Whew, getting a cash advance at a foreign ATM has to be the most expensive thing you can do with a credit card in terms of added fees. The mind boggles at all the possible charges. I can count five!

The cash advance fee- most (but not all) credit cards charge this. Usually about 3% of the transaction, sometimes with a minimum or maximum, such as $10 or $20 max. This charge is made by the bank that issued your card.

The foreign exchange rate- Visa and Mastercard add at least 1% to the wholesale exchange rate on the foreign currency exchange as a "service charge" on every foreign currency transaction. As QL mentioned, Mastercard charges more for this than Visa. Also, as QL pointed out, this "fee" is "hidden" and built into the exchange rate.

The "foreign currency transaction fee"- in the last few years many credit card issuers have started charging this. It is a 1% or 2% markup ON TOP of the exchange rate premium that Visa or Mastercard already charges. This fee is added on by many credit card issuers. (For example, First USA charges this fee with their regular First USA cards, but not on their Mileage Plus affinity card).

Interest charges- All credit cards start charging interest as soon as you take a cash advance. There is no grace period as with purchases. And many cards have a separate, higher interest rate especially for cash advances.

And then on top of all these charges, some ATMs charge $1.00 to $3.00 just to use their ATM (not a common thing outside the USA).

Opus, you make an intriguing point- if you send cash in and create a credit balance on your card, then you can avoid the interest charge. Have you done this? A few times when my credit card has had a credit balance, the credit card company mailed me a check for the negative amount. I can imagine that if I tried this, the credit card company would cut a check for the amount before I used the card at an ATM, and I would get stuck with the interest charges.

Oh, and so as not to confuse anyone, the fees I mentioned above do not apply to ATM cards (except the ATM usage fee), so I agree that an ATM card is best way to go when spending your money in a foreign country!

Wow, I can't believe you read all the way to the end of my message on this very dry subject