ATM Fees

Stick to a bank ATM (Santander and BBVA come to mind) for lower fees. Check with your own bank whether they also charge fees for foreign ATM usage. For example, my HSBC card doesn't charge foreign ATM fees, while my DBS card does, but is fee free with some banks.

Fortunately, you shouldn’t need much cash. I use Deutsche Bank ATMs since it is the partner bank of Bank of America in Spain. Bank of America charges no fees, but there is a foreign transaction fee; usually a few dollars. Because credit cards are accepted almost everywhere I only need to visit an ATM every couple trips,

Not sure if there is an accurate answer. My experience is that bank ATMs in Spain charge wildly different fees, even from the same bank, and once in a while, you find one with no fee.

I did find better luck with ATMs outside of tourist areas, and from smaller banks. In Barcelona for example, you can bet ATMS along Las Ramblas, both private and Bank, will charge fees. I would disagree with the comment about Santander, the couple times I used one, the fee was 7 euro. My primary travel ATM card reimburses fees, but paying 7 euro sort of pushes my tolerance of fair cost.

But, the good news is that you really will not need much cash, you can get by using an ATM once, for a couple hundred euro, paying a few euro really not a big issue. Back in the day, using cash for most things, and using an ATM almost daily, then I was worried more about fees.

Also be aware of DCC, nearly every ATM in Spain will make a DCC offer.

Thank You What is DCC? I do usually use my credit union card at point of sale. I’ll be with a tour group and nearly every thing will be covered. The tour company asked us front to tip the staff so I will need a few hundred Euros for that.

Most prefer to use a credit card as apposed to a debit card when traveling. The issue is mainly fraud protection, if there is an issue, with a credit card, their money is tied up while the dispute is resolved, with a debit card, your money is frozen.

DCC is Dynamic Currency Conversion. You will see it both at an ATM and when using a credit or debit card at a point of sale. Basically they ask if you would like to do the transactions in euros, or your home currency (Dollars I assume), always do the transaction in euros. Usually when you select euros, you may get a question to the effect of "Are you sure? You will have no idea what the exchange rate will be, we tell you it will be"...then give you the total in Dollars. Decline any offer of conversion.

Basically what they are offering with DCC is to do the currency conversion for you, and charge your card in Dollars. The problem is their conversion rates are almost always bad, from a few percent, up to 8-10%. Your card will see a conversion rate of about 1%, the best deal you can get anywhere.

So, always choose Euros or local currency, decline any conversion, despite any dire warnings they give. Slow down when doing a transaction, read what they are saying, the wording changes, some can be a bit misleading, especially at ATMs.

DCC I looked it up. So that’s what they call it. I saw that in France last year looked for a bank with the lowest fee. Really don’t mind giving the guides a tip but being charged by the bank with significant markup just to get my own cash is like paying a tax on a gift to a friend

It seldom fails on a trip that a merchant will click on USD rather than Euro when charging something, so the cost increases by a few percent. Most of the time it’s been at small grocery stores and the difference is only a dollar or so. The merchant see a U.S. card and makes the decision for you. Most places will automatically charge in Euros or ask.

My experience with using credit cards and the DCC question is that overwhelmingly, if I stop to read the screen, the hotel, merchant, or waiter tells me to pick euros. In hundreds of transactions, I have never had anyone insist that picking Dollars was preferred. That said, maybe a few times they selected Dollars on me, but can't really say. I do not think that the Hotel/Merchant/Restaurant benefits much from DCC, maybe in volume, or some kind of mild incentive for the owner, but certainly not the employee conducting the transaction, but they may have been told that it is "something for tourists".