So I noticed a new fee on my Chase bank statement of ~$20USD for a “foreign exchange rate adjustment fee” when using a Changhwa ATM.
I figured this was the fault of Changhwa but I after calling Chase I learned that the fee was always hidden inside the withdrawal amount and now it’s just a separate line item.
I knew there was some fees or maybe an exchange rate that was not ideal for the customer, but didn’t realize how much it was.
Btw, this is on top of the $5 fee for using foreign ATMs.
Anyway, just putting it out there for anyone who didn’t realize how much these fees could added up to be.
Check the exchange rate they used in comparison to the stated foreign exchange rate for the day. In my experience there is always a difference in your bank’s rate compared with the official daily rate, and the difference is in the bank’s favor. This is the hidden “fee” and it can be around 1-2%.
Maybe Chase is using the official daily rate and then itemizing the difference separately. Or maybe they are just adding another fee on top of the skimming they do via the rate difference?
A question, as I am new in Taiwan - do local banks charge a fee to use ATMs when you are not client (i.e. from an account abroad)? In the US the banks add on $3-5 when you use an ATM of bank you are not a client of. In the EU (in my experience) there is no additional charge by the bank operating the ATM; the charges depend solely on the terms of the account you are withdrawing from and the exchange rate applied by your bank.
Not sure how much they charge if you stick a US debit card in there (I assume it’s a lot), but if you are using Local Bank A and go to Local Bank B for cash withdrawal, you pay a 15NT transaction fee. This is a flat fee across all banks. Meaning, if you are using Local Bank A, you pay 15NT transaction fee for withdrawing cash from Local Bank B-Z.
If you’re wire transferring (which is a popular way to transfer money for buying things online or transferring funds with friends), if you friend is using Bank B, but you use Bank A, you can go to Bank B’s ATM to transfer the funds and do not incur any transaction fees. However, if you are transferring from your own bank to another bank, you incur the transaction fee (which I think is also 15NT).
My work experience base on bank to bank in USD usually USD will not go directly to appointed bank it will go first to middle bank before going to destination bank.
Standard deduction is about USD 22 ~USD37
So by the time we receive the amount it was less about USD22~USD37 anyway that’s business.
I remembered I made a withdrawal of $3,000 NT a few days ago from my EUR account (bank in the EU). I looked it up just now; my bank has not charged a fee, and the rate they used is .5% off of Bloomberg’s rate of the day (in the bank’s favor).
This is not by chance, and I am using this account for a reason. Research went into which bank, etc. to use to withdraw currency abroad for as low of a fee as possible.
Still, when I use this account in the US to withdraw USD, I cannot avoid the stupid ATM fee, so I try to withdraw larger amounts of cash at less frequent intervals.