July 20-Santiago, Chile - Real time Citibank USA ATM debit card experiment


(1) <xe.com> mid-market rate before leaving the apartment: 1.00 USD = 540.600 CLP

Oanda, as usual, N/A for this experiment as it has useless rate info for the Chilean Peso.

(2) 15 minute later, withdraw of 107000 Chilean Pesos.

(3) Returned to apartment 1.5 hours later and rechecked <xe.com>. Still 540.600 but could have fluctuated in the interim.

(4) Log on to Citibank, a total charge of $200.46 (the 1% "FOREIGN FEE" will be broken out from this in a day or two). This is equal to a rate of 533.772 pesos.

RESULT: an approx 1.263% total charge. This is much better than my experience April to early June where the total charge sometimes approached 2% but still not as good as pre-April 2006 when the total charge was usually slightly less than 1%.