Debit Card Use

So far, I have been able to find ATMs that don't charge their own fees in all the European countries I've visited. However, I haven't been to Italy since 2015, and the pattern seems to be that fees are cropping up in more and more places. You'll get some hits by Googling no-fee ATMs Italy, but the links mostly seem to be from 2019 or earlier. I know at least a few of our posters went to Italy last year, so I'm hopeful we'll get some firsthand information from them.

Edited to add: Capital One used to promise to rebate fees charged by ATMs. My credit union at one point had the same policy. I don't know whether that is still the policy of those organizations. I've always ignored that promise on the theory that they'd stop rebating fees if too many of their clients chose to use ATMs that charged them.

Fees are small so that is a min worry. ATM user fees are in the range of a couple of Euro. Not a big deal. However, I thought that C One was a Mastercard branded card using the CIRRUS network. I am not familiar with Allpoint. PLUS and CIRRUS are the most common networks and I would make sure that your card can access either one of those networks. If it cannot, it may not be usable. However, unlike the US, I have rarely found ATMs in Europe that charge a user fee. An exception can be the ATMs in airports but it is rare for bank owned ATMs to charge.

PS --- I just did a quick google check on Allpoint -- it is a long ways from being worldwide and is not available in Europe outside of England. If your card ONLY accesses the Allpoint network it will NOT work in Italy. What does the back of your card say relative to other network access? You need to be on Plus or Cirrus.

Worse than an ATM fee is dynamic currency conversion, where they convert your withdrawal into dollars, at their own (higher than the international) exchange rate, and then charge your ATM card in dollars.

Lee, that is mostly with a merchant than an ATM. In all my years of ATM using I have only once see the dollar conversion option on an ATM. Maybe it is becoming more common, I don't know. But I have had more than one merchant offer the price in dollars. A good, general rule is to just stick with the local currency for all transactions.

Frank has been lucky. DCC in ATMs seems to be spreading like the virus it is. It seems to me to be getting more common every year--though I can't say for sure since I tend to go to different countries each year.

I've also run into a lot of ATMs threatening me with fees considerably higher than 2 euros, and my withdrawals are usually quite small. Some machines charge a flat fee, some charge a percentage of the withdrawal and I think I've encountered a few that charged a combination.

You need to pay attention to every screen so you know you won't get hit with an unexpected charge. So far I've been able to avoid such fees (except upon arrival in Ukraine, when I need money immediately for a bus ticket), but it is definitely a fair point that a traveler's time is valuable, so you don't want to spend an hour trying to save a few euros. Make at least a mental note of which bank operates a fee-charging ATM so you can avoid its ATMs in the future.

None of my comments are intended to be specific to Italy or any other country; I'm describing what I've observed since 2015 over the course of trips to Scotland, England, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Poland, Hungary, Czechia, Romania, Bulgaria, Montenegro, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia and Ukraine. I rarely remember where a particular ATM incident occurred--though I do recall that two different ATMs in Prague suddenly decided they didn't have the paltry amount of money I requested when I opted not to accept DCC.

Virtually every business is hurting now. I wouldn't be surprised if more banks are now charging fees and trying to push DCC than was the case during my last trip (in 2019).

We were in Sicily in 2019 and every one of the multiple bank-owned bankomats our group of four used, charged a 5€ fee for each transaction.

I seriously don't even worry about $2.00-$4.00 here and there. We take out the Maximum each time (I think 500€) and just refill when we need more cash. In a 21 day trip we usually only use the ATM 2-3 times if that. We arrive with 500€, and have cash ready in envelopes for anything on the itinerary that say's cash payment required.

don't use your regular debit card for travel, unlike a credit card the money comes out of your checking account immediately and there's no easy way to challenge charges. instead open a Schwab no-fee checking or savings account, you can quickly do it online, and put in the money you'll need for your trip. you can use any ATM anywhere in the world fee-free. I did this in France a few months ago and it's very simple.

Thanks for all the info, folks. I'll check on the CIRRUS and PLUS when I log off. I'm certainly not stressing over possible fees, and I will pay attention to the screen and make larger withdrawals. But, hey, a few bucks is a few bucks. A cup of coffee? Thanks again!

I always try to find an ATM at a bank or credit union. They don't, or at least didn't, charge fees. The vendor ATM's do. I feel safer with the bank ATM.

I've only seen one instance (so far) of DCC at an ATM. That was in 2017 at an ATM (I think it was Reisebank's) in Würzburg Hbf.

They didn't say it was DCC. They just brought up a screen at the end of the transaction, just before I was to get the money. It just looked like it was just a summary of the transaction, and it didn't seem to give me the option of rejecting it, but I noticed that it said what I was going to be charged in dollars, and I realized that they would not know that - that was between me and my bank. It wasn't obvious that I could back out of it and still get the money, but I tried, and I did get the money.

Expect them to be very sneaky about it.

I think any BANK ATM will take ANY debit card even in Italy but stay away from the "bank o mats" as their fees are larger.

What you mean Donna? There are only Bancomats in Italy, Bancomat is the Italian translation of ATM.
Bancomats to not charge fees if the card is part of the Cirrus Network.

The machines called ATMs you see in airports and stations are not connected to Banks and cater to English speaking foreign tourists. They make money with conversion fees.

Donna -- you are in-correct. Bancomats in Europe are ATMs. That is the more common word. AND ATMs will only take debit cards for the networks associated with that ATM. They can used multi networks and your card may access more than one network. But the networks have to match. My credit union debit card is both PLUS and STAR. My back up bank debit card is PLUS only. Now when you use a bank owned ATM/Bancomat in Europe , the transaction flows through on the network -- the bank does see the transaction. The bank may ask for a terminal fee/transaction fee/user fee or whatever it is call for using their terminal. Very common in the US and historically not common in Europe -- that may be changing. But I actually thought there was bank/government regulation that prohibited the charging of a fee to use the terminal.

But anyway you slice it, the cheapest way, without question, to obtain local currency is a debit card at a bank owned ATM or bancomat.

If you use an ATM (Bancomat in Italian) at any bank branch there will be no fee charged by the Italian bank owning the ATM (but beware of ATM part of private operators in airports).
However your bank in the US may charge you $0 to $5 per transaction for withdrawing from an ATM not part of your bank. I have CHASE and I think they charge me $4 or $5 per transaction for using a bank ATM overseas. Some US bank charge less or nothing. So shop around if your bank charges you and you don't want to pay that fee. One way to minimize those fees is to withdraw as much cash as possible each time, since the fee is per transaction. Also, use a credit card for purchases whenever you can, except for the occasional small purchases, like for a cup of coffee.

My French ATM was pushing DCC, as was the checkout terminal at Bon Marche.