New extortionate ATM usage fees!
 

A new ATM usage fee has just been reported by a US reporter who lives permanently in BsAs.

Taos Turner has a blog posting tonight that details a new fee that appeared when he attempted to withdraw money from his US account via the LINK network in Argentina. US$3 will be charged for each transaction independent of any fee that may be charged by a foreign bank.

Turner himself is currently limited to 370 pesos per transaction, but the US$3 fee will be charged for transactions of any size. For example: if you withdraw 100 pesos you will be charged ~US$(26.30 + 3 + US bank fee).

Read about it here:
http://www.argentinepost.com/2009/07...link-atms.html

The transaction limits and this new per transaction fee is nothing but outright extortion!

REMINDER: Exchange dollars for pesos at the Banco de la Nacion branch at the airport upon arrival.

John

Many US ATMs are charging $3 now + whatever you get charged by your bank.

All the more reason for people to consider banks that refund other ATM fees like Charles Schwab.

That's what I do in fact.

But the major problem is that many US tourists seem to be limited to ~320 pesos per transaction (~US$84.21). On each transaction, Wells Fargo for example would charge US$5, which together with the US$3 Argentine ATM charge would be US$8 per transaction - a 9.5% surcharge!

John

Use Citibank ATMs in order to get approximately 2400 pesos out. HSBC allowed me 640 pesos (and disallowed 660).

Wow... that is highway robbery.... :eek: :eek:

I wonder why the K Regime price sherriff does not start looking at what these banks are charging instead of messing around with the price of milk... :rolleyes:

This thread in the South America forum reports a similar new fee in Chile. Wonder if it's a regional trend?

With my Charles Schwab checking ATM card @ Banco Frances -
700 pesos per transaction with mas o menos 3 transactions allowed per day.
No fees!

Schwab's the way to go for International traveling.

Neil, I also have a Schwab card, and have gotten the same limit and can verify that it works on both the LINK and Banelco networks (when I can select one or the other) at all the banks I have tried in BsAs.

John

^

That's good to know. Up until now we've been searching out the Banco Frances because we had good luck with the w/d limits and fees. Thanks for the info.

Citibank ATMs are your best bet.....

But I believe that's only true with a (US-issued) Citibank card. Correct?

John

Perhaps we should be asking how much his cut is? :D

John

If one has a US Citibank card, local Citi ATMs are the best bet... in terms of amount of $$$ they will dispense. The entire fee soap-opera depends on each customers individual agreement with Citi.

If you are a local (ie Argentina based) Citi Customer... then yes on both counts. You will get a higher amount of $$$ and, again, depending on the account plan you have, you will not be charged anything.

As an example... Im a local client of CitiGold and because of the agreement I have with them I get charged ZERO fees at all ATMs in Argentina... no matter what network or what Bank.

Thanks, Alex, I wanted to be sure that people didn't come away with the idea that using anything other than a Citi card in a Citi ATM would get them a large number of pesos in a single transaction.

I should also mention that even if your bank appears to have an Argentine namesake, you will most likely be restricted (and charged according to your bank aggrement) because they will use either the Banelco or LINK network - e.g. HSBC and Santander Rio.

Does anybody have experience with using BNP Paribas ATMs in Argentina? Does the waiver of ATM charges from cards of affiliate banks (e.g. Bank of America, Deutsche Bank, etc.) apply to Argentina, or only to France?

John

Yep. Unfortunately this is true. I've used ATM's here in Buenos Aires almost everyday for years. Never any charges until yesterday (July 15, 2009). It wouldn't be bad if they were just charging u$s 3 and you could withdraw a high amount like $500- $1,000 US at a time. The problem is last year the banks started limiting almost all ATM cards to only 300 - 350 pesos at a time. So you are going to be charged this $3 US fee each time. So if you need U$S 500 and have to withdraw 5 times you're going to be charged that fee 5 times plus what your bank back home might charge.

Definitely bad news for tourists and for ex-pats that live in Buenos Aires.

The Schwab card is really good but be forewarned if you travel quite a bit or if you are an ex-pat living overseas that uses it too much to withdraw currency they will cancel the account. It happened to me and to many others I know that live outside of the USA.