Foreign ATM useage fees and refunds

NoodleDoodleMan

jam1705 said:

Thanks for all your replies.

I've looked on various travel forums and it seems it's generally Americans that have such cards often citing Schwab and Chase banks as their card providers.

I had hoped there might have been similar providers in the UK.

Which countries are you interested in ?

Plenty of knowlegable contributors hereabouts who can advise.

The best "user friendly" UK debit cards for foreign travel are well known, such as Chase and Starling.

If you are looking at the USA - the Chase card is a top choice from what is mentioned - it is a major league bank there with a large network of branches and ATMs.

Chelsea_Blue

For information, we have just come back from mainland Spain. We used a Sabadell Bank ATM and their charge was 1.80 euro per transaction using a Chase Debit card with excellent Mastercard rates.
Not the best but also not the worst. 

Doshwaster

Just a warning that I was in Spain last week and Banca March which has always been free wanted to charge me over €5 (I forget the exact amount) for a withdrawal so I declined and just used card payments as much as possible. I think I spent less than €20 in cash in 4 days.

NoodleDoodleMan

Doshwaster said:

Just a warning that I was in Spain last week and Banca March which has always been free wanted to charge me over €5 (I forget the exact amount) for a withdrawal so I declined and just used card payments as much as possible. I think I spent less than €20 in cash in 4 days.

That's interesting - as you say, BM was one of the very few (and getting fewer) that were fee free.

Must be a relatively recent change of policy ?

I suspect only Unicaja still remains fee free for all debit card users - with Banco Santander (ATMs at branches only) for Santander UK cardholders.

Doshwaster

NoodleDoodleMan said:

Doshwaster said:

Just a warning that I was in Spain last week and Banca March which has always been free wanted to charge me over €5 (I forget the exact amount) for a withdrawal so I declined and just used card payments as much as possible. I think I spent less than €20 in cash in 4 days.

That's interesting - as you say, BM was one of the very few (and getting fewer) that were fee free.

Must be a relatively recent change of policy ?

I suspect only Unicaja still remains fee free for all debit card users - with Banco Santander (ATMs at branches only) for Santander UK cardholders.

I've been doing some checking around and it is indeed a very recent change of policy (1 Feb according to most reports). Shame as I'm off to the Canaries soon where Banca March ATMs are very common

There are still a few cash only bars and restaurants so I may just have to bite the bullet and take as much as possible out in one transaction.

NoodleDoodleMan

Can I suggest you apply for a Santander (UK) Everyday Current Account if time allows - the debit card is totally fee free to use only for currency at a Banco Santander branch located ATM (cajero).

It is ideal for this purpose if there is an oficina (branch) within convenient travel distance.

https://www.bancosantander.es/en/buscador-oficinas-cajeros

There will most likely be a branch in popular resorts.

The UK card has no strings attached - just a simple current account.

zagfles

NoodleDoodleMan said:

Doshwaster said:

Just a warning that I was in Spain last week and Banca March which has always been free wanted to charge me over €5 (I forget the exact amount) for a withdrawal so I declined and just used card payments as much as possible. I think I spent less than €20 in cash in 4 days.

That's interesting - as you say, BM was one of the very few (and getting fewer) that were fee free.

Must be a relatively recent change of policy ?

I suspect only Unicaja still remains fee free for all debit card users - with Banco Santander (ATMs at branches only) for Santander UK cardholders.

Yup - I used Unicaja in Spain last week and was still free. The DCC rate offered was terrible - something like 1.06. I got over 1.20. So maybe they make more money by people accepting DCC than if they had an explicit charge - it would have been close to a £30 charge had I accepted DCC, and a lot of people are clueless about which currency to chose. 

NoodleDoodleMan

I have a recollection that somebody on the forums flagged up a cautionary note on using Unicaja ATMs - the instructions at the Without/With Conversion option stage were not as clear as they might have been.

Doshwaster

NoodleDoodleMan said:

I have a recollection that somebody on the forums flagged up a cautionary note on using Unicaja ATMs - the instructions at the Without/With Conversion option stage were not as clear as they might have been.

That's quite common on a lot of ATMs - and especially in Spain in my experience - where the instructions can be perhaps deliberately confusing and, less charitably, downright misleading.

Messages like "Warning - if you do not accept this exchange rate we cannot guarantee what your bank will charge you"

Well, maybe they can't but the one guarantee is that it will be much better than you are offering and it's going to be very close to the Interbank rate.

zagfles

Doshwaster said:

NoodleDoodleMan said:

I have a recollection that somebody on the forums flagged up a cautionary note on using Unicaja ATMs - the instructions at the Without/With Conversion option stage were not as clear as they might have been.

That's quite common on a lot of ATMs - and especially in Spain in my experience - where the instructions can be perhaps deliberately confusing and, less charitably, downright misleading.

Messages like "Warning - if you do not accept this exchange rate we cannot guarantee what your bank will charge you"

Well, maybe they can't but the one guarantee is that it will be much better than you are offering and it's going to be very close to the Interbank rate.

Think it said that sort of thing but never bothered reading it, other than the rate just for curiosity. It did ask twice though, but the same options (with/without conversion) each time. Some of the handheld restaurant terminals ask twice too. Even some contactless POS terminals try DCC, if abroad don't just check the amount and tap like you'd do here, but check if there's a DCC option after tapping.