ATM’s

antenna

I use a metrobank card in a unicaja atm   you must refuse thier conversion offer (twice) and go ahead with no conversiom and your bank will do the conversion at a much much beter rate than unicaja,(no charges from unicaja)

NoodleDoodleMan

I've read online that Unicaja do not give a favourable exchange rate at ATMs ?

melb

NoodleDoodleMan said:

I've read online that Unicaja do not give a favourable exchange rate at ATMs ?

surely the exchange rate won't matter if you refuse the conversion and use for example a Halifax Clarity card as you are withdrawing euros and paying in euros with no fee added by Halifax? Unless I have misunderstood as this is the way when I use my Clarity card

NoodleDoodleMan

I read that opinion on a TripAdvisor thread - not sure how accurate it is.

Bexleybod4459

Just come back from three weeks in Europe.  I have a Metro Bank and Santander Zero account, neither of which charge for foreign ATM use. France and Czechia ATM's both demanded either a fee or use their exchange rate to withdraw cash.  My German Brother in Law was able o use his card in the same machines without charge.  Look like banks in both countries are now treating us as 'third country' nationals and imposing a fee.  I didn't bother in France and just used credit cards (fee free) to pay for services and in Czechia the £6 fee is flat rate so back to the 'good old days' where you draw out all themoney you want in one transaction.  It is sad that the days of easy ATM useare over for us Brits and I suspect more EU countries will join in as they can make money to subsidise the ATM without impacting EU citizens costs at all and perfectly legally.

NoodleDoodleMan

Banco Marche and Deutches Bank in Spain don't impose fees on any UK debit cards - presumably that also applies to the latter in other countries ?

Santander UK debit cards are fee free in four EU countries at Santander fully branded ATMs.

Maybe it's not as simple as our self inflicted brexit lunacy ?

Doshwaster

NoodleDoodleMan said:

I've read online that Unicaja do not give a favourable exchange rate at ATMs ?

No bank ATM will give favourable exchange rate. That's why the advice is always to decline the conversion and let your card issuer do it.

From my experience Unicaja is one of the few banks in Spain which doesn't charge for withdrawals. Banca March is another along with Deutsche Bank.

NoodleDoodleMan

Allowing the ATM owning bank to set the exchange rate is always a bad choice - without conversion has to be the default selection from the card holder's position.

From what I've deduced from an anecdotal report - Unicaja's exchange rate negates their no fee at ATMs - swings and roundabouts. How accurate that is I can't comment, just an observation.

Some (many) card issuers are not as favourable as others - that's why Chase and Starling are a top choice - with Metrobank and now First Direct also well quoted.

As you say, Banca Marche and Deutches Bank are still no fee with a UK debit card - I can confirm the former from recent personal experience in Tenerife and Mallorca.

How long they will remain "user friendly" is not known, they may well join the fee charging banks.

I reckon the Brexit situation is not the issue which resulted in more ATMs charging fees, as was suggested - it was going to happen anway in due course.