Scotia Bank ATM - Vancouver, BC - Canada - Presidential Account
Sep 3, 2010, 12:29 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: USA
Programs: MVPG
Posts: 112
Scotia Bank ATM - Vancouver, BC - Canada - Presidential Account
Looking for some insight into the "best" banks in Canada to use a foreign ATM card. Our recent vacation situation involved withdrawing $300 CAD from a Scotia Bank ATM using a Presidential Checking Account. Presidential offers that they do not charge the account holder any fees. So, for withdrawing $300 CAD, our statement showed:
1) Debit of $282.81 USD
2) Int'l Exchange Charge of $.57 USD
3) Int'l Exchange Charge of $2.25 USD
I'm assuming charges #2 & #3 were from Scotia Bank. If you add them up, they appear to be a 1% ATM use charge. That seems pretty steep (thought it'd be a set dollar amount). I only withdrew cash once, so I can't tell if the Scotia Bank ATM charge is $2.25 + 0.002% of transaction (seems unlikely) vs a straight 1% charge. I only now investigated and read that a bank that owns the ATM might charge a percentage fee instead of a set ATM use charge for foreign transactions. I suppose 1% is still better than most credit card fees of 2-3%. I'm just curious if anyone knows of "better" Canadian ATM's to use my Presidential account from - which charge just a standard ATM use fee vs a seeming percentage.
Take this as an FYI then if your account is not a member of Scotia Bank's partners and you attempt to withdraw cash.
TIA for any insight others may have on this situation. Since we live in WA state now, we plan to make numerous trips to Canada in the future.
For restaurant and grocery purchases on this trip, we used an AMEX and an MBNA card which had 3% cashback promos for restaurant and grocery purchases, so the charges should "even out." I'll be interested to see what type of exchange rate I received though. The ATM withdrawal seemed to be quite a good rate (wholesale exchange rate?).
1) Debit of $282.81 USD
2) Int'l Exchange Charge of $.57 USD
3) Int'l Exchange Charge of $2.25 USD
I'm assuming charges #2 & #3 were from Scotia Bank. If you add them up, they appear to be a 1% ATM use charge. That seems pretty steep (thought it'd be a set dollar amount). I only withdrew cash once, so I can't tell if the Scotia Bank ATM charge is $2.25 + 0.002% of transaction (seems unlikely) vs a straight 1% charge. I only now investigated and read that a bank that owns the ATM might charge a percentage fee instead of a set ATM use charge for foreign transactions. I suppose 1% is still better than most credit card fees of 2-3%. I'm just curious if anyone knows of "better" Canadian ATM's to use my Presidential account from - which charge just a standard ATM use fee vs a seeming percentage.
Take this as an FYI then if your account is not a member of Scotia Bank's partners and you attempt to withdraw cash.
TIA for any insight others may have on this situation. Since we live in WA state now, we plan to make numerous trips to Canada in the future.
For restaurant and grocery purchases on this trip, we used an AMEX and an MBNA card which had 3% cashback promos for restaurant and grocery purchases, so the charges should "even out." I'll be interested to see what type of exchange rate I received though. The ATM withdrawal seemed to be quite a good rate (wholesale exchange rate?).
Sep 3, 2010, 2:06 am
#2
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Join Date: May 1998
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The exchange rate is the catch ... often it has a far higher fee bundled into it. Most ATMs use the best possible exchange rate with a small gross-up, often 1%. Fees vary greatly with your issuing bank and the owner of the ATM. I believed the 4 major banks in Canada have identical fees, and you did better than average based on what you've reported. If you intend to do a lot of CAD transactions then the most economic course is to open a CAD account (and control the timing and exchange rate), however that has IRS consequences so it may be cheaper to just pay a few dollars in fees each time.
Sep 3, 2010, 10:19 am
#3
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Posts: 12,396
You may wish to pose the question to Presidential -- to see if it has a better relationship with a Canadian Bank.
Bank of America, which recognizes Scotia Bank as a foreign ATM partner, says that users of the B of A ATM card on Scotia Banks incur only a small exchange fee. IIRC when I used a Scotia Bank ATM in Victoria this July, my receipt showed no debit for an exchange fee, nor did my B of A bank statement, so maybe the small fee is waived or "built in". In any case, the actual rate of conversion was excellent.
You could always consider opening a B of A account as a convenience for your planned Canadian trips. However, unless you hold a certain account balance or link other qualifying relationships, you'll pay a monthly service charge.
Bank of America, which recognizes Scotia Bank as a foreign ATM partner, says that users of the B of A ATM card on Scotia Banks incur only a small exchange fee. IIRC when I used a Scotia Bank ATM in Victoria this July, my receipt showed no debit for an exchange fee, nor did my B of A bank statement, so maybe the small fee is waived or "built in". In any case, the actual rate of conversion was excellent.
You could always consider opening a B of A account as a convenience for your planned Canadian trips. However, unless you hold a certain account balance or link other qualifying relationships, you'll pay a monthly service charge.