Commission free Euro bank terminals

[Camdoon]

Our usual explorations take us to Spain where we can take out Euros commission free via Santander Bank. This year we are only hitting France for a week and while not using much cash we do like to have a couple of hundred to hand - just in case. It came as a shock earlier this year to hear on here that banks were charging for taking Euros out in Euros as while used to them trying to scam you for the interest rate by asking to do the conversion I was not aware of this new concept of highway robbery commission.
So can anyone help with the brand of hole in the wall machines to look for or any specific machines in Epernay or Le Crotoy or (Calais/Boulogne outskirts) which are commission free and allow me to use a commission free Credit Card?

 

[chaser]

Our usual explorations take us to Spain where we can take out Euros commission free via Santander Bank. This year we are only hitting France for a week and while not using much cash we do like to have a couple of hundred to hand - just in case. It came as a shock earlier this year to hear on here that banks were charging for taking Euros out in Euros as while used to them trying to scam you for the interest rate by asking to do the conversion I was not aware of this new concept of highway robbery commission.
So can anyone help with the brand of hole in the wall machines to look for or any specific machines in Epernay or Le Crotoy or (Calais/Boulogne outskirts) which are commission free and allow me to use a commission free Credit Card?

Never been charged any commission with Halifax card.

 

[LesW]

We have been charged a commission when using cash machines, but it was our bank (Nationwide) and not the machine making the charge.

We have changed our account and no longer pay anything.

 

[Camdoon]

Never been charged any commission with Halifax card.

It's the hole in the wall that is now charging rather than the Credit Card. They used to charge a commission to allow you to pay in £ as they ripped you off on conversion but now are looking for money on a straight € to € cash wIthdrawal. I think it was Minxy Girl and gus-lopez that gave me the 'good news' earlier this year.

 

[Clipgate]

Starling Bank and open the linked Euro account. All in one card one transaction.

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[clanjones]

In France we use ATMs to remove euros from our Revolute card. We always use credit agricole and have never been charged any fees but that was last year!

 

[denisejoe]

We use a Metrobank debit card to withdraw cash from ATMs in France and there are no charges.

 

[Minxy]

Never been charged any commission with Halifax card.

It's the hole in the wall that is now charging rather than the Credit Card. They used to charge a commission to allow you to pay in £ as they ripped you off on conversion but now are looking for money on a straight € to € cash wIthdrawal. I think it was Minxy Girl and gus-lopez that gave me the 'good news' earlier this year.

Here you go ...

Revolut / pre-loaded cash card use in Spain

Whilst I remember I just wanted to mention that you need to be careful in Spain when using a Revolut card (or any pre-loaded card) to withdraw cash from an ATM as many now charge, it's often a minimum of €1.87 (no idea why but that's the most common charge for taking out €100) or as much as...

www.motorhomefun.co.uk

 

[Pete5996]

I've never known any of the 'high street' banks here in France, such as Credit Agricole, Banque Populaire etc to surcharge cash withdrawals or offer the choice of a Sterling or Euro debit from their ATMs. Now as regards Spain, that's very different....

 

[peterc10]

Our usual explorations take us to Spain where we can take out Euros commission free via Santander Bank. This year we are only hitting France for a week and while not using much cash we do like to have a couple of hundred to hand - just in case. It came as a shock earlier this year to hear on here that banks were charging for taking Euros out in Euros as while used to them trying to scam you for the interest rate by asking to do the conversion I was not aware of this new concept of highway robbery commission.
So can anyone help with the brand of hole in the wall machines to look for or any specific machines in Epernay or Le Crotoy or (Calais/Boulogne outskirts) which are commission free and allow me to use a commission free Credit Card?

Why not get your Euros before you leave. The Post Office offer a good exchange with no fees if you order on line and you can collect locally within a few hours. Much cheaper than using local ATMs whether or not they charge commission on top of their usual poor exchange rate.

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[TinaLes]

A few years ago, we were recommended to take out a Caxton account with pre-loaded debt card, which we did but never needed to use as yet. Then reading that so many of you use Revolut thought we had maybe made a wrong decision.
Our Son uses The Stirling card on business all over the world and swears by it, so will check out their T&C's

Did I not read on here, that it was only if you went inside the bank during opening hours and used the teller services that you were charged a commission? however use the ATM on the outside and in most cases its Free, even though limited to 200/250 Euros per month for cash withdrawals?
Thanks
LES

 

[PhilandMena]

It's the hole in the wall that is now charging rather than the Credit Card. They used to charge a commission to allow you to pay in £ as they ripped you off on conversion but now are looking for money on a straight € to € cash wIthdrawal. I think it was Minxy Girl and gus-lopez that gave me the 'good news' earlier this year.

Agree with all of that! We first noticed this 3 years ago and every year more and more banks were asking for money up front to withdraw euro's. We found Santander the worst, asking for €5.00 to make one transaction. We also noticed it was dependant on the town you were in (Spain) as the same bank would have different rates for different towns. There are a few that provide withdrawals free and these have to be searched out. Now becoming a minority.

 

[sedge]

Credit Agricole don't usually charge with our Santander card but bearing in mind we only withdraw a few 100 at a time it's negligible anyway, for most purchases we use our Zero credit card.

 

[gus-lopez]

It's the hole in the wall that is now charging rather than the Credit Card. They used to charge a commission to allow you to pay in £ as they ripped you off on conversion but now are looking for money on a straight € to € cash wIthdrawal. I think it was Minxy Girl and gus-lopez that gave me the 'good news' earlier this year.

When I draw euros cash from my euro account with revolut it always says the provider is being charged 2€ yet I have never paid it.That's using my own spanish bank atms though .If I use some others they wish to pass it on. Even with my own bank atm's the wifes revolut card gets the same message & fee but she has to pay it ?

 

[Minxy]

A few years ago, we were recommended to take out a Caxton account with pre-loaded debt card, which we did but never needed to use as yet. Then reading that so many of you use Revolut thought we had maybe made a wrong decision.
Our Son uses The Stirling card on business all over the world and swears by it, so will check out their T&C's

The Starling card is just a bank account debit card so you get the conversion rate at the time if you have a £ account, of course if you have a € account then its already been converted previously when you put money in it, either from a £ account at which point it would be converted by Starling at their rate, or if you do it via another method and just transfer € into it.

Did I not read on here, that it was only if you went inside the bank during opening hours and used the teller services that you were charged a commission? however use the ATM on the outside and in most cases its Free, even though limited to 200/250 Euros per month for cash withdrawals?
Thanks

As per the thread I linked to earlier, the commission is chargeable at quite a lot of ATMs in Spain now, we had a lot of messing about trying to withdraw €s even though they were already € on the Revolut card so we didn't need to convert. It's a way of them making money from the unwary and 'uneducated' I suppose.

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[Minxy]

When I draw euros cash from my euro account with revolut it always says the provider is being charged 2€ yet I have never paid it.That's using my own spanish bank atms though .If I use some others they wish to pass it on. Even with my own bank atm's the wifes revolut card gets the same message & fee but she has to pay it ?

Not come across that one before, just the 'commission' charge. Is your wife going over the €200 per month 'free withdrawal' limit?

 

[violet]

Many ATMs in Denmark take a fixed commission if you use anything other than a Danish card. We have also had this happen in Germany. In Sweden last year we found that using cash euros to pay for petrol at a garage cost more than using a card.

 

[emjaiuk]

Used a Halifax Clarity card in a French Post Office ATM a week ago with no charge

 

[chaser]

Used a Halifax Clarity card in a French Post Office ATM a week ago with no charge

It's a waste of time trying to get this over, we have had a clarity card each for 4 years now and not paid a penny in commission or anything else apart from interest on the money withdrawn till paid off which even if left right up till the end of the month amounts to pence .

 

[2657]

It's a waste of time trying to get this over, we have had a clarity card each for 4 years now and not paid a penny in commission or anything else apart from interest on the money withdrawn till paid off which even if left right up till the end of the month amounts to pence .

The Clarity card is good, have had one for many years, never used it for cash as I have others, Nationwide, Revolut which I use as circumstances dictate, horses for courses
Never had a problem in France with ATM charges with any of my cards but in Spain over the last few years many of the banks have started charging for foreign currency transactions unless using their exchange rates.

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[AXO66]

Halifax Clarity card and Starling for us.

It’d not a commision at the ATMS ,but a charge by the machine users to use it.

Also be wary about accepting the offer for the machine or bank to fix the exchange rate, for you, rather than your own bank, which in our case , offers a far better rate.

just adds to the hassle though.

 

[Minxy]

It's a waste of time trying to get this over, we have had a clarity card each for 4 years now and not paid a penny in commission or anything else apart from interest on the money withdrawn till paid off which even if left right up till the end of the month amounts to pence .

Its the charge at ATMs that's the issue, NOT the card provider ... in France ATMs don't charge (well we've never come across any) but in Spain more and more are - have you used your Clarity card in ATMs in Spain?

 

[peterc10]

In all of this worry about charges, commissions and fees I think some have overlooked the basic and most important bit, i.e. what exchange rate you are getting. No point in going "commission free" if the exchange rate is awful.

We tend to get all the foreign cash we think we need for our trip before we leave the UK, and compare the various rates on line to get the best deal. The only time we tried to withdraw cash in Europe as we were running low it was a lot more expensive. So now we get a bit more and usually come home with cash to spare, which we then keep for our next visit.

When away we tend to use Angela's Nationwide credit card for the big costs like fuel, groceries and restaurants because it has no commission and an exchange rate 1% over the Visa official rate. That is much better than any of our other credit or debit cards, which tend to end up about 3% over the official rate.

 

[gus-lopez]

Not come across that one before, just the 'commission' charge. Is your wife going over the €200 per month 'free withdrawal' limit?

No she only drew 50€ so the 2€ charge was even worse than if she had drawn 200€.
The only difference between her card & mine is mine is just the basic free one & hers was the 6,99€/month paid version but which she has now opted out of.
I told her to get on to them but if she can't be bothered I'm certainly not.

 

[Sadlonelygit2]

We use revolut for most things over here, however France is moving nicely to a cashless society so nearly everything is tap n go.
However we winter over in Spain, and there you do need cash. I did find that several of the banks wanted to use the sterling account on my card, but the option for euro is there ( you tap on the no) and lo and behold no charge either. What i did find was that a significant amount of ATMs were freelance (usually in the wall of estate agents) and they state that there is a flat rate charge/transaction and a dreadful exchange rate.
Can't use my Credit Agricole card in Spain either.

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[Clipgate]

Banks will rack up the charges more and more, the small man always pays thee bill. With base rate close to zero, and likely to become negative charges must increase.
The old model of banking is just that, a complex subject we are not going to explore here, however suffice to say they are not going to provide a service a foot the bill.

 

[EdwardFT]

Why not get your Euros before you leave. The Post Office offer a good exchange with no fees if you order on line and you can collect locally within a few hours. Much cheaper than using local ATMs whether or not they charge commission on top of their usual poor exchange rate.

But if you withdraw an amount in euros, there is no exchange rate on the part of the local bank.

 

[EdwardFT]

We use revolut for most things over here, however France is moving nicely to a cashless society so nearly everything is tap n go.
However we winter over in Spain, and there you do need cash. I did find that several of the banks wanted to use the sterling account on my card, but the option for euro is there ( you tap on the no) and lo and behold no charge either. What i did find was that a significant amount of ATMs were freelance (usually in the wall of estate agents) and they state that there is a flat rate charge/transaction and a dreadful exchange rate.
Can't use my Credit Agricole card in Spain either.

Indeed, use a real bank's ATM. BTW I am in Spain right now and I find that contactless UK and French cards work almost everywhere. Thank you Covid I suppose.

 

[EdwardFT]

The Clarity card is good, have had one for many years, never used it for cash as I have others, Nationwide, Revolut which I use as circumstances dictate, horses for courses
Never had a problem in France with ATM charges with any of my cards but in Spain over the last few years many of the banks have started charging for foreign currency transactions unless using their exchange rates.

Aah yes, I did see that in one place: no charge for a UK card if you withdraw using their poor exchange rate, but a charge if you withdraw in euros because then they can't screw you on the exchange. I took the third option, known as plenty more ATMs in town.

 

[2657]

Indeed, use a real bank's ATM. BTW I am in Spain right now and I find that contactless UK and French cards work almost everywhere. Thank you Covid I suppose.

Not all the 'real' banks ATM's are few free in Spain so watch out, Santander in particular.
Just seen your last post so ignore that

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