ATM in Turkey

Are there ATM's at the airport that we can use upon arrival from the US?

Yes there are are ATMs at the airports. There are multiple ATMs in the cities. All tied to banks. Just be sure how much the ATM allow you to withdraw. Some are limited to a certain maximum amount.

Also, when we were there before, smaller shops and those in rural areas had difficulty making change from larger bills. Is that still an issue?

We didn't see any issue in any of the areas that we traveled there last year.

Are credit cards widely accepted?

Yes.

ATM's are everywhere and, certainly in Instanbul, contactless payment is accepted everywhere even in places such as the Grand Bazaar and spice markets where some guidebooks advise only cash. I withdrew a nominal amount (£20) just in case but have not yet needed it.

In CWSocial's post about her RS tours in Turkey there is a helpful section about ATMs
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/tours/so-you-re-going-on-the-best-of-turkey-or-best-of-istanbul-tour

In bigger cities there are usually banks of ATMs hooked together, not attached to a bank. If one doesn't work, try another. Some charge big fees, if so hit cancel and move to next. Don't use DCC conversion. The largest bill is a 200 lira note, currently about $6 US. As noted credit cards are accepted but some smaller shops and venues may grumble about it in smaller towns.

I spent 3 weeks in Istanbul last fall. In my experience credit cards are not universally accepted. If you go to a non-foreign-touristy restaurant, you may well need cash. I don't think the street-food vendors take cards; what they are selling often costs about a dollar.

It is increasingly difficult to find ATMs that don't charge substantial fees. I used Ziraat Bank ATMs often, but I have read since my return that the Ziraat ATMs now charge fees.

However, it is definitely no problem to find ATMs.

Three additional points from our trip in May that may be helpful:

Twice at restaurants, we were asked for our credit (not debit) card PIN number. Rick Steves' books mention it, but we hadn't experienced it in other countries.

Uber taxi drivers in Istanbul often requested cash payment instead of credit card through the app. A couple of drivers took less than expected to get cash. No drivers tried to overcharge us.

Like you experienced before, cash in smaller bills was necessary in the markets/bazaars and some small shops/kiosks in smaller towns/villages. Some did not accept credit cards and others could not make change.

Hope you have a terrific trip!

I spent 3 weeks in Istanbul last fall. In my experience credit cards are not universally accepted. If you go to a non-foreign-touristy restaurant, you may well need cash.

I've just returned from Istanbul today, credit cards are accepted everywhere, I don't know how you reached your conclusion that they're not. Of course you'll encounter establishments that prefer cash because they don't want to incur a transaction fee for taking card payment but that doesn't mean that they don't take cards. Even a simple cart trader has a SumUp machine or equivalent so to suggest that a restaurant doesn't have such a setup is nonsense, they'll tell you they don't so that you'll pay cash.

I came go the conclusion based on my experiences, JC. As I said, I spent 3 weeks in Istanbul last fall. How long were you in the city, and what type of enterprises did you frequent?

I didn't always eat in restaurants focusing on attracting tourists. I didn't eat in hotels, and I didn't eat in rooftop restaurants. One of my restaurants had an old card reader that didn't like my US credit card. I watched the server perform the transaction; it wouldn't go through. A small restaurant in a small town on the Bosphorus was cash only.

I observed no card devices at the stands selling simit for less than a dollar.

I don't know what would have happened if I had tried to use a credit card to buy a 60-cent bottle of water. It seemed to me it would be rude to use a credit card in that situation in a poor country like Turkiye.

I don't recall seeing any credit-card capability at pay toilets. I just can't imagine the attendant at a mosque toilet (some of which charge a small fee) would have a card reader.

I saw no electronic equipment that would allow visitors to make donations to mosques by credit card.

Thank you everyone! We will use credit cards where we can and we decided to bring cash and use ATM if we need additional cash.

Ann, we are visiting Turkiye at the end of August. Years ago when I first started to travel, I would get cash in advance of the trip. I don't so much, any more, though I keep debating on getting some lira in advance. When I did get cash in advance it took longer for noneuro currency, so you'll want to check with your bank or AAA or wherever you plan to get your cash to find out how much advance notice they need. On the other hand, the value of the lira does continue to drop over time so you may not want to request it too soon.

We are getting to Istanbul later in the day which is one factor I'm considering in terms of getting Lira in advance.

I'm going with acraven's advice in terms of need for cash vs. cc. She has helped me on many occasions and has been spot on with her typically detailed advice.

I learned something on the forum a few months ago in regards to ATM. If you have a Charles Schwab account you will get reimbursed for ATM fees. I had a Wells Fargo account that I had set up just to get currency for travel. I closed that and opened a Schwab account.

@CL, thanks for the link to CWSocial's post. I hadn't found that one and it is helpful for more than just the ATM advice.

I have a DISCOVER Bank account with a DISCOVER ATM/Debit card. This does not work in Turkey, Checking the Discover website, we did confirm that this is true, for both free or paid ATMs

After needing no cash last week in Stockholm, and having museums and vendors tell me they don't even keep bills to make change, it is the opposite this week in Istanbul, with lots of expressed preferences for cash. Many small vendors and cafes can and will take credit cards, but will express preferences for cash. Sometimes it has just depended how much I wanted (or needed) to use a credit card or whether I had bills on hand.

It seems you can barely walk a few minutes in the tourist zone without running into one of the huge blocks of every brand of ATM. And I'm just getting in the habit, with tons of others I see at the ATMs, of keeping cash on hand.

I just returned from Istanbul. ATMs in post offices have the best fee rates.

ATMs are everywhere though. I was happy to have some Turkish lira and used it more than I thought. Some ATMs were empty of money.

Even though they ask what custom amount you want, I was never able to get it, so just select from the options presented.

And FYI, when I took out 5000 Turkish lira it was about $165 US, minus the fee. At least on the days I did it. You will have a wad of bills at that rate.

Even though they ask what custom amount you want, I was never able to get it

I was able to get custom amounts, 800 TL and two 1000 TL withdrawals from the ATM nearest my hotel - neither was a built in option. I wasn't able to get a custom amount from the airport, which I assumed meant they were out of smaller bills.

I chose the options with fees (rather than DCC) which Schwab refunded at the end of the month.

Thanks everyone. I'm back and Istanbul was very different from 30 years ago. ATMs were readily available, especially in tourist areas. Credit cards were accepted but small shops appreciated cash. Tipping in restaurants could be on the credit card reader or in cash.

Just a friendly reminder to check to see if a restaurant has already added a service charge prior to tipping. A few weeks ago I watched as a tourist in Istanbul received her check, which already contained a 18% service fee, and then carefully figure out how to tip 20%. Maybe she just especially liked the service, but I am suspicious she had no idea she was actually tipping about 40%.

It is recommended to use Atm with a bank . Some of them don’t give the card back

"It is recommended to use Atm with a bank . Some of them don’t give the card back"

I can second that and ideally suggest an open bank, was in Istanbul last month and my Debit card was eaten by a reputable big banks machine with a message indicating there was a problem with the cash dispenser. No Lira and no card. The branch was open. With the help of our Turkish guide(the bank employees were not English speaking) , the bank retrieved and returned the card after requiring some paper work be signed. Big sigh of relief as (lesson learned) we didn't have an alternative for ATM withdraws. We ended up hitting an ATM 3 more times after that as the need for Lira on our RS tour was much more than we anticipated.

The most important thing is to have the right debit card vs the right ATM machine. Charles Schwab investor checking reimburses ATM fees worldwide. It doesn’t matter what they charge if in the end you pay nothing.

My recent statement shows that I was charged a whopping $16.50 in fees for withdrawing the equivalent of $100 in Turkish Lira from an ATM. The next transaction was an immediate credit of $16.50 from Schwab.

Mostly what we used cash for was bottles of water and restrooms, both which were ridiculously cheap. Once we got 2 bottles for about the equivalent of .50 USD. We did notice that some of the ATMs had pretty lousy exchange rates. Our fees were reimbursed but obviously no help with the exchange rate. However, since we used very little cash and what we did buy was very cheap, we didn't sweat the poor exchange rates, just used the first bank affiliated ATM we encountered.

I got $400 worth of turkish lira from my bank before I left home. The young tellers at the bank were full of questions about my itinerary and wanted to handle the cool bills before I left town. I consider that to be a part of the experience :)

I was in Turkey three weeks ago on a Rick Steves tour: Istanbul, Ankara, Cappadocia, Konya, Antalya, Pamukkale and Kushadasi.

There are ATMs throughout the airport. Our guide made it simple: Avoid the red ATMs. The blue ATMs are OK. ATMs are readily available throughout the country.

I used 200 Turkish lira bills everywhere. No merchant had a problem. However, I noticed they appreciated smaller denominations.

I used my credit card only once for a large purchase. No problem.