The guy you’re replying to, is saying the opposite.
Using an ATM usually gets you your banks exchanging rate, which depending on your bank, can be damn near free. (If the ATM tries to do the exchange for you, refuse, let your bank do it).
Same goes online. Paying with paypal, I never ever use their exchange service. Charging my card directly with the foreign currency is ALWAYS a better deal due to how good the exchange rate provided by my bank is.
Most banks will let you use your card in other currencies, directly, and just do the exchange on their end.
And it’s usually really favorable too. If you’ve used your card abroad “like normal” for stuff like a restaurant meal, then you’ve used your banks currency exchange service.
It’ll still add up if you make a ton of small purchases, and it would be good to check what your particular bank actually charges for exchanges.
But, lots of places will pretend to offer to do the exchange for you, at sky-high rates, when really you can just charge your card directly, and get a much better rate via your bank.
Once saved a friend like 50 bucks when she bought a leather jacket on the expensive side during a cruise. The shop offered to do the exchange for her, as if that was necessary. I saw the rate and immediately told her to refuse, knowing our bank charges almost nothing for foreign currency charges. She would have fallen for it.
Yeah. If you have an option, going to a currency exchange place in a local area is a lot closer to the exchange rate.
The ATM I used had like a $6 fee on top of a 5% of what I was taking out. Ewww.
The guy you’re replying to, is saying the opposite.
Using an ATM usually gets you your banks exchanging rate, which depending on your bank, can be damn near free. (If the ATM tries to do the exchange for you, refuse, let your bank do it).
Same goes online. Paying with paypal, I never ever use their exchange service. Charging my card directly with the foreign currency is ALWAYS a better deal due to how good the exchange rate provided by my bank is.
I did not know this. Thank you for the info. Next time I will be looking for ATMs that do this.
Most modern exchange services are semi-scams.
Most banks will let you use your card in other currencies, directly, and just do the exchange on their end.
And it’s usually really favorable too. If you’ve used your card abroad “like normal” for stuff like a restaurant meal, then you’ve used your banks currency exchange service.
It’ll still add up if you make a ton of small purchases, and it would be good to check what your particular bank actually charges for exchanges.
But, lots of places will pretend to offer to do the exchange for you, at sky-high rates, when really you can just charge your card directly, and get a much better rate via your bank.
Once saved a friend like 50 bucks when she bought a leather jacket on the expensive side during a cruise. The shop offered to do the exchange for her, as if that was necessary. I saw the rate and immediately told her to refuse, knowing our bank charges almost nothing for foreign currency charges. She would have fallen for it.
You can almost always deny to accept the exchange fee and get your own bank’s rate.