Watch out for new charges on BBVA cash machines in Spain

reallydismayed

For a while now, if you are using a UK debit card in most cash machines in Spain, they offer to charge your bank either in euros or in pounds (with their own around 3% markup). In recent months, if you choose euros, they add scary messages about how much they are going to charge your bank. That wasn't a problem for me (as I use Metro Bank, which doesn't charge for using a debit card in Europe*) so I kept on choosing euros. Those charges didn't appear on my statement (don't know if it's the same for all UK banks).

On Saturday however I took out 20 euros from the BBVA bank. There was a similar message saying they were going to charge my bank 1.87 euros. But this time they added the charge to the transaction, debiting my account 21.87 euros (a 9.35% markup).

Later, I took more money out of CaixaBank, but that transaction worked normally. So it seems that this new practice is confined to BBVA (but as Spanish banks are a cartel, I don't know how long that will last before they all do it).

* Technically, just members of the EEA

Nebulous2

I've posted on this before as have others.

It seems to be a developing position, but there were certainly options to avoid it when I was there in early September.

reallydismayed

Nebulous2 wrote: »

I've posted on this before as have others

Thanks for the link. Are they all talking about using credit cards there or debit cards too?

System

reallydismayed wrote: »

That wasn't a problem for me (as I use Metro Bank, which doesn't charge for using a debit card in Europe*) so I kept
* Technically, just members of the EEA

Technically, just members of SEPA, not the EEA.

Nebulous2

reallydismayed wrote: »

Thanks for the link. Are they all talking about using credit cards there or debit cards too?

I was only talking about credit cards, specifically Halifax Clarity, as that is the only option I have to withdraw cash fee-free.

zagfles

reallydismayed wrote: »

On Saturday however I took out 20 euros from the BBVA bank. There was a similar message saying they were going to charge my bank 1.87 euros. But this time they added the charge to the transaction, debiting my account 21.87 euros (a 9.35% markup).

As I've just posted on the linked thread, I withdrew 200 EUR for the exact same charge, 1.87, so seems the charge is flat whatever amount you withdraw.