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Old Feb 16, 2008 | 5:29 am
  #1263  
ricktravers
 
Join Date: Feb 2008
Programs: British Airways Executive Club
Posts: 1
Forex fees levied by ATM owners in UK

I have a Bank of Internet ATM card. When I use it in the UK, I have noticed BofI refunding several dollars to me for each transaction to me, even through UK banks don't charge fees to use their ATMs. After some investigation, I discovered that the currency exchange is being done by the UK bank, not BofI. The exchange "rate" is consistently the interbank rate, but there is a conversion fee per transaction of $3-$4 regardless of the size of withdrawal, and that's what BofI has been refunding. That is a significant fee, especially for smaller withdrawals (BofI limit is $200 per withdrawal, so that's a minimum of 1.5% - 2%, and up to 20% if I withdraw ten pounds/~twenty dollars). In reading the posts on this subject, I notice many people talking about the "0% forex fees" of various USA banks. My experience has shown that is irrelevant, because it is the foreign bank doing the currency conversion, not the USA bank. Also, once I have exhausted the $8 per month that BofI refunds, there is no itemisation of future conversion fees for the rest of the month, and they are simply merged into the withdrawal amount debited from my account. Then, the only way to "reveal" that charge is to compare the interbank rate for that day with the amount actually debited from my account. The Wiki talks about forex fees for credit transactions, but I don't see any mention of that sort of fee I experienced for debit transactions, which I think is a significant omission from the Wiki. I would be very interested to hear other's comments about this.
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