Also, are ATMs in Taiwan required to tell you if they are charging you a fee and give you a chance to cancel, or could some just process the transaction without disclosure? I’ve had some transactions processed when I thought I’d get a chance to cancel first. Then I can’t read the receipt in Chinese, though I can guess some things. Surprisingly, one receipt showed what I can only assume is my available balance in NT – from my US account in USD!
DCC is just “offering you the convenience” (i.e., ripping you off) of having your card charged in the card currency so you know the final amount at the point of transaction/sale. A fee is associated with this via the shitty exchange rate.
There’s maybe the odd exception, but in general it’s better to be charged in TWD (or whatever the ATM currency is) and get a non-extortionate exchange rate via your bank. Maybe Bank of Taiwan doesn’t use DCC at its ATMs, but it isn’t unusual. Cathay introduced it several years ago if I remember correctly.
I’d need to check next time, but I think Cathay ATMs have three options at the bottom, namely, “cancel”, “defer conversion”, and “accept conversion” (or similar wording). I think Cathay ATMs default to English/English+Chinese when a UK/US/foreign card is inserted (they might even do other card languages besides English, within reason). Or at least I don’t remember ever needing to choose the English option like on other ATMs.
I usually withdraw just under 300 GBP at a time because that’s my card limit, and the DCC option would be something like 8-10 GBP more expensive.
I don’t know what you mean by “kiosk ATM”? I’d just use ones inside banks where possible tbh, in case of any problems.
I’m not sure because I’ve never paid an ATM fee in Taiwan, but a couple of ATMs have warned me of an impending fee and allowed me to cancel.
Yeah, I think it can do that for some ATMs/foreign banks. I’ve definitely seen it before. It doesn’t seem to be supported for most of my UK cards though - usually that box on the receipt is blank.
Great! Now, care to explain in more detail, or is it secret knowledge? Thanks.
What do you want me to explain? All of the information necessary to avoid ATM fees seems to be in the thread already for you to read.
Sharing some of my experiences from when I traveled to Taiwan last month.
I have a Capital One checking account and have used the following two banks that don’t charge an ATM fee:
- Chang Hwa Commercial Bank (彰化商業銀行) or CHB
- Taichung Commercial Bank (台中商業銀行)
I also tried the following bank, which has ATMs often found in FamilyMart, but it DOES charge a fee:
- Cathay Bank (國泰銀行) – 1.5% markup fee on top of a bad exchange rate.
NOTE: There is a daily withdrawal limit of 20,000 NTD.
I truly appreciate all the contributors in this thread who helped me avoid fees and unnecessary trips to the bank while in Taiwan.
Just to add even some of the obscure banks will work with your foreign card and are fee free. Sunny bank, Panshin, and Fareast took my card fee free as well.
There’s nothing wrong with Cathay ATMs as long as you read what it tells you on the screen. You just need to decline the DCC option to have your card charged in TWD rather than your card currency.
I think the markup I’m always presented with for GBP is 4% not 1.5% and it’s done through the poor exchange rate not as a separate fee, but this is written very clearly and there’s always the option to reject it.
I’ve been using Cathay ATMs with foreign cards for years and have never paid a fee.
Yeah, but what’s the exchange rate? 
It’s determined by the foreign bank and/or card network not the Taiwanese bank, unless you choose the DCC option (and you shouldn’t).
I just did an experiment, getting NT$5000 from A) Family Mart Taihsin ATM, and B) Cooperative Bank ATM, with a US Visa card.
Not only did Taihsin slap on the NT$100 fee, there was some 5% added to the exchange rate too.
Quite non-Cooperative indeed.
For some of the ATMs you need to make sure to select to not convert the currency otherwise they tack on more fees.
I don’t think this is a particularly useful experiment. As discussed above, it’s trivial in Taiwan to find ATMs that don’t charge a fee for using foreign cards, and it’s not a problem either to reject the offered DCC rate to have your card charged in TWD (which you should always do, anywhere in the world).
You kind of have to make an effort to pay either of those fees. I’ve been using foreign cards here since 2016 and have never paid either.