Those are good links to include but none of them work for me.

I have also edited the Wiki to reflect Citi's actual forex fee (presently 1%) as reflected by ajnaro's account statement and confirmed by Citi's website.

According to the Wiki, you pay 0% forex fee at ATMs if you have an account with Bank of the Internet, Commerce Bank, E-Trade Financial or State Farm Bank - though it would be great if an actual FTer could verify this info from recent transaction history. Personally I don't want to set up another bank account for the sole purpose of saving the occasional 1%, but it might be worth it if you travel internationally and withdraw large sums of cash rather than using CapOne or other low/no fee credit cards.

I just did my monthly withdrawal and was surprised by the rate. Compared to my last six w/ds since the beginning of April (last one in mid-June) where I calculated around a 0.8% exchange on average built-in to the main transaction, this time I received nearly the xe.com mid-market rate. So something has indeed changed. I will withhold judgement till I try out another w/d before month end.

And Boraxo, what I posted and edited on the wiki in late April/early May WAS 100% TRUE as I keep close track of this stuff. Just because I don't have a thousand plus posts doesn't mean I'm full of it. Jeesh, I live overseas and have the luxury of experimenting with stuff like this in real time. If Citibank as of this month finally fixed reality to their T&Cs, great...great for all of us Citibank users. If I find July was a fluke, you can count on me "correcting" the wiki again.


Added: Just checked your edit and take issue with the "0%" for the primary exchange. This is NOT true. According to ajnaro and my yesterday w/d, there is still a bundled exchange fee but apparently not as large as it was April-June. They just knocked a few ticks off in the customer's favor.

I just noticed that my Bank of America account is now showing a separate 1% ATM fee per transaction; not sure if this is a new fee or if this was previously a 'hidden' charge in their exchange rates. (I wasn't charged this on a trip in April). Still better than 2% on credit cards, and I don't get charged the $5 foreign ATM fee, but it is a bummer indeed.

Hey man haven't seen you for awhile!

This ATM fee of yours, where were you when you took out the cash? Were you at a BOA owned or partnered ATM?

I can vouch for Commerce Bank. It's 0%.

Perhaps we should add a new "date last verified" column to the wiki?

That is not in accord with my own interpretation of the facts I posted yesterday. As far as I can see, the primary converted USD amount is actually more favorable to me (less favorable to Citi) than would be calculated using either xe.com's mid-market rate or oanda.com's interbank rate. Once you add in the foreign fee, then the total USD amount charged by Citibank is still less than either mid-market+1% or interbank+1%. In other words, Citi seems to be actually charging slightly LESS than it states in its T&Cs.

Reread and noted my interpretation error. Sorry about that.

Still not 100% prooof as you did not do this in real time. The historical, single day rate may have had giant (recent months) daily fluctuations.

The way I do it is check xe.com (and the next time I will also note Oanda), 12 minutes later do the w/d, return 15-20 minutes later, recheck the rates, then check the total charge on Citibank online. This total charge is broken into the separate "FOREIGN FEE" one business day later and thus can be used to gauge one's entire hit on the transaction.

I will do this again in the next week.

It would be REALLY GREAT to have more persons checking on this in the same or other parts in REAL TIME following the above SOP. Expats, long term travelers with full-time Internet access, "furriners" with same?

I'm not knocking your integrity whatsoever, just your comprehension of your account statement particularly as your understanding is contrary to Citi's express T&Cs for ATM forex withdrawals as stated on its website.

Since you mention Ajnaro, here is what he posted:

Amount charged on my Citibank statement:

USD: 444.15
Foreign fee: 4.44
Total: 448.59

Exchange rates for 06/19/06: 444.21/445.70 (bid/ask) interbank rate on oanda.com

Very clear: NO markup i.e. 0% to the actual exchange rate, but a new 1% fee. My experience was essentially the same a few months ago (no fee, but 1% markup). Hence the wiki edit. If anyone wants to post more recent actual transaction info from a Citi checking account, we will all certainly be interested in seeing it.

I already posted regarding my interpretation error and apology to Ajnaro and why I still do not see it as a 100% closed case (the real time issue). I will post my results from another w/d next week or so.

FYI, when Citibank started the separate "Foreign Fee" back in April, they were definitely doing a total near 2% which is what enraged me and initiated my posts on this thread. I am still waiting for others to follow my SOP and report. My hope is that Citibank has come clean on this and can remain my ATM debit card of choice.

Agree 100%. My guess is that Citi added the "foreign fee" because it wants to avoid being sued (as VI & MC were) for undisclosed forex fees. But if in fact Citi is still adding a secret forex markup to the base withdrawal amounts, I will be the first in line to file a class action lawsuit.

Just called Merrill Lynch Visa. Was told there is no foreign fee, conversion fee or transaction fee.
American Express will have a 2% markup fee.

I just got back from Russia. Amex charged me exactly 2% over the interbank rate (as found on oanda.com).

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%.

The XE current rate doesn't matter. They use a once-a-day rate (and I can't remember the source... it is posted here somewhere...)

Anyone got a link?

My experience shows that weekday/market day real time xe.com is almost always right on.