I've seen ATMs charging out-of-network fees without asking, in Japan, at a Postal ATM if I remember correctly.

The fee was 75 yen. Maybe it prompted in Japanese, but I didn't understand...

Haven't run into DCC on ATMs so far. The Travelex ATM in British Museum has no DCC (or maybe I used a UnionPay debit card...)

Was the transaction not completed in English/another language you understand?
(I have used ATMs in Japan and I was able to use it in English, though at development bank of Japan.)
I have, however, seen DCC in PEK at a ICBC machine.

I think you're maxing things up..

There are a lot of countries where the local banks add some fee of their own (Thailand being the worst, apparently in this case japan as well, I've also seen it in Australia at some ATMs) - but that's not DCC.

Many ATMs try to do a DCC on you, but so far they never "forced" you to accept DCC. Were you forced by the ICBC machine, or did it merely offered you DCC?

By the way, I'm so far happy that Chinese banks DON'T (yet?) charge an extra fee for foreign CC's (like above mentioned) - the 180 THB in Thailand is outrageous imho.

It was in English. I didn't expect the fee at that time, so maybe I didn't pay enough attention in reading the text. I do feel Japanese people are honest, so maybe I just missed it. The fee was shown on the receipt.

ICBC ATMs have DCC? I need to run downstairs and try it out just to confirm~ I only use UnionPay debit cards in China, and even abroad, since I pay no extra fees on that. Chase charges me 3% so the Visa debit is only my last resort.

Will report back how it behaves.

Yes, out-of-network fees are not DCC. In USA, especially in NYC, it seems like there is no way out of the $3 if you use UnionPay.

No matter it is DCC or fees, if you are given choices and they are honored, I have no problem at all.

I pull (using my Schwab card) money out of ICBC ATMs at least once a day now, and always end up within 20 basis points of the WSJ rate. Please tell us more about any bad machines you discover.

I've seen DCC at ATMs in many countries - but never one that forces you to accept.

Add South Korea to the list of countries which impose fees on foreign ATM users. Back in December there were no surcharges. On my last visit in May, every machine I got was imposing a 4,000-6,000 KRW fee on top for each transaction. :td:

Were these charges separated out such that if your bank reimburses fees they could do so, or was the fee encapsulated in the total withdrawal amount?

Thats hefty.. and will South Korea put into the same category as Thailand or japan for me.. a country that thinks it's fine for it's banks to charge foreigners left and right..

Seems China (inkl. HKG, Macao, Taiwan) is the only country in the region that is not slapping you with extra fees at the ATMs.. kind of surprising, as DCC (the other bad thing of CCs) started more or less there..

Is it common practice to separate charges from the withdrawal amount? :confused:

My experience in Canada and the US is that the operator fee is lumped into the withdrawal amount (i.e. it shows as one debit and not two separate, nor is it itemized from what I can see.) My bank does refund the operator fee for withdrawals from other Canadian banks, but apparently the system just recognizes anything over a "round" number and refunds it.

On the contrary I've never been charged operator fees in Japan. I do recall a few years ago being charged 100/200 yen for a withdrawal at certain times, but 7-11 and Japan Post ATMs didn't impose any fees the last time I was there in May.

I find surcharging to be more the exception than the norm these days. I can only really recall ATMs in the US, Australia, South Korea and Thailand imposing these fees - the rest of Asia and all of Europe has been good so far.

I used UnionPay debit, on a Postal ATM near Shinagawa station, in Oct 2012. The charge was only 75 yen.

Dude, funny you should bring this up. My wife was all shopping non-stop when we were in Korea this Feb and Apr. So I went out and did some experiments on ATMs. My conclusion is, using Korean ATMs won't result in the extra charges, but foreign ATMs like Citi will.

This is on UnionPay cards of course. Maybe it is different when Visa/MC are brought into the game?

But I think the charge was like 3000? Because I recall me thinking "$3"...

Well, I guess Visa/MC is a different story!

When I landed at ICN my first stop was the Shinhan ATM in arrivals - it wanted a charge so I tried the KB ATM a few steps over and the same story! :mad:

In town I also tried Citi and KEB machines and pretty much concluded every Korean ATM was going to take me for a ride.

That's trully horrible.

Seriously, Korea, ...?

I'll definitely rate you as 3rd world country if you keep this up.. japan might not be much better, but then in China, ATMs never gave me such ridiculous extra charges..

Another reason to visit Beijing and Shanghai, and to skip Seoul.. seriously, what were you thinking? You might gain a few $ this way, but you're pissing off WAY more people..

Network differences also explain the Japan thing. Some ATMs there will charge for UnionPay but not Visa/MC. A good many will only take UnionPay.

Korea seems to be the reverse. I was never charged extra while using my UnionPay card, but the only MC card I tried was my Citi debit card in a Citi machine and never tried a Visa.

Have you tried Woori machines? Next time in Seoul I will try Visa myself. Seem like a pretty dire situation there...

Shanghai is awesome, but no dude, no Beijing please... Also, China is famous for the forced DCC, right?

(By comparing Seoul and Beijing, I will appraise the Beijing's subway. It is going so slowly, because the system is not designed to handle this much people, so they just slow them down, and add more trains. This way, it is so safe, your know? Even if the second train cannot stop in time, it would only be considered as a fender bender:D

So safe, no possibility of horrible collisions at all.

Just inhumanly crowded. And you have North Korea style people with red armband and megaphones in the station shouting "get off the train, get off the train, move!", as part of 文明乘车管理员 program...)

It is definitely worth trying around and learn~

Hey moondog, does Schwab know how to refund you if the ATM fee is lumped into the total? Say you withdraw 100 CAD = 93.12 USD, and ATM fee is 3 CAD, so the total is 95.92 USD. Have you ever tried this? How would Schwab do with this?

Yes, they are great about this. Many Chinese banks actually do charge an ATM fee, but Schwab always (well, not quite always) credits me for this.