Getting cash from ATM machines

Can anyone tell me if I can use my bankcard at Taiwan ATMs. It has the PLUS logo on it. I prefer not to carry too much cash.

is it easy to open a bank account in Taiwan? What would I need to do so?

Depends, if it looks like a ā€˜Visaā€™ or ā€˜Mastercardā€™ it will work, but it depends on the ATM machine. My Wells Fargo ATM only works at Family Mart, my U.S. cities local Credit Union Visa/Debit card only works at 7-11. Other people visiting had to ā€˜huntā€™ for an ATM that would accept their U.S. debit/credit card. Plus more and more banks will not allow overseas credit purchases (especially cash withdraws) without prior notice to the issuing company.

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Yea you can. PLUS is the right one to have. I got cash no problem with my plus card and it was a regular card.

In February/March 2015 my Cirrus/Maestro bank card issued by Assiniboine Credit Union in Canada worked perfectly to withdraw cash. This year it will not.
Tried the First Bank which gave error message E178.
ChangHwa Bank gave error message ā€œcard bank checks out FISC service.ā€
Spoke to Assiniboine Credit Union in Canada which could offer no explanation.
Likewise aToronto-Dominion debit card wouldnā€™t work.
Meanwhile I could withdraw at the 7-11 bank machine which charges (gulp!)100nt/4 dollars Canadian for each withdrawal.
Any ideas about how to get a ā€œforeignā€ bank card to work in a Taiwan bankā€™s ATM (where the bank charges are more reasonable?)

7-11 ATMā€™s are operated by Chinatrust bank, so I guess the fee would be the same at a normal bank.
You can try also Family Mart, the ATMā€™s are operated by Cathay Bank.

Just had success pulling 10,000NT cash from Bank of Taiwan ATM in Hualian, Iā€™m very happy. Received same rate as on oanda.com. I used a US credit union Master Debit Card, which has logos on back for NYCE, co-op, and MasterCard. Itā€™s a chipped card.

I donā€™t have a BoT account. I believe I selected the first option (of 2) presented on screen after I specified English.

The ATM receipt indicates ā€œfeeā€ which is unspecified. I look at my US account statement, and the foreign fee included in the transaction is 0.2% of total cash received. In my case, my credit union reimburses this small fee to my account after a couple of days.

Note: Iā€™ve been using the same card to do credit transactions, and the same terms have applied to each transaction.

Note2: I called the bank before arriving in Taiwan and notified them that I would be using the card in Taiwan.

This.

Itā€™s important you notify your bank that you will be using your card overseas before you leave the US. Many banks have a lock on international transactions that you have to request removed.