Originally Posted by
Azurik
Here are my experiences:
U.S. = 100% fee reimbursement success, regardless of which ATM machines I use
Worldwide = murky at best. A lot of my Caribbean and Mexican ATM use gets the fee reimbursed, but I noticed other places that don't. Some examples below:
- Frankfurt Airport - No reimbursement shown
- Amman, Jordan - 100% success
- Kiev, Ukraine - 10% success, most don't list out the fee separately so Fidelity doesn't know what to reimburse
- Vienna, Austria - used once, no reimbursement
I don't get it. I wasn't paying attention because I assumed it would work out, but looking at the history there is clearly some that didn't get reimbursed.
I'll have to do some testing, as perhaps the ATMs did not charge a fee... although I highly doubt that it's this prevalent.
Have you done the exchange rates test to see if there is indeed hidden ATM fee? You would be surprised that not every ATM overseas charges fee like the US ATMs do. Besides, if an ATM charges fee, it normally displays a message to warn you even if the fees are not separately listed in the receipt - you just received LESS than the exchange rate would result otherwise because a fee amount is subtracted. (Thailand and Korea the latest experiences). In those cases, the fees are all reimbursed even though the fees do not show up as a line item on the receipt.
The only way to tell whether there is fee hidden in the amount withdrawn, is to check it against the mean exchange rate of that date. If the variance is very small then you can safely assume the ATM does not charge a fee.