Originally Posted by craz

I will try to clear up why I thought as I did.

When I was in BKK a year+ ago, I ended up using my DC at a SCB ATM/Exchange booth on the Departure floor, since I saw everybody was posting the same rates

I wrote down the rates I saw posted vs the USD. When I checked my bank acct after the fee was refunded , I ended up pretty close to the rate that was posted and I had clicked for the bank to use its rates, so MC wasnt involved. It wasnt till a few weeks ago and reading one of my posts from back then that I saw I made the mistake and chose the bank to do the conversion. So I ended up thinking all along that the booths posted rates were what was used by my bank as well9Visa or MC really).

I now fully understand that the only time the ATM rate and the booth rate will be the same is if I click that the ATM should use the banks conversion rate rather then MCs or Visas. And as a couple of you posted once you opt in that MC or Visa should be the ones doing the conversion that most likely I will end up with a better rate thusly costing less USD

I always understood how it worked with a private ATM, but as you can see I didnt have it correct regarding a reg banks ATM. I hardly use ATMs as I in 99.99% of the times charge the item to my CC

Im not saying there arent any cases where in Europe a banks ATM wont ask whom do you want to do the conversion, but I dont recall anytime where I ran across that except a private non-bank atm., In most cases I assume the bank will turn the converting over to the brand that issued the DC. I dont recall having that problem in HKG either nor SIN. So it could be when hitting the Asian 3rd World Countrys thats where it occurs

Thx everyone for the education lesson, back to some snow tomorrow, hate to leave CNX where Im sweating bullets walking around in shorts and a tank top