Airport ATMs - Poor Exchange Rate?

Well if that is the case, it is be big news. HSBC is still listed on the CDG website site as providing ATMs throughout the airport. I'll be following this thread to see if any recent visitors comment.

Yes, their rates are worse. But I'm not sure that it's true that they are the only ATMs at all major European airports. I'm sure it depends on who the airports have contracts with. I have seen regular bank ATMs, not Travelex, at Barcelona and Madrid in the past year.

You might do a search on this site for an earlier discussion. It appears that there is a pattern developing that many European airport are signing exclusive contracts with Travelex to provide all the ATMs in the airport. It is a business decision since they collect a substantial fee for the contract. It is slowly spreading but currently not to ALL airports. Since I always avoid airport ATMs, it is not a problem for me. If you are depended on using airport ATMs then just take a small amount till you can get to a bank owned ATM in the city. Travelex does have a poorer exchange rate and fees.

I too have seen ATMs in airports in Spain and France late in 2014, but I wonder if the Travelex ATMs may be new for 2015. A sort of reverse Happy New Year treat for visitors.

I would say the Frommer travel guru didn't do a good job investigating because he claims that bank ATM's only exist in one airport, Dublin. He didn't bother to check the 3rd largest airport, Frankfurt, which has dozens of Deutsche Bank ATM's in both terminals. I was just there yesterday, so this is an accurate fact check.

I had attempted to get a thread discussion going, asking people to post about bank ATM's in the various airports they had traveled through recently, but no one seemed to be interested. Perhaps now they are?

This topic appears to be article flavour of the month, or maybe season, and many of these reports are quoting each other.

Until these articles provide proof by screenshots of any airport ATM transaction not permitting you to use your issuers' exchange rate I have difficulty in believing them, especially when there are screenshots around showing you can at the Trevelex Heathrow ATMs, albeit a couple of years old.

As I pointed out in a longer earlier thread on this same issue, the aticle cited is bs in regards to the other airports. I checked for my MasterCard's Cirrus on their locator, and immediately found BANK ATMs in the first two airports listed, Amsterdam and Copenhagen, and would assume this holds for the others.

As for London - we will be flying into LHR in April, T2. As an experiment, I plan to try my card at one of the Travelex machines. We have sufficient GBP from our last trip to get into town, so I will limit the risk to the mark-up on 20 GBP, click on the left to make it do this in GBP, and will report back later as to what my back deducted for this, and see if it's the .6-.8% that my withdrawals always cost for the Network charge.

Pauline Frommer is saying that Samantha Brown flew into "Germany" (she didn't say what airport) recently and found that there were no bank ATMs in the airport, only Travelex ATMs, but the Frankfurt Airport website shows 16 Deutsche Bank ATMs (11 in Terminal 1). It doesn't show any Travelex ATMs.

Still, for those of us who travel frequently to Europe, it only makes sense to bring back enough euro so that you don't have to us an ATM at the airport. For others, some local banks (Wells Fargo near me) sell euro for only 5% over the Interbank rate ($10 on a $200 W/D). That's only a little worse than major bank rates of 4% at ATMs (Wells Fargo and others charge 3% plus $5, which is 1% more on a withdrawal of $500.

At Edinburgh's Turnhouse airport, exchange bureau ATM's are the first ones you'll see after landing, but head up one floor and proper bank ATM's are lined up, waiting to give you a better exchange of pounds.

If Travelex is your only apparent option, and you don't have the time/desire to search further, get just the minimum cash possible, until you can get in town, where bank ATM's will be available. The Travelex operation has always felt like a corporate version of the scammers and hustlers on the street, trying to sell cheap trinkets, and knock-off merchandise.

This is the former thread I believe Frank refers to.
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/budget-tips/airport-atms-be-careful-which-ones-you-use

FWIW, the Munich Airport website says that Deutsche Bank offers;

-- ATM (central area)
-- ATM (Terminal 1, Module E, E04, before security screening)
-- ATM (Terminal 2, Level 03, after security screening)