Italy ATMs (and transaction fee)

Yes, ATM fees are a new surprise but even worse there are ATMs that 'offer' to do the full transaction from dollars to euro. Say NO! They tack on about a 12% service charge making the exchange rate awful. I look for a bancomat that's attached directly to a bank. My bank also reimburses the fee and the exchange service fee is minimal.

I've seen huge year-to-year differences from 2015 through 2019 in the prevalence of ATM fees and Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC) offers. Some countries are worse than others, but the practices are spreading rapidly. I haven't been to Italy since 2015, so I cannot contrast the situation there with what is currently going on in other countries.

My advice is simply to read all ATM screens carefully, because when a bank starts combining an ATM fee with DCC, you end up with a very confusing-looking screen. It takes more than a few seconds to be sure you understand what's going on, decide whether you wish to continue with the transaction at that ATM (i.e., is there no fee or an acceptably low fee?), and figure out how to avoid the dreaded DCC offer.

My bank started imposing a 0.5 € fee to its own customers withdrawing less than 70 €. All banks are trying to make money with ATMs.

San Paolo also offers the convenience of converting your withdrawal to US dollars. But it could be confusing to someone not aware, as options are “proceed” or proceed without conversion” (select this one). Another reason to avoid this banks Bancomats.

Karen, that conversion business is all over the place these days at many, many bank ATMs. If I refused to use every ATM that tried to sucker me into DCC and a dreadful conversion rate, I would be panhandling on the streets of Europe for lack of any other source of cash. I hate DCC because I think it preys upon the least experienced travelers, but as long as I'm able to opt out, I'll still use the ATM.

We used multiple bancomats in Sicily in February from a couple of different banks, and they all charged 5€ fee per withdrawal. I don't mean our bank (who also charged fees), the Italian banks.

I think the days of free ATM use in Europe are slowly disappearing.
3 years ago I wasn't charged a fee at any ATM in Spain, but this year some banks were charging. Usually €5. On the plus side, I didn't find DCC as hard to avoid as 3 years ago.

The trend is pretty clear; I expect it to be increasingly difficult to find a free ATM. At this point there are still some US financial institutions that refund fees charged by ATMs. My credit union is one of them, and Capital One may still do it for some accounts (but not mine).

I have my doubts about how long those banks/credit unions will continue the fee-refund policy as more and more foreign banks charge substantial fees. It seems like a clear, and substantial, money-loser to me. I try to do my share by not using ATMs that charge fees even though the fees would be reimbursed, but a lot of travelers are more tightly scheduled than I am and are not prepared to try as many ATMs as necessary to find one that won't charge a fee.

As much as I hate to see it come to an end, it looks like the free of charge ATMs are going quickly into the sunset.

I can't blame banks. It does cost real money to have an ATM machine. It costs to buy the machine, to service the machine, to put money in it, and so on. I have always been surprised, and thankful, when the ATM I used in Europe did not charge me a fee. But if they are allowed to charge a fee, then they will. It has been happening in the US for as long as I can remember (and that's a pretty long time).

But with the acceptance of credit crds continuing to rise worldwide, you still have a fee free option in many cases. Get a no fee credit card (lots to choose from) and use that whenever possible.

I just confirmed that our Capital One refunded $3.31 for the €3.00 fee. We’ve had this account since 2010, so can’t speak to new accounts. I think there is a monthly limit, but we rarely do more than 4-6 withdrawals a month.

Our Fidelity Cash Management account also reimburses for ATM fees.

We use credit cards for restaurants, supermercado, travel expenses and other larger purchases to get points/miles.

Mark, you’re not wrong. But let’s not feel too sorry for the poor little too-big-to-fail banks. An ATM transaction has to cost the bank a tiny fraction of the cost of a teller transaction at the counter.

While it's true that tellers cost more than ATMs, I wouldn't expect to be able to walk into a bank of which I was not a customer and get money from a teller. I do expect (whether it's reasonable or not) to be able to get money out of just about any ATM, anywhere.