Every bancomat I’ve found is charging high fees.
I was told and my research confirmed an atm is my best bet, but it worse than exchange at coin dealer or my bank in the states so I thought maybe I’m missing something.
Tomorrow is Sunday and it’s after business Saturday so no actual banks will be available.
If you are in Palermo right now and need cash, it is too late to be too picky.
For the future, you simply need to get a debit card that refunds all ATM fees worldwide (Charles Schwab is one of these), and then this stops to be an issue. You aren't going to have to pay the fee anyway with that type of card and you can simply use the most convenient ones.
A bank ATM is the best you can do. I've often seen them in city centers and even outside of grocery stores. You don't want to go inside a bank for their personal assistance.
There are so many ATM's that are private owned that charge higher fees.
I haven't needed to use an ATM in Italy since 2015, so I have no current experience. In addition to looking for bank-owned ATMs, you might also see whether there's an ATM in any post office you pass. (No guarantees.)
@Carol Thank you for taking the time to reply. My card refunds most fees. They are charging a 14.xx% markup at every one I found. They ask permission to proceed of course but my screen looked something like :You want €90
The current exchange rate is x.xx euro to 1 dollar. There is a 4.99 fee for this transaction.
Total withdrawn: 114.xx
My preparation and experience told me ATMs would be the best option. Maybe technology and someone inspired will provide an app to check the fees and exchange rates on all the ATMs in a given city!
@David The banks I checked had their ATM inside a locked lobby. I always go to a bank ATM first to avoid the costs you mention.
@acraven Palermo is not as cashless as other places I’ve been. (Edinburgh’s street performers had cc payment consoles!) My main issue was laundry tonight. I could do without specific food or shopping at markets, but I still tip, which needs to be done in cash most places I’ve been here. Terminals in Budapest allow you to tip anyone- even some retail merchants. Here, even when I’ve asked I’m told no, I assume because the tipping culture isn’t as strong and they don’t use that function often?
The laundromats close by are 1. Closed 2. Accept only cash.
Didn’t even think of a post office! I assume they’ll be closed on a Sunday too, but I’m glad you mentioned that. I’ll make a note!
@Periscope
Good idea!
It sounds as if you're running into ATMs offering dynamic currency conversion (DCC)--a process by which the transaction is recorded in dollars (at an exchange rate highly disadvantageous to you) rather than in euros. This is a huge profit-maker for the owner of the ATM, but I've never seen an ATM that didn't allow you to say "No, I don't want you to "guarantee" me a bad exchange rate; proceed in euros." That will eliminate all but the ATM fee itself (which is some cases may be zero). You do need to take a deep breath and read all the screens carefully, because they are sometimes confusing.
Agree with acraven.
You shouldn't be seeing anything about dollars, you want everything to be handled in euro.
Thanks all. I was able to find one that gave the option tonight. It was a different machine and instructions right down to “press enter” instead of “press the green button”. Weird. It was outside an exchange. I went by another bank today and the ATM was locked up inside again.
The ones last night did not offer the option. If you declined the conversion, you declined the withdrawal. It was a notice, not so much an option. Tonight I had two clear options “continue without conversion” or continue with. No amount of deep breathing was going to create the option for smaller atms outside the shops last night so if anyone needs it, there is a machine outside the currency exchange on Maqueda. (It didn’t come up on my Google maps search.)
Sleight
I'm glad you found a good cash machine!
I have not run into machines that didn't offer a choice. Yikes!
In Prague a few years ago a couple of machines refused to give me money after I declined DCC. I was asking for very little, and it seemed unlikely they were both out of cash, so I wondered.
Sleight, sometimes you can access indoor bank ATMs outside of office hours by swiping your ATM card in a reader near the door. Or maybe these days you can tap. I don't know that all banks are set up that way, but some definitely are.
@acraven
My bank at home has that feature, which is nice. The bank in Budapest had a reception desk and privacy screen by the atm, also nice!
This bank today https://fondoambiente.it/luoghi/banca-d-italia-palermo?ldc
Impressive! But definitely no swipe to get in… I circled the block lol… the back door was less imposing, but not much!
the ATM was locked up inside again
Very often now the ATM are in a room on the side of the bank office, locked to avoid that somebody can arrive unattended behind you to steal money of wallet while you are doing your operation.
That rooms are not locked: on the side of the door there is a card reader. You swipe your credit or debit card into the reader and you can enter. Often is allowed to enter only one person per time, so if somebody is using the ATM swiping your card doesn't work.
The Post service in Italy has it's own credit system and works exactly like a normal bank. The bank ATM circuit and the Poste ATM circuit are connected, so with your credit card you can use any of them. But I suppose there is a transaction fee (what you want to avoid...). But in front of a post office usually you find one of that ATM: usually yellow and branded "Poste Italiane" or Postamat.
About fees the most common ATM circuit in Italy is the "Bancomat". When you find an ATM with that logo probably you have low fees, mostly the one applied by your bank. In touristic places are present even other private ATM which much higher fees for operations (often yellow, easy access, bright.... and they accept only credit card and not debit card). Usually I avoid them like the plague...
