I was in Europe last month and made some cash withdrawals in Euros from ATM’s. I have just received my VISA statement and find they have charged me $10.00 for each transaction for “Finance Charge on Cash Exchange-Euro Currency”. This seems a bit stiff, but perhaps it is the norm. Anyone else seeing such charges?
I believe that ATMs have started adding these fees in recent months. Using ATMs for converting money used to be a great deal, but banks probably realized that they were losing money on the deal.
Depending upon how much you withdraw, you still may end up ahead as you get a good rate from an ATM.
I should add that most of my withdrawals were for 100 Euros (about 100 dollars). Most of the hotels and money changers I checked with were adding a service charge of about 5-6%, as I recall.
ATM fees in general are the latest banking conspiracy. (At least, until Al Franken becomes president!)
Last month I withdrew money from a Washington Mutual ATM because I found out they are the only bank around here that doesn’t charge ATM fees. Pretty cool, until I got my bank statement which had a $1.50 charge for using the ATM of a different bank. D’OH!!!