a £1.50 fee for each payment or withdrawal.

Toe-Jam

Mistral001 wrote: »

£1.50 seems very reasonable. Where is the machine? I might try it myself.

Halifax would love to see you coming

This is not very reasonable, its daylight robbery.

The £1.50 is in addition to the terrible rate that you will get from Halifax to convert it to Euros, and then they will slap a 2.75% exchange fee on as well.

Toe-Jam

dsab wrote: »

Seems fair enough. You can usually only avoid this by using the same bank.

I have an account with AIB and can take out money from a First Trust Euro ATM free of charge.

If you have a BOI Account in the south BOI will also not charge you when using a BOI Euro ATM in the north.

But if it is between different banks, then this is a different story.

Its not the same from Euro to GBP, Ireland is part of the eurozone, it is free to withdraw Euros anywhere in Europe from a euro ATM. You only get charged if the atm is not in Euros.

It is free however for Ulsterbank customers to use cash machines within the Rbs group without getting charged, so you can get free withdrawals from your Natwest acc, in the republic from an Ulsterbank Machine for example.

brodie100

Fair enough, I just thought it was unfair since the ATM was still in the same country, if I'd known I would have taken money out of the normal ATM and walked in, since it was the same rate.

Thanks for the help guys, I just wanted other people opinions on the subject more than anything, I'll take heed of absoluteutopia and not post on here again for this sort of thing, sorry for any inconvenience

Lirin

ATM might have been in the same country as you were, but the currency is foreign! Think the worst I found was £3 charge when I withdrew from somewhere in Dublin.

RikM

If you look at your account t&cs, it probably says somewhere that foreign currency transactions will have a flat rate fee on them plus the forex.
It's about the currency, not where the transaction took place.

A flat rate fee isn't always a bad thing. It depends on how much you're taking out. Sometimes fees are a percentage of the transaction instead, which gets way more expensive for larger amounts.