In 2 weeks we will be traveling to the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, & Austria. I read in one of guide books that the exchange rates are different at different places in Budapest. Silly me, I thought the excahnge rate was standard for ATMs. Anyone know about other cities in these countries?
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Portland, OR, USA
389 posts
The exchange rate is the same for your bank for the country/currency you are in and that is the rate that the funds withdrawn from the ATM will be (usually plus 1%). The Hungarian, Czech, ect. banks give you local currency and "charge" your bank for the funds based on international exchange rate for that day. The question might be how much the banks charge in fees. We were living in Budapest for the summer in 1994 and there were only 5 ATMs in the city. None charged anything (no fee) for our use and they were all the same bank. Probably changed since then. Since currency exchange fluctuates from day to day between currencies it is hard to keep up. In general they don't go up or down more than a couple cents on a bad day. The real trick appears to be when they send the transaction. We noticed that sometimes they waited a week or longer, possibly playing the exchange roulette to see if they could get a bit more. Those with the softer currency are more likely to do this.