Friday, November 01, 2024

100 Tips to Slightly Improve Your Travel Experience: #30 ATM or Cash Machines


Automated Teller Machines (ATM) or cash machines have spread far and wide over the past 40 years. When I first started traveling to Europe, 34 plus years ago, we were still taking travelers checks and paying outrageous fees to cash them into local currency.  Credit cards worked but the connection of ATM networks was in its infancy.  

By 2000 debit cards had become the way to obtain local currency in Europe and North America.  Today very much all bank cards are compatible, and have a compliant PIN number. 

Nearly all of the machines give a choice of language, with at least the local language and English being available.  

There will always be a fee.  Three thoughts on fees.  The fees are usually less at cash machines connected to a major bank. It pays to check the fee before agreeing to the transaction. Often the fee is a fixed amount say 7-Euros, the same amount if you withdraw 100 Euros or 500 Euros. Withdrawing a larger amount and only doing it once in the trip can reduce the impact of the fee. Third, consider a higher service account with your bank.  As long as I maintain a substantial minimum balance ($5,000) with my bank, the bank reimburses out of network cash machine fees.  (I pay no service charges on the account, and checks are printed without charge.) 

Another thing. Before you leave home, contact your issuing bank and let them know you are going to be traveling. Most banks call it a "travel notice."  Sometimes you can do this online, or call the customer service number on your card.  They need to know the dates of travel and the contries you anticipate being in.  

The usual cautions apply.  ATMs at banks (or post offices in many countries) are a little more secure than one's on the street side or in a bar.  Keep your receipt. Be aware of your surroundings. Protect your card and PIN number.   

     

12 comments:

  1. As usual - good advice! When we visited Hong Kong several years ago, none of our bank cards would work. I had to phone our bank in Great Britain whereupon they freed up our cards. Nowhere on their website did they advise customers to forewarn the bank of distant foreign travel. At the time, it was pretty stressful.

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    1. I can only imagine the stress.

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  2. Like you, I give a travel notice when we are going out of the country and even when we are taking a longer vacation in the US farther away from Ohio. It's good to be prepared. ATMs sure have made traveling convenient.

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    1. Some banks allow travel notices to be done online.

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  3. I didn't need to use a cash machine on my last trip to London. Every place I went, even if it was just for a bottle of water or some tea, used a card. I could have gotten by without any cash at all.

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    1. In the airport in London changing planes, I bought something in a shop, and she declines a 20-pound note, it was "old" it was from 2020.

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  4. Good advice, whether you're traveling or not.

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    1. I have something sitting here I will need to write a check for, how rare that has become.

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  5. In 2012 we were is small village in Japan where our friend lived and we tried both debit and credit cards at an ATM and we could not get cash. We went into the bank and the person with the best English skills spent about twenty minutes trying various ways for us get cash, but she could not. Then something clicked in my head about 711 stores, and sure enough, out came cash there.
    I agree about large amounts. Where here we may have taken $100 at an ATM and a few days later another $100 because there isn't a fee, we learnt to take out much larger amounts when overseas.

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    1. Reports are that Japan has become more cashless, but some merchants are still cash only.

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  6. Someone is very careful never to use any ATM machines other than our bank's and only the ones near our house.

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    1. Wise. It is the best way to get cash when traveling internationally.

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