How do I find out how much a foreign ATM charges for cash withdrawal?

Upvote:1

In the US, the ATM surcharge will be displayed on the screen, and you will have to press a button to consent or refuse the transaction. There is no fixed charge; banks are free to set the surcharge to pretty much anything they wish. It is typically around $3, but may be much higher in some areas (like large city airports!). But the ATM may be part of a surcharge-free network where cooperating banks may offer free withdrawals to holders of some other banks' cards. If you are using a foreign credit card, it's unlikely to be part of such a network.

Upvote:4

I don't know if this mandated by some international standard or agreements between financial institutions but in my experience any charge by the ATM provider will be displayed on the screen before going through with the transaction. I have seen this in very different countries everywhere in the world.

So if you haven't noticed anything, chances are there wasn't any fee from the ATM provider (and many ATM in mainland Europe apparently charge no fee). Note that if there was a charge, it could appear as a separate transaction in your credit card statements.

The markup on the other hand is a fee your bank applies to foreign currency transactions on top of the actual exchange rate on that day. It is not related to any fee from the ATM provider and really depends on your bank and card.

The exchange rate you see on the statement is not the best rate available on the market or through the credit card network. If you look at the currency converters provided by Visa or Mastercard, €500 should be a little over GBP 446.

I assume there might still be banks that do charge fees on cash withdrawal abroad but promising “no fee“ is really common and virtually meaningless. The markup or conversion fee is what makes a difference. Where I live, many cards have around 3%, 1-2% is not uncommon. Cards with even lower fees (e.g. from Revolut or N26), with some caveats.

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