I am just back from Austria, and needed to take a few euros out the ATM. It is a town I have been to several times before and I have the cards moneysaving expert recommend to avoid overseas charges. However every ATM i tried in the village was charging 3.95 Euros transaction fee. These were proper atms in banks and not just foreign link machines or equivalent.

Last year I used the same ATM and there was no charge. Has something changed ? Brexit?! Has anybody else found this recently?

My only conclusion was Brexit is to blame!

We’ve been looking at this for an upcoming trip to the states. Even if you get the right card here, one that doesn’t charge a fee and only uses the visa exchange rate without stacking it, it seems you can’t get past local charges unless you can find a bank here, who can issue a card with no fee and no loading, and also have a business relationship with the foreign bank where they promise not to charge either.

That’s odd because an EU ruling that the UK has to abide by, (for now) means banks can’t charge for withdrawals throughout the Europe. Monzo had to remove their over £200 ATM charge due to this.

Maybe the local banks have found a way to move their income stream in a loophole.

Some banks just charge you, even though I can use my monzo or starling card here in DK with no fee, I still have to choose a bank atm that does not charge me.

Nothing to do with Brexit, banks are trying to improve their bottom line as many of them are not making enough profit.

I spend about 3 months each year in Europe touring and use a Halifax credit card, it comes with no charges and a commercial exchange rate.

Difficulty is, even if you get a fee free card in the uk, the foreign atm will likely charge you.

In NI we are lucky to have a few euro atm’s that we can use our fee free cards in. Does your town have any? Don’t use the ones at the airport as they charge you an awful exchange rate

Revolut? I use one like a normal card when traveling just make sure I have converted to local currency. I don’t think they charge a withdrawal fee but I mostly use it contactless.

Starling or Monzo (or any other new online bank) as they don’t tend to charge for use abroad… although the ATM itself may charge a d you can’t avoid that…

It was the Halifax Clarity card I used. 3.95 transaction fee from Raiffeisenbank ATM, which definitely didn’t happen last year.

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lesgrandepotato

Subscriber
Unexpected thread content. This is very much not as I expected

How much do you expect the pay for ATM in Europe? 😉

Halifax Clarity card I used. 3.95 transaction fee from Raiffeisenbank ATM, which definitely didn’t happen last year.

Ooh that’s worrying. I use my clarity card everywhere precisely because it’s a 0%/£0 commission/charge card. When you took the cash out did the atm say it was going today charge you? Might just be an Austria/Germany thing as their banking systems are woeful. Can’t say I’ve suffered that before and I’ve used mine lots in both those countries.

Does not matter what card you use.

The only way to avoid it is to find a fee free bank machine.

Increasingly rare on continental Europe.

Minimising withdrawals will reduce your exposure to the fees.

consumer banking in the UK is cheap compared to most other countries.

Get a eurozone ATM card. Free everywhere in the eurozone.
Free bank transfer anywhere in eurozone too 🙂

We’re heading out in a couple of weeks. The last couple of times in eurozone, I’ve used my Transferwise card everywhere – mostly contactless. There are very few places that I go that will only take cash, and so little need to use an ATM. I’ll get 300 euro from Ramsdens before we go and that should be all the cash we need for 10 days.

Yes you were warned regarding the fee. I tried different cards, but they all wanted a fee!

Do you have a link to the euro zone ATM card? Is it a credit card or per load card? CertainLy no mention of it on money saving expert.

Yes you were warned regarding the fee. I tried different cards, but they all wanted a fee!

That’s because it’s the machine not the card