You’re right the only 3 I remember charging were Chinatrust, Taishin, and Sinopac. The rest were free.
The gougers want $100 nt fee, in comparison the local banks only charge each other $5nt so those guys really marked it up for international withdrawals.
I suspect they get a lot of surcharge fees as many visiting foreigners would use ATMs at a 711 or a Family Mart and not realize the bank next door is free.
Partly responding to sub to this, and partly because I also have questions…
I’m coming next month from UK, and have an income here in UK.
I’m studying not working, and wondering what the best options are for spending money.
Just open accounts with Starling (definitely), Monzo (ideally), and Revolut (ideally). You’ve got time to do that before you leave.
There might be other options too, haven’t checked in a few years.
I tried once to withdraw money from Cathay atm but I couldn´t switch the language to English. How did you do?
I didn’t, I use it in Chinese
Got it
Did you translate it using the google or you can understand chinese?
I read Chinese
Their ATMs definitely have an English menu when pressing „English“ after inserting the card. At least for their domestic cards, it works fine.
I use Cathay ATMs a lot, and they’ve always been in English for me when I’ve put in my foreign card. I think it’s automatic too (or at least, I don’t remember having to change the language or even select one).
You’re from Nicaragua (Honduras?) if I remember correctly. It wouldn’t surprise me if the Taiwanese ATM software developers hadn’t accounted for this possibility and think you want it in Chinese lol.
I tried a Cathay ATM using a Chase debit card, and tho there wasn’t an ‘ATM fee’, they indicated that they were charging 4% rolled into the exchange rate for the transaction. So 3000NT was going to cost me $97.xx USD – they indicated the USD amt on the screen. I cancelled & went across the street to Bank of Taiwan. They didn’t indicate an ATM fee and just processed the transaction w/o telling me the conversion. Checking Chase, it cost me $93.xx. So Cathay was so much worse. Maybe Cathay had to explicitly say the conversion since they were charging 4% on top. So just be aware it’s not just the ‘ATM fee’ you need to be wary of.
You misunderstood what was happening there - that was the DCC screen, which is optional but always a ripoff.
You just needed to choose the “defer conversion” option (or however it’s worded) to have the transaction processed in your card currency, and the rate would then have been the same as you got from the Bank of Taiwan ATM (which would have been determined by Chase and whichever network your card uses - as long as you don’t choose the DCC option, the ATM doesn’t matter).
I use Cathay ATMs all the time, and it’s actually pretty clear from the screen that it’s asking you whether you want to accept or reject the conversion.
What are you spending 12k baht a day on? only thing i can think of are the girls (or the boys).
I’m not - who wants to go to the ATM every day?
For my foreign cards, I usually withdraw the maximum and keep it in my wallet until I run out, but Thai ATMs also have a fee of 150-220 THB per transaction, so it doesn’t make sense to withdraw more frequently than necessary.
I recommend using Charles Schwab investment checking. No conversion fees, no ATM fees from them and they will reimburse any ATM fees you are charged, anywhere in the world.
One would need to be a US resident to use their account, wouldn’t they? Or will they also open account for Taiwan residents and mail an ATM card over here?
Non-US people can open a Schwab one international account but I’m not sure if that one supports the ATM card. If you were previously a US person and converted to a non-US person, you can keep your US Schwab account and keep using their ATM card (I have one now but not using it).
Firstrade is popular amongst Taiwanese and they have an ATM card with no fees for the first transaction each month.
I also have a Fidelity card and Chase private client card, and those don’t have ATM fees.
Hmm, I guess I don’t understand the DCC that you speak of. I didn’t think the 4% was optional, I don’t recall ‘defer conversion’ and/or didn’t understand what it meant. I had the choice of accept or reject, and when I rejected, my transaction seemed to cancel and I got my card back. Or maybe I cancelled the transaction some other way? I was reading the instructions in English, maybe there’s some translation ambiguity, purposefully or not on purpose. I can try again.
Is it possible for an ATM that displays Exchange & Visa to not accept a foreign debit card? This is on a kiosk ATM that only has Chinese.
