ATM charges outside the UK

andromark2

I have seen a few threads before about this, but there is often little information about 'admin' charges made by overseas banks at the point of withdrawal.
It is becoming more and more common, for example I travel with a zero charge Mastercard, but in Canada, where I travel regularly and in Australia, where I go occasionally all banks now charge for a cash withdrawal if you are not a customer of that bank (at least, all those I used). $3ca and $3aus was routine with some charging more (mutuals etc).
I withdrew East Caribbean dollars in St Kitts and St Lucia this year. In St Kitts the ATM only issued $ECCA which was fine, but it added $5 US, which it converted to $ECCA at what I consider to be a disadvantageous rate. Bizzarrely, in St Lucia Scotiabank (a Canadian bank!) made no charges whatsoever for the same currency.

So it is important to check or draw large amounts rather than lots of small ones. If you have use for it, max your daily limit.

dresdendave

Obviously a fixed fee is effectively minimised by making only a few large withdrawals rather than lots of small ones. Even better though is to pay as much as possible by card and keep cash spending to a minimum, making sure you are charged in local currency.