ATM Foreign Transaction Fee

Stick with a Bank, one of the Big Banks of Canada, no Desjardins, no Laurentien. And stay clear of the machines that are simply marked ATM, with those you will get royally screwed and can also even clone your cards.

Before leaving home, you can call your bank and let them know you will be travelling and doing withdrawalls far away from your usual places where you go.
Some banks will block transactions if they were not notified and see cash withdrawalls are done in a far away place that the customer never went. They could suspect you card was cloned or stolen.

homunculus said:

Hello everyone, I'm new to MERB and am planning my first of hopefully many trips to Montreal this Sunday - Wednesday. All of the tips and information on this forum has been so helpful for me in planning out my first trip!

I'm coming from the US. I was wondering if you guys had any tips on which ATMs charge the least amount of foreign transaction fees. I am staying in the south side of Le Plateau neighborhood off Av du Parc. I hold an account with Aspiration Summit which reimburses all ATM fees, so that isn't really a concern for me. What I'm more concerned about is finding an ATM that won't charge much for currency conversion.

I've read a few posts about currency conversion on here but nothing specifically addressing ATMs, so hopefully I'm not being redundant.

Happy Friday gents and looking forward to enjoying the city in a few days.

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FX rate is determined by the network (eg VISA/MasterCard etc) your debit card is associated with and not the ATM operator. It doesn't matter if you take cash out of a corner convenience store or a bank ATM, the fx rate would be the same using the same debit card on the same transaction date. The difference between corner ATM and big bank ATM would be the ATM operator fee which as per your post, your bank will reimburse.

The bank issuing your debit card may then tack on an additional "foreign transaction" fee on top of that even thought they don't actually convert any currency as the network would have posted the transaction to your bank in your home currency.

For future travel outside of US, get an account with Schwab brokerage. No "foreign transaction" fee mentioned above and reimbursement of fee charged by ATM operator.

On my last trip (early September), I used TD Bank ATM's and I used my Chase card (which reimbursed me for Fx fees and other fees). I like to give out large fresh new bills so I took the smaller bills from the ATM's to the teller and asked for the desired larger bills.

transatlantic said:

FX rate is determined by the network (eg VISA/MasterCard etc) your debit card is associated with and not the ATM operator. It doesn't matter if you take cash out of a corner convenience store or a bank ATM, the fx rate would be the same using the same debit card on the same transaction date. The difference between corner ATM and big bank ATM would be the ATM operator fee which as per your post, your bank will reimburse.

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It is mostly true but not 100%.

As part of the transaction ATMs get you to agree to pay the service fee but never mention anything about the exchange rate because it is left to card processing network/your bank. But if you happen to use on of CIBC ATMs then they will offer you very generously low exchange rate of 1.24x when money exchange shops like Califorex offering 1.307+ (exchange rate on that day was 1.32).

A little of history of using CIBC ATMs. A year ago they let me draw more than 800/transaction, which changed to a max of 400/transaction early this year. When I tried to use their ATM few weeks ago they offered their own currency exchange rate on top of service fee. Maybe they top executives need big bonuses. I guess bank greed has no limit.

I hope this CIBC ATM exchange rate is only an isolated case and not a trend. So pay attention when you use ATMs and make sure the they are not offering you their own exchange rate.

You are describing DCC which you may see at financial institution-operated ATMs (and credit card terminals) trying to profit by performing the FX currency conversion at an inflated rate and passing the native currency to the network (VISA/MasterCard). Since conversion already occur, the network does not perform any FX conversion.

I usually see that in Europe and Asia. Never seen it in Canada.

If you are using a no-foreign transaction fee card, DCC is a rip-off 100% of the time as the FX rate used is always higher than the one the network offers.

If you see ATM or credit card transaction terminal asking if you want to transact in your native currency, just say no.

transatlantic said:

You are describing DCC which you may see at financial institution-operated ATMs (and credit card terminals) trying to profit by performing the FX currency conversion at an inflated rate and passing the native currency to the network (VISA/MasterCard). Since conversion already occur, the network does not perform any FX conversion.

I usually see that in Europe and Asia. Never seen it in Canada.

If you are using a no-foreign transaction fee card, DCC is a rip-off 100% of the time as the FX rate used is always higher than the one the network offers.

If you see ATM or credit card transaction terminal asking if you want to transact in your native currency, just say no.

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It have not seen this in Europe or until recently in Canada. I have used the same CIBC ATM before and never had to pay separate conversion rate. When I tried it early this month they offered they own exchange rate which I declined and used other ATM machines. I will try them again during my next visit early next month and will post an update.

lalabo said:

It have not seen this in Europe or until recently in Canada. I have used the same CIBC ATM before and never had to pay separate conversion rate. When I tried it early this month they offered they own exchange rate which I declined and used other ATM machines. I will try them again during my next visit early next month and will post an update.

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You don't have to stop using CIBC ATMs, just select the appropriate option.

I usually take money out of TD Bank (in addition to $20s, they also dispense $50s), dépanneurs or other bank ATMs. But today I took cash out of CIBC ATM for the very first time. The ATM gives you an option to either charge in USD (bottom right selection) or charge in CAD (bottom left selection). If I charge in USD, they offered to give me $1.23 CAD/USD when I know the current rate is $1.34CAD/USD.

As I use a no foreign transaction card, needless to say, I charged in CAD by hitting the bottom left button.

Was at CIBC ATM this week taking out $500. ATM offered me the option of debiting $503 CAD ($3 ATM fee due to not having CIBC account) or $414.74USD. My Schwab debit card has no foreign transaction fee and reimburse ATM fee. Selected the CAD option. Schwab refunded the $3 CIBC fee and provided rate of $1.2858CAD for every $1USD while CIBC offered $1.2128 per $1USD. Had I taken up CIBC on their offer, I would have paid an extra $25.94USD on a $500CAD withdraw; a 6.67% markup. Like TD Bank, the CIBC ATM also dispenses both $20 and $50 notes.

Just say NO when a Canadian ATM ask if you want to transact in USD even if your card charges a 3% foreign transaction fee.

The TD Ameritrade ATM I use is pretty straightforward but appreciate the heads up in case I encounter the situation. The favorable exchange rate is slipping further and further. It was 1.33/1.34 a few months ago. I think it was 1.27 today. Woe is us, I know.

Holy hell avoid Scotiabank.

I usually use BMO Bank of Montreal or RBC. Zero issues. When I have my fee free card, it's free. But when I forget to bring it, I usually only get hit with a $5 fee, which is still ok.

But today I forgot to get cash and went into a Scotiabank near the incall. Never popped up any message about fees. Never asked if I wanted to transact CAD/USD.

A couple hours later, I got hit with a $25 CAD fee. Never happened with BMO, RBC, TD, etc on this card.