While things may have changed that I don't know about, it is my understanding or at least it was my understanding that cirrus and plus regulations regarding shared teller network withdrawals prohibit a bank from charging a fee on withdrawals made using an ATM/debit card from outside the country where the machine is maintained. Hence, British banks who clear transactions through these networks cannot add fees to American debit cards and vice versa i.e. American banks cannot add fees to withdrawals made with UK cards. Nothing prohibits a bank from placing a fee on withdrawals using its card in any machine anywhere.

Now I used to say that and Canadians, for example, would jump in and tell me I was wrong and that often they made withdrawals say in the USA were nailed for these asinine fees. Or if you don't go to a bank say in the UK but a private machine you get nailed for the fee. I don't understand how that works. I think machines can use other debit networks (say like NYCE or Pulse in the USA) for Canadian withdrawals which do not have this consumer protection.

The Schwab card, the USAA card, the Fidelity card (debit cards I mean) all have policies of reimbursing some of these fees if not all. There might be a one billing cycle restriction on the total amount on each of them; check with the individual institution.

Also, there is nothing that keeps you from using a different debit card from one of these banks even without changing your main banks. Philosophically, I wouldn't use my main account for cash withdrawals even if I spend cash which I almost never do but with the amount of fraud around, I wouldn't want the inconvenience of having my main account hacked and having to change say my direct deposit set ups. I maintain a Schwab account with $1.01 in it (they don't require a minimum balance) and before leavng on a trip, I electronically transfer say $500 to the account and use only that account for cash withdrawals. When I return, I electronically transfer the excess over $1.01 back to my main account. Simple to do and a wise precaution in this day and age of hacking, that's for sure.