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I am about to travel in Europe within some euro zone countries. Also, I am from a euro zone country (still) and all my bank accounts are in euro. I have debit and credit Visa and Maestro cards.

My question is, if there is any kind of fee that I must pay to withdraw money from ATMs, using these cards.

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  • 2
    You should ask your bank and tell them specifically where you want to go and the amount of money that they allow you to withdraw. cheers!
    – user2914
    Commented Aug 6, 2012 at 16:48
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    In general: Yes, there are fees. For example, my (German) bank charges a €5 fee if I use another bank's ATM.
    – nibot
    Commented Aug 7, 2012 at 14:35

4 Answers 4

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In general, when using your card abroad you get charged (some) of the following fees

  1. Currency exchange fee
  2. A fee levied by your bank for using your card abroad
  3. A fee levied by the ATM operator

In your case (1) will not apply because the currency is the same, but (2) and (3) might still apply. (2) you need to check with your bank, and you should be informed about (3) by the ATM. From personal experience, (3) is not very common in Europe.

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  • (3) Is unfortunately getting more and more common in Europe. I've now seen it even on Austrian ATMs operated by reputable banks, but it would only be charged if you insert a card from another EU country.
    – LubosD
    Commented Aug 5, 2020 at 13:01
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Per http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/payments/crossborder/index_en.htm cross-border payments in Euro within the Eurozone must not be treated differently from national (inter-bank) transactions in Euro. This also applies to ATM fees.

This means that your bank is only allowed to charge fees similar to those for national ATM use at another bank.

Examples from my experience:

  • a German Sparkasse account of mine would charge €2.50 per each use of the ATM at a non-Sparkasse bank within Germany, which meant that I would be charged €2.50 also elsewhere in the Eurozone

  • my Austrian account does not have any ATM charges within Austria (as most Austrian accounts do), so I don't pay any fees in other Euro countries

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I'm quite sure that within the Eurozone, the cost of international Euro withdrawals are not allowed to exceed the cost of national Euro withdrawals (when using regular bank cards and regular banks). So, the maximum you can get charged is what you get charged at home. I did a quick search, this Wikipedia page seems to back this up:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATM_usage_fees

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I live in the Netherlands. I used my Dutch card to withdraw money from ATMs in France, Italy and Germany. I have never paid anything for that...But it surely depends on your bank and on the country you are in. Where are you from?

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  • Then you got lucky. Some ATM's, especially along the German highways, do charge. There is supposed to be a sign...
    – RHA
    Commented Sep 23, 2017 at 9:18
  • ATMs may charge, but in that case there is a clear information on them. I haven't seen that often though.
    – Michal B.
    Commented Oct 3, 2017 at 14:30
  • There SHOULD be a clear sign. However search the internet and you will find lots of people complaining they hadn't seen it. That includes me (Dutch card at German Raststätte). There might be banks that try to make a very inconspicious 'clear' sign...
    – RHA
    Commented Oct 3, 2017 at 14:37

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